Why don't people write?

Fear.

Fear of failure.

Fear of criticism.

Fear of reprisal.

Fear of looking stupid.

Fear of removing all doubt.

Fear of permanence.

Fear of strangers.

Fear of invaded privacy.

Fear of falling behind.

Fear of the blank page.

Motive. 

I'm thinking a lot about folks who haven't written a paragraph since high school. Folks who never got more than a C in English. Paralyzed by a blank sheet of paper. By permanence.

Ask the blogger population their average and highest grades in English. Then ask the general working population.

Ask bloggers how many books they read last year. Compare to the rest of the public.

Ask bloggers how many words in the longest text they wrote in school, at work, or for fun. Then ask the general public.

You get my point.

The previous thread: Tekrite to Alison Fish of Blogfish to Sébastien Paquet to Al Macintyre: 

Pete Harbeson shared some lessons from deploying an enterprise klogging tool. One of them:

Most people don't like to write. We've had a difficult time designing interfaces that encourage adding information instead of just reading.

Ron Lusk said:

Some folks may not like to write because:

• It is a public display of facility they may not feel they have, and may not have; one correspondent was afraid his spelling was bad.
• It makes folly as clear as wisdom, but is more persistent than a comment made in the hall
• It takes time and thought (and a little hubris—per Larry Wall) to put words out for others, and to make them—and think them—good enough for public consumption.
• I'm sure more ideas will come to me, later...enough folly for now.

Seb's Open Research:

Lessons learned from a large scale K-logging implementation.

• Most people don't like to write. We've had a difficult time designing interfaces that encourage adding information instead of just reading.
  
• There's no substitute for good, accessible writing. We have several people who write consistently for the system. The logs show that postings from one writer get far more attention and prompt far more linking than those from the other writers.

Alison Fish of Blogfish:

I suspect that beginning bloggers and kloggers are often inhibited..

If we set up a k-logging community for our company intranet, I suspect there will be an initial _hump_ of hesitation among the employees. Maybe having a few designated posters at the beginning would ease the transition. Must think on this.

Al Macintyre's prescription:

• Recruit co-workers who you think share your enthusiasm for the idea of having a KLOG on the company intranet, and would be good power users to serve as a kind of help desk and cheerleader squad when you launch it. [see: Klogging Roles and the klogspace editor]
• With them, setup a system patterned on dws.Radio.FAQ model to discuss what needs resolution before implementing this, and inviting in the mass of users, so as to maximize odds of getting great value out of his project.
  • Do so outside company intranet until you nailed down everything needed for implementation.
  • That includes both technical know how and management approval.
  • When management says Yes, they often expect results soon.
  • So you use this outside discussion area to identify pre-requisites and get them resolved.
• Assuming you are the moderator
  • Your team use a Category name like Radio Plot Twists which performs role like Radio Questions input to dws
  • Your aggregation, like dws.Radio.FAQ, have name like The Plot Thickens
  • Ask your co-workers if y"all want to invite into your discussion any non-employees from outside the firm
    • Think Radio enthusiasts who have written relevant documentation
    • Think other firms personnel trying to organize an company KLOG in which those people are not in competition with your company
• Just as dws has Topic headings like
  • Radio Wishes
  • Radio Tips
  • Radio Questions
  • Radio Alerts
• Your multi-author discussion would have its relevant Topic headings like
  • Documentation and Tutorial Flow Chart of Learning Curve
    • Topics that co-workers need to learn to be proficient in this.
    • Will you want to host a seminar class to help people get up to speed
    • Will you want to mirror some Radio documentation on your intranet
  • Examples of KLOGS worth emulating
    • Initially you just want anything that illustrates the concept
    • Then you want some that are close to what you want for your company
  • Implementation Challenges to Solve
    • What OS does Radio Frontier etc. work on
    • What OS are most heavily in use at your company
    • People working from home PC and from work PC updating from either location
  • Management Personnel Topics
    • Distinct from documentation for users and Implementation issues
    • This will eat some disk space and other resources
    • There will be executives slow to accept some communication methods
      • Everyone still needs to communicate with them by their preferred methods
      • Paper, Fax, e-mail, whatever

[aka klogs]

From Al Macintyre:

Resize the edit box.

• Pull on sides of Home Page Editing Box to make the size more harmonious, like I can do with many Windows Application boxes within boxes.

Help me manage my work in progress.

• When I have Posted something but not yet Published it, some icon flag color indication on my desk top editing area that tells me THAT post has not yet been published, or that it has been edited and posted, without the final version published yet.  Also put some counter near top of home editing area to remind me how many posts are in that condition.

Help me Navigate through my Categories.

