Blog Post Updates - Effective Pattern?

As part of the Tools Set 2009 series, my first post was Browser Keyboard Shortcut Basics. I was a little surprised that this didn't come up as one of the more popular items recently when I did my Top 20 Posts for Q1 2009.

Now I've got a couple of additional things to add to this information, and it raises a question that I often face:

What do you do when you have an update to a prior post?

I feel like each of my options have drawbacks:

1. Update the original post and create a new post with a link back

Originally, I was going to do this. Just go back and update the original post with the additional information and create a post to say to go look at that for the information.

The advantage of this is that the original post becomes an increasingly rich source of content on the topic. If you want information on that there's only one place to go.

The disadvantage is that people who subscribe to my blog will not see the information in their RSS feed or in the daily email. They have to click. And my belief is that they will not click unless the information is really valuable. Thus, it somewhat gets lost.

The other disadvantage that is completely self-serving is that each post I create has a chance to serve as bait for organic search traffic in the future. I'm pretty sure, but not 100% sure, that long term traffic would be higher by having two posts with different titles than a single post with more links to it – but it only has one title. There are a lot of variables, but since the title and URL are so important for Long Tail Search Engine Optimization, I think having more titles is generally better.

2. Update the original post and create a new post with the additional content and a link back

This is a variation of the above. I would do the same thing, but would also include the new information in the new post as well as in the original post.

The advantage of this approach is that subscribers will get the new content in their feed or email.

The disadvantage is that if I later need to update the topic, then I probably should update both posts – the original and the update post. Otherwise, update posts will be wrong.

Likely, the update post will not be as good for SEO since links will probably go back to the original. However, this is probably in the middle.

3. Put the new information in the update post and add a link to the original post

In this case, I only put the new information in the update post and I edit the original post with a link to the new post.

The advantages here are that subscribers get the new content in their feed or email and that I only have one copy of the new information running around.

The disadvantage is that content on a topic will be scattered around on my blog. If you want to find browser keyboard tricks, you likely will have to visit several posts. My gut tells me that this is not nearly as satisfying for search visitors. It also means that there's additional work to keep track of all the different posts on a topic.

What do you think? Is there another Effective Pattern? Which option would you say is best for me (not too much work) and my subscribers and my search visitors?

Good Posts from Last Week

While there is a little bit of controversy about posting these lists, I'm continuing to use the capability of using social signals to make sure I'm finding good stuff. So here's what came up via eLearning Learning from last week. But I'm keeping it to a bare minimum. And I must say that these are pretty good - it would be a shame if you missed them.

Top Posts

The following are the top posts from featured sources based on social signals.

1. Twitter Job Aid - work in progress- Adventures in Corporate Education, April 12, 2009
2. Reduce Searching Start Talking- eLearning Technology, April 14, 2009
3. Solve problems with screencasting- eLearning Acupuncture, April 14, 2009
4. Augmented Reality in Learning- Upside Learning Blog, April 15, 2009

Top Other Items

The following are the top other items based on social signals.

1. Determining the ROI of Enterprise 2.0 | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com, April 15, 2009
2. The Web: Design for Active Learning, April 17, 2009
3. The (changed) information cycle, April 17, 2009
4. 3 Things to Consider When Building Your E-Learning Courses, April 14, 2009
5. Effective knowledge sharing, April 15, 2009
6. conversation matters: What Do We Get From Conversation That We Can't Get Any Other Way?, April 14, 2009

Top Keywords

• 2009 (108)
• Screencast (5)
• Audacity (4)
• Learning Management System (6)

Conversation on Conversations

Through blog comments and blog posts, an interesting conversation is emerging around – Conversations as Part of Concept Work.   It somewhat started with my post Reduce Searching Start Talking where I suggest that there are points in our concept work where we need to be ready to move from search to conversation.  In the comments there …

Maria H tells us - I think there is time and purpose for all types of information transfer (for lack of a better phrase) and helping people learn when to use the right one is our challenge.

