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Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK
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http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/blogging-practices-jiscmrd-2011/
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Email:[email protected]:http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
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Blogging Practices To Support Project Work
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Idea from Cameron Neylon
Slide Concept by Cameron Neylon, who has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights. This slide only CCZero.Social Media Icons adapted with permission from originals by Christopher Ross. Original images are available under GPL at:http://www.thisismyurl.com/free-downloads/15-free-speech-bubble-icons-for-popular-websites
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About the UK Web Focus Blog
3
Intr
oduc
tion
• Launched in Nov 2006
• 1,000 posts, 4,684 comments & over 385K views
• Runner-up in IT Professional Blogger of the Year Award
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About YouHow many are:
• Regular bloggers• Occasional bloggers• Non-bloggers
Your interests:• What would you like to see addressed in
this session?
4
Intr
oduc
tion
Your opportunity to shape the agenda
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About This Session1. Why have a blog?2. What’s the purpose of your blog?3. Who contributes?4. What can go wrong?5. How can you measure the blog’s success ?6. What technical issues should I care about?7. Howe do I ensure the content is usable?8. How to maximise impact of the blog9. What additional functionality can we exploit?10.Managing the blog when the project is over
5
Intr
oduc
tion
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Why Have a Blog?Group Exercise:
• List ~10 reasons why your project should have a blog
Report back:• Each group to share three reasons for
having a blog• Please do not repeat reasons already
provided!
6
Why
Blo
g?
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Projects Must Blog!?Twitter/blog discussion in Feb 2009:• Projects may blog due
to peer pressure• If not done for right
reasons may be counter-productive
• Projects should be open (wider than blogging)
• Need to develop productive blogging culture
• No, project must blog!7
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Why Have a Blog?Possible Reasons
• We have to – it’s in the contact!• To disseminate• To speculate• To challenge• To encourage discussion• To use as a CMS for content• To ensure content can be viewed easily on
mobile devices• To produce RSS to facilitate reuse• To act as a CV• To provide a sandbox for experimentation• ….8
Why
Blo
g?
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Why Have a Blog?Tip No. 1:
Ensure you (and your project team) know the reasons why you are providing a blog.
NoteThis should be done for members of the project team and the funders
9
Why
Blo
g?
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What’s the Purpose of Your Blog?
The need to publish the blog’s purpose:• To help user’s understand what your blog
is about• To ensure blog authors (possibly
distributed) have a shared understanding• So your funders understand the purpose• So future evaluators /markers understand
the purpose • To help in the management of your blog• To measure the blog’s effectiveness in
achieving its intended purpose10
Wha
t is
Your
Blo
g Fo
r?
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What’s the Purpose of Your Blog?Summary:
• Brief summary of top left corner of UK Web Focus blog (visible from every page)
Detailed description:• Detailed summary on page linked to
from navigation barCovers:
• Purpose• Audience• Policies• …
11
Wha
t is
Your
Blo
g Fo
r?
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What’s the Purpose of Your Blog?Things to consider:• Is the About
page about the blog or the project?
• Does the summary change about the project is over?
12
The About page for the JISC PoWR project was updated last week as the blog may have been regarded as the project.
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What’s the Purpose of Your Blog?
Tip No. 2:Publish an About page for your blog which is:
Easily found Clarifies whether the information is about
the blog or the project Makes sense after the project is over
NoteThis should be done for readers of your blog
13
Wha
t is
Your
Blo
g Fo
r?
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Who Contributes to Your Blog?
Email is for everyone and we (should) understand the context and the risks.But blogs are a different environment
14
Who
Con
trib
utes
?
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Who Contributes to Your Blog?
15
Who
Con
trib
utes
?
Starting a blog can be an intimidating experience …
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Who Contributes to Your Blog?
16
Who
Con
trib
utes
?
… but so can writing a peer-reviewed paper
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Who Contributes to Your Blog?
17
Who
Con
trib
utes
?
Some people are better at writing code
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Who Contributes to Your Blog?
18
Who
Con
trib
utes
?
Whereas other can communicate complex ideas in visual ways
Visualisations produced by Tony Hirst
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Who Contributes to Your Blog?
Which channels do you prefer? (choose 1)[Research papers] – [synthesis reports] – [blogs] – [briefing papers] – [marketing materials] – [code] – [visualisations]
Which communication channels are you happy to use? (choose all that apply)
Which communication channels do you try to avoid? (choose all that apply)
19
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The Belbin ModelBlogging and the Belbin Model
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Who Contributes to Your Blog?
Group Exercise:• Provide one (or two) statements
describing who will publish posts on your project blog
• What are the strengthens & weaknesses of your blog contributor policy?
21
Who
Con
trib
utes
?
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Who Contributes to Your Blog?