• Top Command Menu include Categories.  Or perhaps make this a menu selection in the Cloud Links Status area down right side.
  • When I click on it, would take me to something structured like Stories.  A chart of all my Categories, like the Categories Page.
• Calendar addition of a phrase to tell us which Category we navigating through.
  • Use Calendar to navigate through posts to a particular Category post on a particular day, or that of the Home Page.
  • When I learn how to have Navigator Links to my Categories, on right side below the Calendar, I would like an interconnection between Calendar and Categories.
    • For example, suppose I am looking at Calendar for posts made to Home or a Category for Aug 20th.  I might want some icon to appear beside some other Categories to show that THEY also had some posts on THAT DAY.
    • Or, suppose I am looking at Calendar for the month.  I might like some indication associated with individual days to show that there were posts those days for categories other than the home.
    • Perhaps an expanded chart available that shows week horizontally and categories vertically and in the spread sheet intersections are links showing that for that day and that category there was one or more posts.  Click on the link to get to them. [A cool visualization of where the author's attention flows over time.]

A great collection of links to Radio documentation, tips, tools, experts. I keep finding new, juicy things and ripe, proven resources. High editorial value. Thanks, Al.

I'd like to see accomodations for audioblogging. A few requests:

On collecting audio attachments.

1. Tune my maximum receiving size. Let me set the maximum file size for downloading by channel or time of day. I'm on a
2. Harvest during quiet times. Let me prioritize audio attachments lower than other Radio harvesting behavior, so upstreaming and other downloads come first. 
3. Support download resumption.
4. Support alternate formats. mp3, au, ra, wav, QuickTime, etc.
5. Support playlists by downloading the list then downloading the mentioned files.

On presenting and playing attachments.

1. Show file sizes and play times.
2. If a syndicated attachment is over my set limit, let me override and queue it for download.
3. Let me play a post's playlist.
4. Create a queue of audio posts, so I can listen to all my audio posts at the same time. Perhaps by generating a playlist file and launching it.
5. Create a flag that shows if I've listened to an audio post. I can then delete or save flagged posts.
6. Let me specify a maximum folder size for all the syndicated audio enclosures.

On composing audio posts.

1. When I post, check if the file size or file types are not permitted by Radio. If so, tell me before I post. Without this verification, the post's text may point to a missing attachment.
2. Convert sound attachments to file formats and resolution consistent with my preferences and other restrictions (like maximum file size).
3. If the file format permits, copy post metadata (title, date, url, author, description) into the sound file itself.

Now where's that microphone...

Do you have any fear, anger, frustration, helplessness, sorrow, hate, confusion, or anguish left over from September 11, 2001? You have a few days to tap into it, maybe get it out of your system.

There are a few bonuses if you're Jewish. The 11th is bracketed by the High Holy Days this year.

You can start your review of the past year with Rosh Hashana. We start the new Hebrew year (5763) blowing the shofar, a ram's horn. Shevarim, three medium wailing blasts, is a sobbing cry for our human potential foregone this past year. We reconstruct our year, looking at what we did right, what we could have done differently. Judging ourselves. Teruah, nine short quick blasts of the shofar, is a staccato wake up call from introspection, a call to arms, a call for resolution and commitment to change in the coming year.

My father made a great sounding shofar for me, a challenging craft project. I look forward to its piercing blare.

In prayer, we ask for a good and sweet year. Good, because everything that happens is for the good even if we don't see or understand it that way. The loss of those who died in this war is a horror but Judaism teaches there is a deeper, if unrevealed, purpose. This takes faith. We also ask for a sweet year, for the events to unfold in a way that seems right and good to us. This takes less faith. We dip bread and apples in honey to symbolize both.

It's traditional to visit cemeteries, remembering the dead, around this time. If you want to visit someplace connected with current troubles, there are plenty of places to go around, from Munich to Manhattan, Pennsylvania to D.C., Jerusalem to Jericho.

Rosh Hashana starts this Friday night, September 6. September 11 comes the following Wednesday. And Yom Kippur comes the following Tuesday.

Before Yom Kippur, we seek reconciliation with people we may have wronged last year. The ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are a time for repentance, prayer, and charity. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the holiest day of the year, is a fast day. This day of introspection was chosen to launch the 1973 war on Israel. We learned. The holidays have become a time of heightened readiness in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world. It is a necessary distraction.     

A few thoughts...

I got a lapel once that said, Am Echad, we are one. Responsibility is not only personal but collective. The Jewish prayer of confession emphasizes that we are only as good as our community and the world. Our individual failures of the past year are only a part of our burden. This is less about guilt and shame than responsibliity and accountability. This always feels to me like a fundamental call for the common good, an axiom of civilized behavior. The events of 9-11 prove this is not universally held. But it is ours, a higher value, and we must hold fast to it.

I was driving down Berkeley's Telegraph past the street vendors. One had "Wanted: Dead or Alive: Osama bin Laden" posters for sale. That's a lot of anger and hate to hold onto. Now's a great time to set these reactions aside and focus on building a safer, better world.  

[aka life]