Best Practices for Project Blogs

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

UKOLN is supported by:

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording this talk, taking photos, discussing the content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording this talk, taking photos, discussing the content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Twitter:http://twitter.com/briankelly/

Email:[email protected]:http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

Best Practices for Project Blogs

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution 2.0 licence (but note caveat)


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About the UK Web Focus Blog

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Intr

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• Launched in Nov 2006

• 1,000 posts, 4,684 comments & over 385K views

• Launched in Sep 2008

• 262 posts, 721 comments & over 50K views

Personal/Professional BlogsProject BlogsUKOLN BlogsEvent BlogsCommunity Blogs


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About This Session

1. 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 blog

9. Managing the blog when the project is over

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Since 2006 UKOLN has been pro-active in publishing a wide range of blogs. We can now share best practices & experiences


www.ukoln.ac.uk

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, projects must blog!4


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JISC MRD blog aggregator

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JISC MRD blog aggregator


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Why Have a Blog?Possible Reasons

• We have to – it’s in the contract!• To disseminate• To encourage discussion• To speculate• To challenge• To use as a CMS for content• To ensure content can be viewed easily on

mobile devices• To produce RSS to facilitate reuse• To provide a sandbox for experimentation• To add to your CV• ….6

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Why Have a Blog?

Tip No. 1:

Ensure you (& your project team) know the reasons why you are providing a blog.

Note

This should be done for members of the project team and the funders

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Wh

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Possible purposes: • To start a conversation in a timely fashion• To publish high quality posts so that JISC PMs

can read them on mobile devices


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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 purpose8

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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 bar

Covers:• Purpose• Audience• Policies• …

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Things to consider:• Is the About

page about the blog or the project?

• Does the summary change about the project is over?

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The About page for the JISC PoWR project was updated in November 2011 as the description may have implied that the blog was the key project deliverable.


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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

Note

This should be done for readers of your blog

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Wh

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Who Contributes to Your Blog?

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Starting a blog can be an intimidating experience …


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… but so can writing a peer-reviewed paper


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Some people are better at writing code


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Whereas other can communicate complex ideas in visual ways

Visualisations produced by Tony Hirst


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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)

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The Belbin Model

Blogging and the Belbin Model

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7 comments agreeing including:“I’m the author of a blog devoted to Belbin Team Role Theory … I agree that a Plant/Resource Investigator combo is perfect for the stereotypical blog author.”


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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’

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Wh

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trib

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Your Input:• What can go wrong (has gone wrong)

with your blog?• Feel free to mention:

Technical issues Content issues People issues Resourcing issues …

When Things Go Wrong

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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

NoteIssue of ongoing maintenance for legacy blogs

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Spam

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Blog comments can attract spam:•Comment moderation is a barrier to people•You’ll need a spam filter•I try to delete spam daily•Comments should be disabled when blog is no longer active

10 days of spam


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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

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User Input:• How should we measure the success of a

blog?• (Why do we need to measure the

success of a blog?)

Measuring Success

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Measuring SuccessIs this blog unsuccessful?

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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

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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

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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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Ebuzzing (was Wikio)Ebuzzing also provides metrics for (registered) blogs

List of top technology blogs shown

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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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Evaluation

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Why not ask for feedback from your readers?


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Measures of FailureProposal for new project submitted.

Blog required and dissemination counts for 20%

Reviewers look at blog for previous project:• Purpose unclear and undocumented• Only three token posts• No closure of blog• Comments full of spam• Dynamic widgets broken• …

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Reviewer: This project should not be funded since the poor quality of the blog for their previous project demonstrates a lack of interest in providing quality user-engagement/dissemination functions

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Measuring Success

Tip No. 5:

Have plans for (easy) ways for measuring success of you blog

You’ll need to understand risks of not doing this (which may be a legitimate decision)

Surveys may be useful but time-consuming Avoiding failure may be a success criteria!

Note registering blog with Technorati & EBuzzing Is trivial to do and may provide evidence of

successful strategies The value may be in the aggregation of blogs

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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)

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Thanks to Amber Thomas for granting permission to share this example – she has updated her blog settings!


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Interoperability Issues

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ISKB:• Harvests

content from key resources including blogs

• Allows us to observe developments

Note that searches, auto-categorisation, etc. is based on RSS feed content. Restricted feed content = limited value.


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Interoperability Issues

Tip 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

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Tec

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Iss

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Usability IssuesWho normally reads blog posts:

• On a mobile device• On desktop PC

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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

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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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Usability

Tip No. 7:

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

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Usa

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What About Twitter?Is Twitter:• Trivial & time-

wasting• Valuable for

rapid discussions with peers

• Useful for marketing

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Twitter Evidence (1)

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URL Bit.ly/foo+ gives usage stats


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Twitter Evidence (2)What happened in June 2011 which caused spike in downloads for peer-reviewed paper on “Openness in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access”

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Probably:• A tweet on 17 June 2011• 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

8 citations of paper according to Google Scholar (note 2nd highest no. of UKOLN citations in WoK is 37).Downloads is first step to citation (paper by Les Carr et al)

Total of 287 downloads from Opus (top 10 in UKOLN)


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Twitter PracticesBe a leader and highlight resources of importance to your community

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Be an active member of your community and share resources and add your comments

But avoid overt marketing with immediate RTs:• We know it’s the same

person (or close friend)• I’ve seen message twice

– I’ll not RT & add to ‘spam’

Instead:• Defer RTs (for >1 hr)• Add own wording /

commentary


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What About Twitter?

Tip No. 8:

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

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Commenting & LinkingMany blogs publish automated ‘trackback’ links to their posts

This illustrates benefits of citing posts and posting quickly (avoid slow editorial processes if possible – can be better to be first than be best)

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Commenting & LinkingComments can be indicative of community building (but may be difficult on project blog)

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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)

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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)

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Comments, Links and Email

Tip No. 9:

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• …

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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

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You Are Part of a Community

Tip No. 10:

Don’t reinvent the wheel! Learn from what others are doing Share what you’re doing

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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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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. 11:

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

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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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ConclusionsPeople providing project blogs should:

• Document blog’s purpose• Provide an About page• Develop plans for content providers• Have a spam management policy• Consider ways of gathering evidence of blog’s value• Provide a full RSS feed• Ensure posts are usable on mobile devices• Encourage comments – and comment • Work collaboratively• Manage the closure of your blog

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Questions

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Documents

Best Practices for Project Blogs