Blog Hui 2006

Unfortunately, work demands has meant Brad will be unable to present at Blog Hui. Brad and Team Blog Hui are disappointed by this unexpected turn of events.

Paper summary:
As blogging moves increasingly into the business domain, its potential use for communication and collaboration within an organisation is now becoming apparent. IBM has embraced blogging wholeheartedly and this paper examines the following aspects of this initiative:

• Genesis: How did blogging get onto the agenda at one of the world’s largest organisations? Who were the instigators and how did they gain executive support?
• How: What does IBM’s blogging program look like? What tools and guidelines have been provided, and how effective have they been?
• Examples: Who is blogging in IBM? What are they talking about, and has it been well received?
• Results: Has the program been a success? If so, in what respect? What (if any) conclusions have we been able to derive so far?
• Future Directions: What’s in store for the IBM bloggers? How does this align with supporting programs around Wikis and Podcasting?

Finally, this paper will attempt to draw conclusions from IBM’s overall experience and map those to the needs of enterprises (of all sizes) in general. As an early adopter of enterprise blogging, IBM’s experience can act as a microcosm of the entire social networking movement.

Presenter profile:
Brad Kasell is the Asia-Pacific Manager for IBM Software Group’s Emerging Technologies division. Brad’s primary responsibility is helping customers get started with Rich Internet Applications, Open Source, and Social Networking, as well as various other technologies such as Autonomic Computing that are related to IBM’s On Demand software strategy.

Brad has recently re-joined IBM after spending six years working in a consulting capacity for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Excite@Home in the United States. During a prior tenure with IBM Australia Brad worked as a Senior Software Engineer and Project Manager on a variety of application development projects. Brad’s industry experience includes retail (apparel), telecommunications, pharmaceutical, utilities (electricity), insurance, and interactive marketing/advertising.

Brad holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Honours) and a Master of Business Administration (International Business), with both degrees from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Paper summary:

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has a variety of library uses. Feeds are available from a variety of electronic databases including Pubmed and Proquest. Book reviews can be obtained from Amazon.com. Journal feeds provide tables of contents, while newspapers feeds link back to full text articles. Both Radio New Zealand and the New Zealand Herald provide feeds. The New Zealand Government also has a feed. Libraries can collate such feeds into a reference list for users to subscribe to, or incorporate the information from the feeds directly into web pages. Libraries also generate their own feeds and provide users with announcements about things as library hours or new resources. How, then, in 2006 are New Zealand libraries using RSS?

To gain an overview of usage, libraries using RSS were identified via a google search. A content analysis technique was then used to identify the number and type of libraries using RSS, the purposes for which the feeds were used and their content. Few libraries were found to be using RSS, but the research has established a baseline for practice which can be used to in future years to see if RSS, as an information tool, has evolved into a core feature of library websites.

Presenter profile:
Ailsa Parker

Web genres are an area that I am keen on researching, particularly in relation to libraries and their websites. This interest was initially prompted by proposed changes to our website at Whitireia Community Polytechnic and now I am always on the lookout for emerging genres, such as blogs and RSS feeds. In a library, the latter seem to offer alternative ways to communicate with our users, so I started looking at other library sites and this led to the topic of my paper. In addition, I have also set up a trial blog and some RSS feeds on the library website at Whitireia, where I work as Deputy Library Manager.

Paper summary:
This paper reports on a small-scale ethnographic study of the practices of contemporary bloggers, in relation to two New Zealand blogs. The goal of this research is to elucidate the ways in which people consume blogs in their everyday lives and how they make sense of their experiences, a largely overlooked area of research concerning blogs. I did this by interviewing twenty-three people, predominantly via computer-mediated-communication (CMC), about their individual blogging practices.

The two case-study blogs, Kiwiblog and Hardnews comment on news and politics and were chosen because they offered a richer scope of discursive blogging compared to other, less topical or well-known, New Zealand blogs. It is relevant to note that these are current-events based blogs rather than the personal, journal-style blogs, which proliferate in the blogosphere and as such my findings pertain predominantly to blogging practices surrounding current-events blogs.

As a global phenomenon allowing millions of people access to distinct forms of self-expression and interaction online, it is important to attend to such straightforward questions as why people blog, and what the significance of blogging is. What prompts people to use these electronic discussion spaces, and what do they get out of it? Why do they invest significant portions of their time and energy in online communication spaces? By exploring the modes of operation within the blogosphere, we can begin to understand the power that lies in what we make of the tools given to us in this unique electronic medium.

Presenter profile:
Amie Mills

After stumbling across the blogosphere quite by accident in 2004 I became utterly fascinated by it, more than a little consumed by it and devoted my last year at university to a research project on the consumption of New Zealand blogs.

I had completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Media Studies, twisting essay topics whenever I could to explore concepts of blogging and yet I didn’t feel that I had got blogs out of my academic system. In 2005 I conducted a small-scale ethnographic study of the practices of contemporary bloggers in relation to two New Zealand blogs.

I am still captivated by the blogosphere and the shifting, fluid nature of communication online. I think it is important to address the straightforward questions as to why people blog, and what the significance of blogging is. Why do people invest significant portions of their time and energy into blogging and what do they get out of it?

Paper summary:
Archiving and preservation of the web is an area that is currently at the forefront of agendas for many cultural heritage institutions throughout the world. The National Library of New Zealand has been undertaking web archiving since 1999. Changes to the National Library of New Zealand Act in 2003 has extended the mandate of legal deposit to also include electronic publications and that of the Alexander Turnbull Library to collect, preserve and make accessible digital material for heritage and research purposes.

Last year, the Turnbull Library harvested websites and blogs during the 2005 election. This paper will focus on the selection and harvesting process of the blogs, and the subsequent appraisal that took place. It will highlight how blogs have become a powerful political tool, how the library recognises their unique place among various kinds of electronic publications and the ways in which they will attempt to be retained and made accessible. It will also highlight the importance and responsibility that lies with cultural heritage institutions to ensure that new forms of information are preserved and made accessible for future generations, to provide an accurate representation of culture and history.

Presenter profile:
Vanita Lala is an E-Publications Selector at the National Library of New Zealand. Having completed a Masters in Library and Information Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, she has worked in various library and information management roles, primarily within the public service, before joining the Turnbull Library in this newly created role. At the Turnbull she is working in the area of web archiving and is part of the team working towards “collecting, preserving and making accessible digital material for heritage and research purposes”. She is also involved in blogging within the music community in Wellington – niceup.blogspot.com.