I was invited to discuss Academic Blogging recently at Queen Mary’s College London.

I focussed the main part of the presentation on the difference in approach to blogging between business and academia. It is clear that whilst business has been reacting to it as a disruptive technology, there are many researchers who are embracing the technology as a useful tool. For example, blogs already exist about what libraries are doing with blogs. Furthermore, a mass of resources are available for academic bloggers, most notably Crooked Timber which is an academic group blog with a mass of interesting links to blog sites and truly insightful discussions which outsiders to research would otherwise be unaware of.

The University of Minnesota Libraries have already announced UThink, an initiative to make it easy for faculty, staff and students to use blogs, either for educational or personal purposes. Such ideas would translate well in the business world, especially for large project teams where it is very easy for individuals to become so focused on the details they forget the bigger picture.

My presentation steered towards the subject of using of blogging as an educational tool. Several educational facilities are beginning to use blogs in the classroom, such as the University of Bergen in Norway or Georgia Tech
in America where group blogging is becoming an indispensable tool, opening up discussions and new lines of questions previously muted. Again, if such practices could be nurtured in business, I believe greater in-house expertise could be cultivated, perhaps even when considering the traditional approaches to internal communications of company rules, facilities or guidelines.

I believe businesses should consider themselves lucky that academia is so transparent with its research too. For example, I am sure many businesses could gain useful free knowledge from institutions such as the University of Maryland, where they have published a paper on implementing campus-wide blogging software.

Just like the commercial world, academic institutions and their staff/students must also beware of blogging. Stories are already out there regarding students and staff using inappropriate language or references or being too ‘free’ with their opinions. For example, Elaine Liner aka The Phantom Professor became an outspoken critic of the her academy telling tales of campus life which hit a little too close to home for her colleagues. As such her contract was ‘not re-newed’. Such stories are likely to become ever more familiar in both business and academia.

Overall, as the blogging phenomenon is still in its early stages, I believe that business and academia can learn a lot from each other, whether this be through the openness and educational tools provided by free-thinkers in academic circles through to the placement of clear guidelines for staff required by business. Whether they do or not is a different matter. I will watch this space with great interest…

Note: Originally posted at SmartApps