Ken Allan really somewhat crystallizes it as a question of "Knowing WHEN to switch?"  Or more broadly, when is each kind of method appropriate given a specific concept work need.

In Conversation Questions, I pushed this a bit further based on Nancy Dixon - What Do We Get From Conversation That We Can't Get Any Other Way? – looking at the areas of value, but also left it with the challenging question of not only knowing when to switch, but also knowing who to ask and how to ask the right questions.

In Love the Conversation – Ken Allan discusses the complexity of helping concept workers with the skills around this:

The question here is where to start. It is likely too complex for a practical guiding taxonomy to be drawn up and be of any use. Drafting a program to teach adults to use the right means of knowledge transfer is probably at least as difficult as teaching children to be discerning about information accessible on the Internet. There are no hard and fast rules for this. Yet there is no doubt that discernment forms a large part of selecting efficient and effective means for knowledge transfer.

While this is complex, it's very important.  There are very specific limits to using codified knowledge and that Conversation Learning is essential.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure that we really are doing much to address this important Knowledge Worker Skill Gap. 

What's nice is that Ken has helped me to get to these core questions:

• When
• Who
• How

Part of the Who and How question, we've discussed before in the Big Question – Network Feedback – where we discussed different places to reach out for help from your networks.  There was certainly no clear answer and some suggestion that we should be aggressive about reaching out to many of your networks.  I've also discussed it in I've talked about it in Leveraging Networks Skill and Networks and Communities.

Codified Conversations

Separately, Harold Jarche provided some interesting thoughts around issues of codified knowledge, individuals and conversations.  He reminded me of Dave Pollard experience with knowledge management (and it's a conversation I've had directly with Dave):

So my conclusion this time around was that the centralized stuff we spent so much time and money maintaining was simply not very useful to most practitioners. The practitioners I talked to about PPI [Personal Productivity Improvement] said they would love to participate in PPI coaching, provided it was focused on the content on their own desktops and hard drives, and not the stuff in the central repositories.

Dave basically went through a transition from looking at KM as big central codified knowledge bases to going out to individuals and work teams in the organization to figure out how they could be helped on a tactical level. 

Dave provides a very interesting picture of information flows in 2025.

While his focus still seems to be more on codified knowledge, look at what his first item is: conversations.  There is, of course, a really interesting question of how that conversation is captured.  Dave certainly looks at that in his post – the scattered electronic conversation that occurs today.

Social Experience

Interesting image from post by Dave White – Eventedness that relates to our social experience with different tools.

It looks at how each technology relates to feeling of being present with others and whether that presence is felt beyond a specific limit of an event.

Co-presence comes from being embodied as avatars this definition includes what is experienced when an individual is certain that their contribution (usually in text form) will be read and responded to by others. For example it is possible to get a strong sense of the presence of others when microblogging because the exchanges are often frequent, they often reference each other and the response time can be a matter of seconds. Messages are linked to the particular point in time and their value erodes over time. There is a relationship between the speed in which the value of nodes of communication erode within a technology and the potential for Co-presence. In addition the individuals’ level of trust that their contribution will be understood and responded to within a particular technology has a large bearing on both Co-presence and Eventedness. It is of note that there is very little latent social presence in MUVEs. When you log-off your presence all but evaporates leaving almost no trace of your identity or that fact that you were in the MUVE.

He also points out something quite interesting that I had not really considered the same way is that part of the value of social networking sites and microblogging is that you feel connected to the person even though they are not real-time online at that point. In other words, the social experience extends beyond the specific event.

I'm not 100% sure I fully grasp the implications and meanings of the terms he uses and their importance to the social experience. But, I think the part that really is interesting here is better captured in his post - That Was an Interesting Experience -

“Teaching and learning in virtual worlds is an experience.”

