Business Information Systems

A blog is a journal entry by an individual or by a group. This course is supported by a blog. In the references you will find plenty of examples and help. You will also receive tutoring in class. You will have to create your own WordPress blog, write one blog entry per week, and leave one comment on someone else’s blog per week. This sounds more dangerous than it is: a blog entry could be

• a web resource that you found and liked. You can post the link and leave a short comment or recommendation.
• a (very) short update on your studies, your interests or your social life.
• a longer piece e.g. containing thoughts on a presentation or a paper you are writing at the moment.
• a question to others who read your blog, in order to kick off a discussion (via blog comments)

When you look at good blogs on the web, you will notice that a blog has a theme (not as in design, but as in subject) that indicates the area of interest or expertise of its author(s). Blogs can deal with any subject, e.g.: (auto)biography, politics, economics, marketing, public relations, self help, creativity, music, art, performance, plants, pets and animals etc.

Tutorials

My evil helper has written a Short WordPress Manual to get you started. A less short introduction for WordPress is here and will be distributed in class.

Bruce Spear has written an introduction paying special attention to corporate blogs (Why blog and how?) and a detailed and useful account on “deep blogging” including strategies and tips to follow when you set out on this journey.

All our blogs can be seen at netvibes, including a lot of blogs by your colleagues from previous semesters. Blogs are widely considered relevant for business.

To evaluate your blogging efforts, we will use a rubric.

Why blog at all?

Comments by a student, Sophie Bonczyk, who authored her own, very successful blog:

Like many other web-users, I was skeptical of blogs at the beginning. I thought blogs were only used by people writing online diaries so they would be visible in public and accessible to everyone. Indeed, many bloggers make use of the medium to present themselves.

Over time, however, I realized that you can use blogs for professional purposes, too. I am using my Blog on market research to learn about new trends and developments and making valuable professional contacts. I’ve learned that blogging is a very effective medium for professional preparation.

Blogging has changed my personal working habits.  I have learned to present myself better, to offer opinions, and to invite commentary. Researching my field on the web and reporting on it, I’ve learned how to separate relevant from irrelevant information and to develop more sophisticated ideas of my topics. Being able to see what others are writing about and being able to compare them has led me to clarify my topic.  Summing up, I can say that blogging has helped me to understand the market research better and learn lots of new professional vocabulary.

I am writing about topics I am finding in specialized journals and scientific publications. I am analyzing and commenting on what I find so I might offer valuable perspectives for professionals this field. I am especially pleased that the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) has again taken notice of one of my Blog entries and listed me on their News page. Here is the link. This was highly motivating and has led me to write more about the topic (Competitive Intelligence).

To conclude, I can say that blogs are a powerful medium for professional purposes.  They help students to gain experience in the earliest stages of their chosen fields of study  To maintain a blog, of course, takes time, training and planning. But it can be done, as I have learned, in about 40 hours of class and study time.