Tip No. 3:Since not everyone should blog but every
project must have a blog … Identify the good, keen bloggers Provide opportunities for reluctant bloggers Consider inviting guest bloggers to add
variety Provide blog profiles to be able to
differentiate different ‘voices’
22
Who
Con
trib
utes
?
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Group Exercise:• What can go wrong with your blog?• Feel free to include:
Technical issues Content issues People issues Resourcing issues …
When Things Go Wrong
23
Whe
n Th
ings
Go
Wro
ng
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When Blogs Break
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Fatal error: Call to undefined method Arras_Widget_Tag_Cloud::WP_Widget_Tag_Cloud() in /opt/wordpress/wp-content/themes/arras-theme/library/widgets.php on line 328
blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/jisc-beg-dig-pres/
ProblemSpam comments spotted in blogBut blog not available?!
SolutionArras theme incompatible with upgraded PHP libraryBlog viewed on mobile device, with mobile theme enabledUpdated version of theme installed
Whe
n Th
ings
Go
Wro
ng
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Spam
25
Blog comments can attract spam:•Comment moderation is a barrier to people•You’ll need a spam filter•I try to delete spam daily
10 days of spam
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Managing Spam Comments
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~0.5M spam comments in ~ 4 years (~4K legitimate comments)Some legitimate comments may be trapped (& possibly retrieved).
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When Things Go Wrong
Tip No. 4:Things can go wrong, but planning can
minimise problems Spam filters Spam management policies Managing switch-off of your blog after
project ends
27
Whe
n Th
ings
Go
Wro
ng
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Group Exercise:• How should we measure the success of a
blog?• (Why do we need to measure the
success of a blog?)
Measuring Success
28
Mea
surin
g Su
cces
s
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Measuring SuccessIs this blog unsuccessful?
29
The purpose of the blog was informal note-keeping using a familiar, easy-to-use tool.Should usage stats matter?
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There are needs to identify indications of success • Demonstrate value
to funders• Identify & learn from
effective & flawed strategies
• …
Measuring Success
30
Mea
surin
g Su
cces
s
Top 3% of all blogsTop 13% of technology blogs
According to Technorati Tony Hirst’s Ouseful.info blog is in:
• Top 3% of all blogs it has indexed • Top 13% of Technology blogs
based on index of > 1M blogs
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Comparison With PeersSearch Technorati for ‘jisc’ helps to spot blogs with high ranking:
• What can we learn from these?
• Can we help ensure JISC (outreach) blogs are highly ranked
31
Authority measures blog's standing & influence on scale of 0-1000 (high good).Ranking given for Technorati Authority of all sites (low good)
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WikioWikio also provides metrics for (registered) blogsList of top technology blogs shown
32
Together with display of trends for ranking, nos. of posts, links and backlinks,
OUseful had peak at #18 in Nov 2008
What happened from Jun-Sep 2010?
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Measuring SuccessTip No. 5:Think about (easy) ways for measuring
success of you blogNote registering blog with Technorati & Wikio
Is trivial to do May provide evidence of successful strategies The value may be in the aggregation of JISC
blogs Funders understand that these don’t provide
league tables You’ll need to understand risks of not doing
this (which may be a legitimate decision)
33
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Interoperability IssuesBK “What technical advice should I
give?”TB “Don’t truncate RSS feeds!”
Context (for end users):On the bus, catching up with RSS
feeds on iPod Touch.If text truncated I normally don’t see
full post (and am likely to unsubscribe from such blogs)
34
Thanks to Amber Thomas for granting permission to share this example – she has updated her blog settings!
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Interoperability Issues
35
UKOLN’s Web Team Blog aggregator:• Harvests
posts for Web team blogs
• Allows them to understand their community
• Allows us to observe
Note that searches, auto-categorisation, etc. is based on RSS feed content. Restricted feed content = limited value.
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Interoperability IssuesTip No. 6:Provide a full RSS feed for your blog
It’s trivial to do If you don’t:
Humans may not see full post, especially if they use offline devices
Software will not be able to harvest full post
36
Tech
nica
l Iss
ues
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Which Platform?Which blogging platform should you use?
• Wordpress.com: My choice. Limited range of plugins.
• Wordpress.org: Install locally; can install wide range of plugins.
• Blogger.com:
What else do people use?
37
Plat
form
Issu
es
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Platform IssuesTip No. 7:Several safe options available
Wordpress.com or Blogger.com if no in-house options available
WordPress.org if Wish to use wider range of plugins Technical expertise available Wish to consider use of WP as a technology
platform (see later) May be advantages in using same platform
as your peers
38
Plat
form
Issu
es
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Usability IssuesWho normally reads blog posts:
• On a mobile device• On desktop PC
39
My morning’s reading: posts viewed in mobile RSS client
Less clutter than Web browser view
But some features don’t work (Java, Flash, ..)
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Interoperability can be achieved by writing style and links, with no technology needed
40
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In a mobile world:• Which posts stands
out?
