I think this phrase is going to be sticking with me for a while. I'm currently helping a client, Leaders Connect, try to launch into the world of blogging. It was all based on some rosy predictions about how we could do things along the lines of the BIT320 Blogosphere, a blogging community composed of participants in a class I taught in fall, 2004. Boy, did that turn out not to be the case.
The main lesson is this. A blogging community like the BIT320 Blogosphere requires quite a bit of behavior modification and habituation to technology. The behavior modification comes in getting people into the habit of blogging (posting online) about topics of interest to themselves and the group. Habituation to technology comes in getting the cost of accessing the technology to a level where it is not noticeable. Both of these require face time for novices. Without adequate face time, these hurdles are just to big for anyone but experts.
So, I think Rob Pasick, the head of Leaders Connect, and I are going to cut back to basics on this. An earlier stage of creating a blogging community is to get one person blogging effectively and then getting others to look at it and respond. That gives them some guidance and structure. It also allows us a way to determine what their issues are so that we can adequately plan before attempting to launch them into a whole new set of behaviors.
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