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Brian Kelly, UKOLN
IWR Information Professional of the Year
Resources bookmarked using ‘ucisa-2008-02' and ‘cliwg’ tags Resources bookmarked using ‘ucisa-2008-02' and ‘cliwg’ tags
UKOLN is supported by:
Communicating With Users Case Study:
The UK Web Focus Blog
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/ucisa-2008-02/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/ucisa-2008-02/
This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)
About This Talk
This talk describes the approaches taken in setting up the UK Web Focus blog and describes strategies for IT Service departments in using blogs for engaging with their user communities.
About This Talk
This talk describes the approaches taken in setting up the UK Web Focus blog and describes strategies for IT Service departments in using blogs for engaging with their user communities.
2
Contents
• About Me
• The UK Web Focus Blog Setting Up The Blog Blog Policies Delivering The Blog Evaluation
• Blogs For IT Service Departments Who’s Doing It? A Vision
• Conclusions
3
About My Past
Employment History• Initially employed in Computer Centre at
Loughborough University from 1984-90• Information Officer at University of Liverpool
(1990-91) and University of Leeds (1991-5)• Senior Trainer at Netskills (1995-6)• UK Web Focus at UKOLN, University of Bath from
1996-UCISA Involvement
• Committee member of IUCC IUIC, ISG, TLIG, SDG, … in 1980s and 1990s
• Speaker at UCISA Management Conference, 2004 and 2008 and various UCISA TLIG/SDG events
Bac
kgro
un
d
4
About My Present
UK Web Focus:• Discovered the Web in Dec 1992• Web evangelist in 1993-4• Currently employed as UK Web Focus:
Highlighting innovations to community Encouraging take-up of best practices Building sustainable Web management
community Promoting use of Web 2.0 to support
institutional objectives Addressing barriers to innovation
Bac
kgro
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5
The UK Web Focus Blog
UK Web Focus blog:• Set up on 1 Nov
2006• Hosted at
wordpress.com• Response to
embarrassment at Web 2.0 panel at ILI 2006 conf
• ‘Skunkwork’ (avoiding slow-moving editorial processes)
About The Blog
6
Setting Up The Blog
Steps:• Register• Select name &
appearance• Publish
Next:• Publish posts• Register in
Technorati• Publicise (email, Web
pages, comments, …)
This is the easy part
About The Blog
7
Blog Policies
How to transition from ‘skunkwork’ to embedded service:
Establish:• Blog policies • Scope of the blog• Target audience• Writing style• Procedures• Change control
UK Web Focus blog is written by an individual and has a conversational writing style. Feedback mechanisms and professional reputation helps to ensure suitability of contents.
UK Web Focus blog is written by an individual and has a conversational writing style. Feedback mechanisms and professional reputation helps to ensure suitability of contents.
About The Blog
8
Blog Content
How Do You Get Content?
• Lots of things happening in Web 2.0!
• Read blogs from peers and contextualise
How Do You Make It Interesting?
• Aim to be a ‘thinker’ and not a ‘linker’ (there is a role for linkers, though)
• Engage in discussion (“X looks interesting, but it might mean Y. What do you think?”)
How Do You Find The Time?
• Blog posts related to other work activities – feedback improves quality of work
• Speculation (“thinking out loud”) provides opportunity to see if others have similar views
• Can I afford not to blog; not to engage with my users?
About The Blog
Blo
gs
9
Measuring UsageUsage
• Steady growth in usage in first 6 months
• Views by RSS not measured (likely to be high)
• Views in other aggregated services also not measured
Links• Steady growth in nos. /
status of links by blog in first 6 months
• Dapper service used to visualise trends in Technorati statistics
About The Blog
10
Evaluation
Survey in Aug/Sep provided very useful feedback and confirmed that blog is providing a valuable service
…
…
About The Blog
But what are the implications of these experiences for the wider community?
But what are the implications of these experiences for the wider community?
11
Vision For IT Services
A number of senior managers use blogs
• Michael Webb, University of Wales, Newport
• John Dale, University of Warwick
• Mark Sammons, University of Edinburgh
and some blogs from support staff:
Shouldn’t IT Service departments be leading use of blogs at strategic & operational level, for engaging with users & sharing best practices?
Shouldn’t IT Service departments be leading use of blogs at strategic & operational level, for engaging with users & sharing best practices?
Blogs & IT Services
• Chris Sexton, University of Sheffield
12
Challenge For IT Services
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/ucisa-award-for-uk-web-focus-blog/#comment-63841
Blo
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13
What Should We Prioritise?
Do we do the work and tell our users what we’ll do or won’t do ..
Blogs? IT Services says noFolksonomies? Library says noSkype? UKERNA says no
Blogs? IT Services says noFolksonomies? Library says noSkype? UKERNA says no
No
bo
dy
Lik
e U
s!
Yer, like blog are well cool, but, OK so I swore at Kylie on her blog cos she’s a real slapper cos …
Yer, like blog are well cool, but, OK so I swore at Kylie on her blog cos she’s a real slapper cos …
Images from BBC
Yer, but, no, but, yer
.. or engage with our users & acknowledge the ambiguities described by Vicky Pollard
Do we assume all our users are like Vicky and plan for that?
14
Blogs, Emails And Talks
A blog can be like an email
I haven’t got the time!!!I haven’t got the time!!!
15
Blogs, Emails And Talks
A blog can be like an email or a slide in a talk
The opportunity:• IT Service blogs can be used to engage more
effectively with user communities• IT Service departments need to communicate
more effectively with users
The challenge• “We haven’t got time”
Some answers• Regard a blog post as email or a talk – you
have time for that• Share and discuss within the community
16
Blogs, Emails And Talks
A blog can be like an email or a slide in a talk
Do you not have the time to write emails or give talks?
Do you not have the time to write emails or give talks?
STOP PRESSNotice how I save effort by someone giving their views as a comment to this post If I share, others will share their expertise with me (and my readers).
STOP PRESSNotice how I save effort by someone giving their views as a comment to this post If I share, others will share their expertise with me (and my readers).
17
Blogs, Emails And Talks
A blog can be like an email or a slide in a talk
Do you not have the time to write emails or give talks?
Do you not have the time to write emails or give talks?
STOP PRESSNotice how I save effort by someone giving their views as a comment to this post If I share, others will share their expertise with me (and my readers).Blogs are a communal social paradise!
STOP PRESSNotice how I save effort by someone giving their views as a comment to this post If I share, others will share their expertise with me (and my readers).Blogs are a communal social paradise!
18
• Evaluating Your Blog
Supporting Each Other
Briefing documents which give advice on best practices for blogs are available (with Creative Commons licence):
Blogs & IT Services
• Launching Your Blog
• Building A Blogging Community• Addressing The Barriers • Quality Processes for your Blog
Content• Technical Issues For Your
Blogging Service• Library Uses For Blogs• ..
19
Conclusions
Institutional Perspective• Setting up a blog is easy• Sustaining a blog needs content and motivation• A blog can (should) relate to other activities
(listening to users, floating ideas, etc.)• Don’t spend too much time evaluating blogs,
worrying about AUPs, …
Cross-Institutional Potential• Blogs can be for communicating with one’s peers
and not just end users• We have good channels for sharing (e.g. UCISA)
– blogs can build on this• Let’s do it!
20
Questions
Any questions or comments: