WHAT ABOUT BLOGS? People disagree about their use: What are blogs for?
In May, a Business Week Article said blogs are imperative, but for what? People use them as:
- An "open" personal journal
- Personal Knowledge Management
- "Column" for others to read
- Source of paid advertising
- Obligatory activity if you are in business (ref: Business Week)
The concept of blogging first came to my attention in 2002 at the Creating a Learning Culture conference at Unversity of Virginia's Darden Business School in June, 2002. (Here a link to the site, scroll down to see mural about blogs, wikis, etc Darden ) These photos were taken and immediately posted by Jay Cross who already had a blog back in 2002 -- the longest-running blog of anyone I know: He writes about what he learns, does and thinks about in a day especially while traveling (with photos). Exhaustive. Jay's Blog A simpler idea came up about a year ago at the KM Cluster meetings in Cambridge. Bill Ives talked about blogs as a personal knowledge management tool. You write to keep track of your own activities and thoughts, and others are welcome to visit. One friend, Jerry Mikalski actually has his "brain" online -- a map of everything he has read, discovered, thought about and links connecting them. Jerry's Brain Cool (but exhausting!) I decided I encounter one new piece of knowledge every day. The challenge is to write it down. It's a discipline. The root of the word discipline is learning. I am trying to learn to keep it short!