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Note:• Growing importance
of personalised newspapers
• Need to stand out form the crowd
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UsabilityTip No. 9:You can’t ignore mobile devices
Even if you don’t read blogs on a mobile device, your readers might
Mobile usage will grow There are some simple techniques you can
use to enhance experiences on mobile device
42
Usa
bilit
y
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What About Twitter?Is Twitter:• Trivial & time-
wasting• Valuable for
rapid discussions with peers
• Useful for marketing
43
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Twitter Evidence (1)
44
URL Bit.ly/foo+ gives usage stats
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Twitter Evidence (2)What happened in June 2011 which caused spike for peer-reviewed paper on “Openness in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access”
45
Probably:• A tweet on 17 June • A marketing opportunity
(Promote #UniWekk campaign on Twitter day)
• Use of popular hashtags
"Openness in HE: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access" paper on ways of exploiting openness: http://bit.ly/a9wglM #UniWeek #UniofBath
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What About Twitter?Tip No. 10:You can’t ignore Twitter
Build up your community (100-500 followers to ensure critical mass)
Engage in relevant discussions Tweet about things you care about Tweet links you feel are useful
46
Twitt
er
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Commenting & LinkingMany blogs publish automated links to their postsThis illustrates benefits of citing posts
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Commenting & LinkingComments can be indicative of community building (but may be difficult on project blog)
48
You may prefer to be notified of comments:
• By email• In your RSS reader
You may also wish to have comments to blogs of interest in this way
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Comment on Other’s BlogsComment in response to post on Google Scholar Citations (& question on proactive use of service)
49
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Email MattersWhat if your users:• Are not into blogs• Don’t use RSS readers
Encourage them to sign up to an RSS to email subscription service e.g.
• Feedburner(93 subscribers to all posts)
• WordPress (85 subscribers)
50
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Comments, Links and EmailTip No. 11:Comments, links and email matter
You can encourage comments by your writing style (e.g. open questions
Providing links to relevant resources helps users in following ideas
Providing links to blog posts can generate traffic back to you blog
Posts can be delivered by email (but you’ll have to make it obvious how to do this)
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You Are Not Alone!Work collaboratively:• You are not alone• You gain benefits by
sharing
Research360@Bath MRD blog plans covers:• Content for static
pages• Content for blog posts• …
52
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You Are Not Alone!Research360@Bath MRD blog plans covers:• Content for sidebar• Target audience• …
Provided under a Creative Commons (CC-BY) licence
53
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Searching Across the Community
54
A Google Custom Search Engine (GCSE) searches across (current) JISC MRD blogs
GCSE can be embedded in Web pages
Note should have OPML feeds to add blogs to RSS aggregators
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Browsing Across the CommunityJISC RDM blogs added to Google ReaderGoogle Reader allows:
• Browsing (shown)• Export of OPML file for import to other RSS tools
Compare this with the silos of conventional Web sites!
55
Produced by Jez Cope, Research360@Bath
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You Are Part of a CommunityTip No. 12:Don’t reinvent the wheel!
Learn from what others are doing Share what you’re doing
56
Why not write a post about how you’ve implemented your blog? Other may find this useful, and they may be motivated to give you suggestions on enhancements
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Advanced BloggingBlogs can provide:
• Easy-to-use content management system• Tool for creating mobile-friendly content• Mechanism for getting feedback
But in addition:• Can manage semantic content• Content can be created by automated
processes• …
57
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Example from Southampton University
58
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AnnotumAnnotums’s objectives are to develop:• A simple, robust,
easy-to-use authoring system to create and edit scholarly articles
• An editorial review and publishing system that can be used to submit, review, and publish scholarly articles
59
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Joss Winn’s session on WordPress at IWMW 2010
If you’ve 6 mins to spare see the video:
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Blog Engine as a PlatformTip No. 13:A blog engine can be a powerful technology
platform
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It’s All Over Now!
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The projects over – and was a great success But the blog:
• Is full of spam• Has out-of-date content• Has stopped working• Used as indicator of
poor dissemination for next call
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IWMW 2011 blog
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Calendar removed
Is this risky?
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A Blog Isn’t Just For Xmas! Tip No. 14:Your project blog will still be relevant after
the project is complete: It can undermine future work if
closure isn’t managed It can demonstrate the value of
previous work
64
See "Approaches To Archiving Professional Blogs Hosted In The Cloud“, iPres 2010, Kelly, B & Guy, M.<http://opus.bath.ac.uk/20327/>
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ConclusionsYou should
• Document blog’s purpose• Provide an About page• Develop plans for content providers• Have a spam management policy• Consider ways of gathering metrics• Provide a full RSS feed• Ensure posts are usable on mobile devices• Encourage comments – and comment • Work collaboratively• Understand additional opportunities for blog platform• Manage the closure of your blog
65
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Questions
66