Sun 21 Jan 2007
Multiple blogs for multiple purposes
Posted by John Smith under Coaching , Communities of practice , Conferences , Event design , Technology , technology_stewardshipI’m noticing that because setting up a blog is so easy, rather than having one blog that serves all purposes, people set up many special-purpose blogs. Here are the blogs I’ve posted to within the last week, each having a special purposes:
- CPsquare News
- CPsquare Education News
- Technology for Communities
- Prato Dialog
- Coaching community leaders (a new one, for a workshop on June 28th in East Lansing, Michigan, as part of the 3rd International Conference on Communities and Technologies)
A consequence of this ease is that abandoned blogs will proliferate in the future.
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January 21st, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Very true, John.
Just this month I “inactivated” a group blog that I had set up about a year before. Based on the level of activity, I requested feedback about how best to move forward with it. After 10 days with no response that request, I announced that the blog had been retired.
In some ways I was saddened, but I also believe that the blog had served its purpose. I hesitated to completely delete it though, and I’m not sure how I would come to that final decision.
What considerations are others taking when it comes time to put a blog to sleep?
You can see how I indicated that the blog has been inactivated at amoccigompod.blogspot.com. I welcome any comments or suggestions.
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:29 am
Thanks, Tina,
Using the participation-reification-participation cycle that’s at the foundation of Etienne Wenger’s theory about communities of practice, I’d say that you never know what kind of participation there will be from leaving a “dead blog” out there for reference. In this case, death is more a fact of life than a condemnation as irrelevant, don’t you think?
By the way, I like the way you put together that “state of the blog” posting ( http://amoccigompod.blogspot.com/2007/01/state-of-blog-2007.html ). I think that kind of thing is very helpful. I’ve been interested in tools that “support awareness” for a long time. Some of their utility is contextual - how you put them in context (like you put ordinary subscription stats in that posting).
January 27th, 2007 at 2:37 am
Hi John, from the list you mentioned, I’m subscribed to only this blog (I try to keep my bloglines below 50). So the consequence of writing on multiple blogs is when you think something is important for yourself, you might crosspost it on your own blog.
(I’m crossposting most of the content of the icollaborate blog to the netsquared one because it has a different readership)