The Cynosural Blog

Link: http://www.cio.com/archive/051504/work.html" target='_blank'

Michael Schrage writes the MAKING IT WORK column for CIO magazine. Back in May he wrote the article "The Virtues of Chitchat" concerning the use of web logs for project management. This article, and then the comments to it, raised a question with me. What really differentiates a web log from other collaborative software?

Follow up:

There are many forms of collaboration software used in project management, ranging from electronic bulletin boards to web based project collaboration sites such as ServiceCycle, MS Project Server and Sharepoint, and eRoom.

I started this Blog article several months ago but held off on publishing my own comments while I read the comments other readers wrote. I've been adding to this article, bit by bit, and it may get quite lengthy. Other readers of Mr. Schrage seem confused by his assertion that a blog is special in the context of project management.

So what really constitutes a "blog" and what makes a site part of the "blogosphere"? We have the wiki(blog,wikipedia definition of blog) [as well as the one for wiki(blogosphere)]. And it is truly an encylopedic entry. But the key, I think, lies in the following: "Because links are so important to weblogs, most blogs have a way of archiving older entries and generating a static address for individual entries; this static link is referred to as a permalink. The latest headlines, with hyperlinks and summaries, are offered in weblogs in the RSS XML-format, to be read with a RSS feedreader." and "Two features which are common to blogging are 'blogrolls' and 'commenting' or 'feedback.'" It seems to me that a large part of the feedback system is through Trackbacks and Pingbacks. [You can find links to explanations of these in my article on blogs as viral marketing.]

So that is the main differentiator, I think. The interlinking of blogs and blog articles into the blogosphere with various types and methods of linking: linkblogs and blogrolls, archiving and permalinks, syndication links through RSSv1, RSSv2 and/or wiki(Atom_%28standard%29,Atom), and feedback through Trackback and Pingback or at least the permalink.

Having said that, I have to wonder how many blogs don't use at least two of these methods. And why more don't use all of them? But that will be a different article, or maybe a survey.

Many of the comments to "The Virtues of Chit Chat" discuss the use of wikis vs. blogs. Gideon Sheps points out the same thought that struck me - folk have been using electronic collaboration systems for years, from the old wiki(Bulletin_board_system,BBS) to today's wikis, blogs, portals, etc. Mark Zorro, in his comment, points out that a project web log must be specific to the "delivery goals, execution and accountability" for that project.

So, if a blog is essentially a discussion forum with reverse chronological ordering rather than threaded by subject, and the main difference between them is blogware's use of links and advanced linking technology, does that make a blog better for project management and collaborating on project documentation then a discussion board? Or, in other words, does it make sense to create a small blogosphere for one project?

Even the uses that Mr. Schrage gives in his article aren't all oriented towards managing a single project. His examples include:

• business and IT user feedback
• training/orientation for new employees
• project newsletter
• coding and testing tips
• input to online documentation, FAQs and customer support
• lessons learned to "discover their own simple truths about how well (or how poorly) their projects are going"

Mr. Schrage concludes that plogs can and should be different from blogs.

All right, let's look at that name given to project web logs - plogs. Er... I'm not a fan of this name in this context. Googling "plog" we find over 268,000 references to plogs - I'm not reading them all - including an open source project by that name, pLog, and a product to support blogging directly from the PalmOS. And Seth Godin has an article in his blog about plogs, stemming from Amazon.com using the term for personal web logs - hmmm? But, to be fair, Mr. Schrage's article is number 2 on the Google list. And Inc.com defines the plog buzzword referring both to group projects and Amazon.com's trademark. Oops. [But I can't find the word on amazon.com. I've searched, I've checked associates and web services pages, and clicked on links from blogs to it - all dead links, even those that are from the summer of 2004. Any help here would be appreciated.] Let's see, Sanyi's web blog refers to itself as a plog and defines plogs as picture blogs - as do some others. And then there is PLog - a PDA based filed collection tool. And more products and more definitions. 'Tis just so hard to create a unique brand now-a-days.

Another issue that came up in many of the comments to "The Virtues of Chitchat" concerned using a wiki for projects. To me a wiki(Wiki,wiki) is the perfect vehicle for collaborative document creation. If properly managed, the wiki for the strategy document or design document easily becomes the final, formal submittal of these project deliverables. While a blog, like a discussion forum, can provide a place for people to discuss the process of creating the strategy or design or whatever to be documented, and even a place to comment on the content of the draft document, it is a real pain to transform such posts into the final document.

To conclude, I would say that creating a blogosphere for an individual project isn't of much use, and not as useful as project collaboration portals, like the one we use, ServiceCycle, that creates separate workspaces focused on individual project goals and resources. However, organizational blogs, or individual blogs sponsored by an organization are incredibly useful when they extend across projects to encompass the entire portfolio of capital projects, or across functional lines to encompass the interaction among business processes, or reach out to internal/external customers or constituents. So, Yes to knowledge blogs (klogs), No to stand-alone project blogs (plogs). And a big YES to blogging for business.