Talking of Blogging

Wednesday saw me extolling the virtues of blogging to academics in the University. Which went quite successfully, given that even after five years interacting with academics, I'm still learning how best to pitch web stuff in a relevant, non-techy and useful way. I seem to be getting better at it. ;)

This all came about as part of an ongoing project to redesign the old business school site. We'd talked about how to get staff involved and onboard, and a blog was suggested as a way of bringing in fresh, relevant content that showed what the School was all about. People wanted to know the hows, whys and whatfors.

So we organised a small seminar... and things spiralled. People took interest. We ended up with close to thirty academics and support staff, all in a room, setting up their own blogs, discussing issues and techniques, ideas and opportunities. Great stuff.

We did some presenting too. I talked about this very blog, and its highs and lows, the link economy and building your audience. Kathleen Dixon Donnelly talked about her blog and how she'd turned her posts into self-published books. John Colby talked about maths, pass grades and pictures of dogs, and which one helped him dine out for a year. Andy Hollyhead talked about how he'd used blogs in teaching for reflective practice, and key things like students not necessarily calling what they do online blogging. Ruth Page talked about how she's used Digital Narratives to enhance her work and research. Charlotte Carey talked about why she blogs and what she gains (see her blog post for more). She also showed people twitter.

All in all a very positive experience, that I hope to see a few blogs appear from. Also great for reminding people there is a web team and we don't bite!