Mike Stopforth

I’ve just been interviewed via email for a major local magazine publication. These were the questions, and my answers. Thought you may enjoy them.

What is a blog?

Blogs (short for web logs) are websites that are published by ordinary people - people like you and I who DON’T have Computer Science degrees or vast HTML knowledge. Blogs are democratizing the Web as a publishing platform. For the first time anybody can build a dynamic website with a customized look and feel (like this one) and add content to it (like I do). Blogs are powerful because that content can spread across the globe – blog content is not limited by geographic or demographic boundaries. Blogs are a dialogue, typically inviting readers to interact with the content, creating a conversation between the author and the content. This is one of the characteristics, along with an informal, personal tone, that differentiates blogs from traditional media. Blogs have no rules and no limitations – you can blog about what you like, when you like and how you like. Blogs typically take the form of a series of articles or entries (as in a journal), posted in reverse chronological order, so the newest stuff on the site always appears at the top of the list. At present, Technorati (www.technorati.com), a foremost blog search engine, is tracking 39 million blogs. The blogosphere (what the world of bloggers calls the world of blogging) doubles every 5.5 months.

How did it start?

When the Internet first came into being the dream of the earliest users was that it would become an accessible, user-friendly network in which users could read, write, share and discuss information pertaining to them. This was known as a “read/write” Web. However, once marketers and corporates realised the benefits of the Internet’s massive reach and it evolved into a collection of static, monologue-style, brochure-type web pages. It became a playground for coding experts, geeks and hackers. The common man or woman took the role of consumer again. Same role, different medium. The learning curve to publish content to the Web was simply too steep for Joe Public. However, in an attempt to return the Web to a read/write platform as originally intended, developers have been producing a range of tools categorised as ‘social software’ – tools whose function is primarily turning Joe Public into Joe Publisher. These tools (e.g. blogs, wikis and podcasts) enable the public, or citizens, to share meaningful content with, well, whoever wants to read or listen or look at it. A powerful voice in a global domain – who could ask for anything more? And thus the phenomenal excitement and buzz around blogs.

How do I blog?

The beauty of blogging is that it’s so easy to start. You have a choice too. Go to www.blogger.com to experiment with Google’s blogging offering. Sign up for free and get writing. It really is that simple. Or, if you’d like to try something else a little more powerful, and still free, visit www.wordpress.com. Sign up and get scribbling. Lastly, a highly recommended (but paid option) can be found at www.typepad.com.

The key to blogging is starting. There’s no real definitive guide to blogging from scratch. There are great sites – www.problogger.net as an example – that will provide useful information, tips and advice for getting the most out of your blogging experience, but the key is getting started. Doing something. Remember, blogging (unlike traditional or mainstream media) does not require perfection. Or faultless grammar. Or profound writing talent. All it requires is your personality to shine through, and people will read it. For the same reason people sit at coffee shops in malls and watch other people walk past, people will read web sites with a human voice. Blogs are just that.

Who blogs?

12 year old teenagers blog about their day at school. CEO’s blog about challenges at the office. Housewives blog about their daily musings. IT guys blog about technology. Everyone blogs. With millions and millions of blogs in existence, there really are blogs for just about every subject. There are sports blogs, medical blogs, political blogs, technical blogs, business blogs, celebrity blogs, personal blogs… Anyone with something to say and share can do so in a blog. Whether they want only their family to read it or the entire online universe to interact with it, is up to them. But blogs provide the perfect platform for citizens to publish their hearts out.

Why is it the next biggest thing?

Blogging is not the next big thing. Blogging will come and go like all technological fads. What is the next big thing, though, is the increasing emergence of empowered citizens, thanks to the global reach and accessibility of the Internet and the usability of social software. Individuals and companies would do well to examine closely not the technologies that are making headlines, but rather the societal trends and shifts underlying, or affected by, the technological fad/s.

You mentioned that blogging is changing the way people do business. Why is it important for blue chip companies to get on the blog band wagon?

There are two answers. On one hand, companies need to acknowledge that the conversation created online through all these social media platforms could have an impact on their brands. When people talk, other people listen. It used to happen around a braai on a Saturday afternoon – some bloke complaining about his insurance company’s dodgy service to a few of his mates. That was it. Let’s be frank - that wasn’t worth paying much attention to. Or some lady complaining around the office water cooler that her boss is a megalomaniac. Not much to worry about there, either. However, when the braai and the water cooler are digitized – when that same guy and same lady complain about the same issues in the public domain and thousands, even millions of people can not only hear the message, but converse with the author and pass it on – that HAS to mean something to companies. Because companies care about people – their customers. Apparently. Companies can show they really care by monitoring and tracking these online human conversations and learning how to engage their customers authentically through these media.

The less scary application for blogs in corporates is an internal one. Blogs can be used as internal collaborative workspaces, research and development tools, knowledge management tools, team development spaces, community sites, and more. Blogs facilitate community interaction and growth.

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