Blogging is the latest "thing" on the Internet. Web logging, called "blogging", allows the publishing of opinion and reporting without concern for formatting of a web page. One can publish directly to the web without worry about the presentation which is taken care of by the blogging application.
The evidence for this phenomenal growth of blogging is exemplified by its incursion into international, federal, state and local government. This is described in detail in the RSS in Government web site which provides a regular update on recent developments in web logging and its version of XML technology called RSS (Rich Site Summary).Canada is the first national government to roll out an "RSS newsroom".
RSS has become the format of choice for many but there is another format called Atom which some promote as more useful. The choice of format is mute and recently Google, which recently chose Atom, is considering renewing support for the increasingly popular RSS.
The National Institute for Technology & Liberal Education has logged about 1.9 million Weblog sites. This is not news, as just about everybody who spends time online is maintaining blog, regularly contributing to a blog or knows someone who is maintaining or regularly reading or contributing to a blog. What is news is the use that web logging is being adapted for project management.
Blogging is a new window on the project management web world
There is increasing use by project management practitioners, companies and consultants to adapt to this new project management journalism. Technology free blogging is both a joy and problem. The good news is that a web log is a personal comment on the world of project management. The bad news is that it is unfiltered by peer review. It is electronic pamphletering and can be as powerful as the famous pamphlet writers of the past. It is a case of reader beware.
The PMFORUM has embraced the use of blogs both for the convenience of publishing and the ability to embrace readers comment on what is published. Currently, the PMFORUM publishes weblogs euphemistically called "Plogs" on Letters to the Editor, Vendor Release, Editor's Highlights, PM World Today Features and Max's Musings. Each has a different aspect of happenings and personal comment on the world of project management. A more technical explanation of these web logs is contained in the Education Section of the July-August PM World Today.
These PMFORUM Blogs are administrative uses of PM blogging. There is a growing body of personal project management web logs exemplified by Ranier Volz's columns on "Inquiries into Distributed Project Management" , Hal Macomber's "Reforming Project Mangement Blog" and Frank Patrick's "Focused Performance Business Blog". These exemplify the personal opinion blog and comment on the project management scene, each from a different viewpoint. While they make fascinating reading it is well to keep in mind that these "plogs" are project management personal journalism.
Lately there has been some experimentation with the use of blogs in the management of projects. Some use the convenience of a weblog to allow each team member to have a personal web log for reporting on issues and status of their individual tasks. The convenience of a personal report from individual team members allows a project manager and the other team members to read the reports of others and be kept in the picture. A sort of modern day version of the chron file that used to be regularly distributed in a project office.
The explosive popularity of blogging is evident with RSS blog reading capability in newer browsers. In the latest Opera Browser 7.5, RSS news feeds can be received within the standard mail client, The power of this new web technology is that you can employ an"Aggregator" whether a part of a Browser or a separate application to read your favourite PM blog direct from the desktop.
The difference between logging applications and aggregators is:
"Weblogs are for writing"
"Aggregators are for reading"
Industry and Government have grasped the blogging concept with a vengence. The focus of the PM World Today on individual PM happenings are missing, as this requires publishing intervention. However, with a little tweaking one can enable an "Aggregator" to load only those blogs of personal or business interest.
A whole new window on the PM web has opened up and there is some really useful reading on project management topics, issues and practices.
Other reading: