Blogs increase the surface area of organizations

I'm often criticized for using biological metaphors for organizations, but I think they're very effective sometimes.

Seb's Open Research

Blogs increase the surface area of organizations

Jon Udell has got a keen eye for biological metaphors for information systems, and here comes up with a nice one for how weblogs change the shape of organizations:

Think of an organization as a single-celled animal. Blogs increase the surface area of the cell, help nutrients flow across its membrane, and promote multicellular cooperation.

I'm on the road with low bandwidth and was spending too much time commenting on my blog to think of something original to blog today. Instead I have quoted one interesting person quoting another interesting person. Sorry if you already saw this today, but it was the most interesting thing I could find through my quick zip through my RSS feeds today.

[via Joi Ito's Web]

And I'll just daisy-chain this post on through - like Joi, I've been consumed with non-publishable stuff (in this case, working on

the conversion from Radio to Movable Type). This is a great metaphor for how blogs can improve knowledge sharing in an organization.

[tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog]

(SOURCE:weblogg-ed news: Using Weblogs in Education)-Yet another excellent intro. This one from the very cool Stephen Downes.
<quote>
Through the interlocked network of weblogs, information can spread like wildfire. Very few blogs have a large audience - the largest, Instapundit, attracts only some tens of thousands of readers. But the network of weblogs forms a set of interlocking communities, so that on the whole, a new idea or a link to a new article can move very quickly. What's even more significant is that these ideas and links will only propogate to those parts of the network where the information is of the most interest. The weblog community is therefore a highly efficient filtering community, a capacity that has been recognized by the establishment of such services as Metafilter, Blogdex and Daypop, and which prompted Google to purchase Blogger a few months ago. (http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/ dangillmor/archives/000802.shtml#000802)
</quote> [Roland Tanglao: KLogs]

This is why everybody should have a blog. On your blog, you make your own rules and nobody can flame you (because you can turn off or ignore comments). Mailing lists still have their place but I think blogs are more generally useful because of the flamers.
<quote>
Interesting idea, though I am not sure that codifing the rules would help. Many email lists have similar rules. This set is a little less fuzzy, which may be useful for an end user. The problem with this approach is that it really only works if you have one person making the decisions. A committee can't separate wheat from chaff. Even with one person deciding, the rules must be very specific. But as soon as the rules are specific, people will push the boundaries. If you try to control the boundaries, you get slammed on Free Speech (even though the list is private and controled) Any form of moderation on an email list is a nightmare. You can only hope to control attacks by pointing out that if the attacker continues then the list will be destroyed. It is like convincing a parasite that what they are doing is wrong. Moderating unmoderated email lists is a special kind of hell.
</quote> [Roland Tanglao: KLogs]

Cool name for a new kind of journalism!
<quote>
The Internet is unprecedented in its role as a networking engine, a gathering place where those with highly particular tastes can find one another and develop communities devoted to their interests. Imagine a bank of experienced reporters who tapped into these online aggregations of users. A cabal of freelance journalists could make a killing if they went looking online for readers to pony up and pay for content only their own specialized reporter could provide. Writers could map out their own topics for coverage based upon their interest, expertise, and experience. Once they'd hit upon their subject of choice, they could solicit suggestions from readers who had flocked to support them out of interest in their subject area. The first-hand accounts of a reporter who'd signed on to go where the funding readers sent him could crack wide open the stories that might not otherwise see the light of day. Via technology like wireless messaging and picture-snapping cell phones, a reading public could contribute questions and story suggestions to the journalist at the start of each workday, even as the reporter transmitted images and text during the course of his day. Sound far-fetched? Tell that to the 316 donors who contributed a total of $13,834 to freelance reporter Christopher Allbritton. His weblog, Back-to-Iraq 2.0 was the vehicle for a recent monthlong trip to Iraq (Allbritton's second), during which he tapped into his own network of sources in the region to report from various points within Turkey and Iraq about the military conflict and its effects upon the citizens of the region. Readers swarmed to the site (more than 462,00 unique visitors logged on since January 16, 2003), and contributed a mélange of opinions in addition to their funds, transmitted to Allbritton via PayPal (also Ebay's most popular and trusted method of payment).
</quote> [Roland Tanglao: KLogs]

(SOURCE:bloggers unlimited email list)-This looks great! Congrats Marc, Paolo, Matt et al. Can't wait to try out the real thing. WebOutliner appears to be a Radio tool in its first incarnation which allows you to do all the things you can do in Radio with ActiveRender using your web browser. [Roland Tanglao: KLogs]

(SOURCE:Scripting News)-Excellent. Decentralized backup. Weblog providers should backup your blog, but I know I would feel safer if I can also have a backup of my very own. Will backup "VanEats" using this method tonight. [Roland Tanglao: KLogs]

(SOURCE:Scripting News)-Yet another reason why weblogs are different. You can do whatever you want on your blog but you are accountable ultimately (unlike email lists) because your blog space belongs to you.
<quote>
This second form contrasts markedly with traditional web-based bulletin boards. First and foremost, it is entirely distributed. There is no centralized database-backed web server to maintain, because each post resides on the weblog author's system. Second, there is no requirement that participating systems run on the same software. An author can participate in the discussion as long as their software supports a standard data format. This means that they are free to choose their software that best fits their usability preferences, licensing preferences, operating system and budget. Third, there is a built-in authentication mechanism. A weblog author's posts appear at a specific url, which can be tracked through the Domain Name System to the maintainer of the machine and ultimately to the author.
</quote> [Roland Tanglao: KLogs]

Yet another RSS reader but this is something to track because some cool people who I trust love TopStyle and HomeSite.
<quote>
FeedDemon is a Windows desktop RSS reader/organizer, which is a bit of a departure from my previous efforts (TopStyle and HomeSite). The screenshots at the right are of FeedDemon in its infancy. The UI may change between now and the first beta release, but the general concepts are in place.
</quote> [Roland Tanglao: KLogs]

(SOURCE:"rayo")-So what about Groove makes this project better? The only differentiator that I can see is Groove's built in high quality security. Does this team really need that level of security? Other than the military and the government, who really needs the security of Groove? And also why couldn't this team have used internal blogs? Someday I am going to really have to try Groove and figure this out.
<quote>
An interesting cross-border use of Groove I just found out about: The International Crane Foundation - headquartered in Wisconsin - uses Groove to help a multi-national team address threats to key wetlands used by Siberian Cranes during breeding, wintering and migration. During the past three years, the ICF has worked intensively with the United Nations Environment Program and colleagues in Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Iran on this project, which addresses threats to key wetlands used by this crane species (the third rarest) during breeding and migration through these parts of the world.
</quote> [Roland Tanglao: KLogs]

Groove is more than a blog.  Groove allows a team to collaborate at a finer level - sharing files, sharing a calendar, sharing notes, participating in a discussion forum or a chat, editing a document, sharing websites, managing project tasks - in a secure and project-specific setting.  Only the team members share the Groove Workspace.  With the GrooveInterOp Radio Tool, you can have both - the secure team environment of Groove and a weblog.