10 Responses

1. I subscribe to several
   Hi,

   I subscribe to four: two are work related and two aren’t. None of them are training related but I thought I would share them.

   Avanish Kaushik’s web analytics blog, Occam’s Razor, is an excellent resource and of interest to anyone with even a passing interest in the subject. Highly recommended.

   http://www.kaushik.net/avinash

   The second is Matt Cutts blog (who is one of Googles head software engineers) and it always contains interesting and pertinent Google related stuff.

   http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

   Other than that I regularly look in on Stephen Fry and Neil Gaimans blogs. Stephen’s in particular is great reading.

   Thanks,
   Gareth

2. My Blog
   Hi Mike

   How come you get to post your blog but the rest of us can’t?

   I don’t have a business blog – but I do have a “giving up smoking” blog if anyone’s interested.

   http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2008/01/02/cathy_white_smoking_blog_feature.shtml

   Regards
   Cathy

3. Comment on a blog?
   Hi Cathy
   Well first of all congratulations for the progress to date.. keep it up.

   You ask “How come you get to post your blog but the rest of us can’t?”
   What do you mean by that – if you want to comment on my blog you can – if you have a blog that is relevant to Trainers – I do not see why you cannot post a link – the danger is of course that announcing something here risks other commenting publicly 😉

   Hi Gareth – thanks for sharing those… anyone else?

   Regards
   Mike

4. No siree
   No, not interested in one persons view of the world, I like a number to build a viewpoint. Also I find they are so often opinion and rant, frequently the content is dull.

   Not for me, although if Victor Lews Smith has a blogg…. and they do say that Iraqi woman blogger changed the course of a war.

5. Blog – believe one or use as a tool for balance?
   Juliet
   “not interested in one persons view of the world, I like a number to build a viewpoint. Also I find they are so often opinion and rant, frequently the content is dull.”

   Is that not the point – it is not about believing one persons view but using multiple views from different perspectives to form our own judgement? Hence to visit a range of peoples blogs on a given topic to draw our own conclusions.

   Opinion and rant – well if you don’t like that type of blog, then don’t visit again – but is this site not just the same opinion and rant?

   Interesting how can a rant be dull? A rant by definition must use passion, colourful language and description or it is not a rant but a moan….

   😉

6. Journalism v blogging
   I find articles by eloquent, articulate, persuasive, knowledgeable journalists much more to my liking. It seems to me they have the literary skills whereas bloggers don’t. All to often its the ego driving it rather than the motivation being to educate and inform which is the motivation of the journalist. Journalists are proven in their wordsmithery, bloggers aren’t. Isn’t blogging just another incarnation of the vanity website? Why do I need to live vicariously through other people’s diaries?

   (To the world in general)
   Do you really think the world wants to hear your musings on daily basis or are you in it to improve your business?

7. Blogs
   Mike
   The master of the art, in my view, is David Gurteen. There is always something interesting (mainly in the area of Knowledge Management; a good source of slightly different perspectives on learning and change, though not on training).
   Anyone interested go to http://www.gurteen.com – browse or check out the pull down ‘categories’ menu at the top for some of the most relevant content (or go straight to his Knowledge Log at http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/knowledge-log )
   Graham

8. Blogs are the business
   Do I subscribe to blogs?

   Yes. Lots of them. Anything that may be of use to me that has an RSS Feed (note news items such as on the BBC have RSS feeds) I add to my RSS reader. I use Google reader which does a grand job. I usually scan for new feeds once a day and pick out what is important, relevant or interesting to me at the time.

   I subscribe to them because it is the only and most efficient way for me to ‘remember’ to browse or visit the site or content.

   Bookmarks can tell help me remember a site, but it doesn’t tell me when there is new content. Last thing I want to do with my (precious) time is to visit sites ‘in case’ there is new content.

   Blogs vary significantly, some are just for fun, others are much more serious. The reason I subscribe to them is mainly to learn (gain useful and important information).

   The perception that blogs are just diaries and are not useful is wrong. There are many professional bloggers out there, many of them do it as a living and gain more readership than traditional journalists.

   That’s my 2 cents.

9. RSS added value
   Thanks Rosie
   You raise some interesting additional points – which for many make the difference for the value of a blog.

   The use of RSS feeds is not that well understood, and to some still very ‘techie’…. CPD opportunity?

   Thanks again
   Mike

10. Helping trainers to blog

    To assist trainers and others in L&D to start blogging I have started a little project to see if we can encourage people to blog.

    go to Learning Professionals.co.uk and you can register for a free blog.

    In the comming weeks we will be releasing some "how to blog" style articles and videos, and providing support for fellow professionals to develop their own on-line presence.

    For those that are freelance or thinking of going freelance, we will also be showing you how to use blogs for getting your name in-front of potential purchasers, and making blogging a part of your marketing strategy.

    Mike