Taking part of a teaching session in a Multiuser Virtual Environment (MUVE) is more than simply using a tool or achieving a task, it feels like an event, a particular moment in time when you have the chance to interact with others at a level of intensity which is rarely felt in other online spaces.

There is definitely something different about "getting together" with other people and the social experience using these different tools. How much you feel connected to them varies greatly.

Pictures and Connection

I need to do a full post on this, but I receive quite a few LinkedIn Connection requests - My LinkedIn Open Connection Approach – and it's surprising how often I will get them from people who briefly met me somewhere and they don't have a picture on their profile. That's really a bad move from a social experience standpoint:

• I have trouble associating names with faces and you are making it really hard to remember you.
• It says - "I'm not serious" – and makes it less likely that I will connect with you.
• Most importantly, it hurts the effect that Dave White is describing – the connection. Without that picture I simply won't feel as connected to you.

But it's also surprising to me that we don't use pictures elsewhere. Way back in Ten Predictions for eLearning 2008, I predicted

Virtual Classroom Tools - Meeting Tool + Second Life Lite

A medium size Virtual Classroom / Meeting Tool will announce features in 2008 that are not 3D immersive, but that are more like Mii characters in a 2.5D world. This will allow more natural kinds of interactions in classroom settings, especially for things like breakout activities.

I got this horribly wrong in that it hasn't happened, but I still think that this will happen. As I look at Dave White's posts, I believe this is an important fundamental part of the social experience that should be happening.

When I watch how my kids play with games, if there's an avatar tool, they often fail to ever play the game because they run out of time having spent so much time creating a good avatar. Yesterday, I was at a bowling alley / arcade and several of the games at an arcade had customizing my ride kids of features. Why? Because it makes us feel more connected to the experience? It goes from a game to a social experience.

Why the heck doesn't each tool – WebEx, Adobe Connect, Elluminate, etc. ask for a bit more profile information in order to try to make it have a better social experience? A picture and a link to their LinkedIn profile (or other profile page)? Sure the pictures would be hard to fit in the tiny space, but I guarantee you would feel more connected. Heck – on most blogs that show who are recent visitors, they don't show a list of text names. They show a list of pictures.

These tools also should have a view that gives you a 2.5D representation of what's going on. They should allow a natural placement breakout into rooms.

These tools should hire some Mac designers to create something that's not 3D, but that gives a greater feeling of presence.

In the meantime, I think it's likely up to us to define how we can use the existing capabilities in ways that make it a better social experience. I cannot claim to be good at this myself, but I want to thank Dave for reminding me of the importance of social experience.

I'd very much welcome thoughts on this.

24 Hour Conversation on Learning in Organizations - Free

I'm not quite sure what Jay was thinking when he decided to do this, but I'm curious to see what happens.  He's pulled together a 24 Hour Continuous Learning Event:

Conversations about Learning in Organizations

He's got folks from around the world who are going to help participate over the course of 24 hours.  Here's the FAQ.

He's pulled in quite a few people who's names you will know:

• Marcia Conner
• Connie Green
• Stuart Henshall
• Michelle Lentz
• Christopher Peri
• Harold Jarche
• Clark Quinn
• Nancy White
• Rob Paterson
• Mark Sylvester
• Ellen Wagner
• Curt Bonk
• Charles Jennings
• Jon Husband
• Dave Wilkins
• Brent Schlenker
• Barry Shields
• George Siemens
• Luis Suarez

and many more. 

They will be discussing topics that include:

• Learning in an era of networked intelligence
• Show me the money: examples of the payback of social/networked learning
• New roles for learning professionals
• Changing corporate culture to accommodate the new learning
• Making informal learning concrete
• Twitter and the march toward real-time learning
• How can we get learners to take responsibility for their own learning?
• CGI: Bringing the internet inside for informal learning & transformation
• Case examples of informal learning in corporations.
• Measuring the results of informal learning
• Personal learning environments: you show me yours, I'll show you mine

and more.