How blogs are changing the Intranet and the way we find information

March 5, 2008
Russ Kratowicz writes that it's just as easy to find a blog with content you endorse as it is to find one that sometimes causes you severe psychological discomfort - even damage.

Do you remember the first time you connected a modem to your 8088 processor and tied into some bulletin board system? Later, you might have gained access to Usenet, a topic covered in this column in November 1997. Well, the latest and greatest in mass communication is the blog. It’s a system by which people with an opinion or news, plus time on their hands, can put their thoughts out there to elicit a reaction from opinionated people, who are invited to critique and respond. Then, those responses appear below the original posting, thus starting a thread of communication that unfolds right there on your monitor. Based on empirical evidence, highly opinionated people seem to favor blogs that focus on politics and on all things high-tech.

If nothing else, the world of blogs clearly shows that whatever your particular combination of views and beliefs might be, they aren’t universally accepted. It’s just as easy to find a blog with content you endorse as it is to find one that sometimes causes you severe psychological discomfort - even damage.

As you read on, remember that the blogs cited here represent the bloggers’opinions and not necessarily those of the staff at Plant Services magazine. With that disclaimer out of the way, join me as I wade into that digital morass we call the Web in search of practical, zero-cost, noncommercial, registration-free resources that might get you thinking in a new way. Remember, we search the Web so you don't have to.

Blogging 101

The best researchers perform a literature search to get a general lay of the land and perhaps learn something from those who’ve already attempted to cover the same territory before going ahead with their own projects. A good introduction to the bloggy world is appropriate here. Our literature search turned up a generally reliable Web site, http://computer.howstuffworks.com/blog.htm, which contains Marshall Brain’s “How Blogs Work,” a concise tutorial that can serve as a user’s guide for most any blog you might wish to visit. It shows what you’re expected to do if you find yourself involved in this facet of the online world. It explains the fundamental differences between a blog and a traditional Web site. If you catch blog fever, you’ll not be content merely reading something posted by strangers. Brain’s piece also shows you how easy it is to establish a brand-new blog and publish your own words of wisdom for the assembled masses out there. If you go this route, let me know. We’ve got a few readers who might want to hear about your efforts.

Developing best practices

This citation is an example of a blog that might be of use in the industrial arena, perhaps in your plant. The content in this blog collection seems to be dedicated to the proposition that forklift accidents occur primarily because of human error. The author, who goes by the pseudonym of “health care trainer,” has been uploading several postings each month on an irregular basis since December 2005. Each posting is relatively short and could be used as the basis of an in-house training program for your material-handling crew. If you’re interested in such things, roll your mouse to http://forklift-safety-training.blogspot.com and aim for “Archives,” which you’ll find just below the “Previous posts” section. Clicking on one of the dates takes you to the several posts made during that month. I didn’t see any feedback or comments from readers, so I conclude that the postings are entirely correct as they stand, nobody reads them or they can’t be located online very easily. I suspect it’s the latter because there doesn’t seem to be a way to access this blogger’s output from the home page, www.blogspot.com. It appears here because a quirky Web search I ran uncovered its existence.

Another example of a blog that has a connection to the world of maintenance is found at http://wordpress.com/tag/industrial-maintenance. Of the more than a dozen posts found there, focus on the noncommercial bits by someone named Bill (the others are a bit too commercial for the purposes of this column). Bill talks about NEMA ratings, control panels and motors in a terse, jargon-free manner. In addition to letting you post a response to each of his information bites, there’s a link you can use to get more information. Those links all track back to Jim Gaylord, president of Rantro Industrial Controls Ltd., in Mallorytown, Ontario.

Blogs are anywhere

Another facet of the maintenance arena that should be of interest to the plant professional is automation. And who should know more about instrumentation and controls than ISA - The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society. In the interest of full disclosure, Walt Boyes, one of the editors here at magazine central, writes a blog for that organization. So, I thought we ought to see what he has to say. You can get to his material by programming that mouse to zero in on www.isa.org, when it should then scroll down on the left and click “Publishing” found under “Products & Services.” Then, click on “Automation Blog Central” just below that when the new page opens. In addition to Walt’s musings, you might want to read the “Social Commentary” blogs that lie behind the link to “JimPinto.com Weblogs.” He put his opinion out there and people responded by posting their comments. It’s an outcome that isn’t necessarily enjoyed by the many who invest a lot of time in composing and posting blogs. But, a blogger who can trigger an emotional connection with a reader is more likely to hear back from the millions of Web surfers out there. While you’re at ISA Blog Central, take a look at Campbell’s “On the Edge” and Welander’s “Pillar to Post.” Both are worth exploring because they have something to say that can resonate outside the automation world.

Two from one

The real reason you and your coworkers show up at the salt mine each day is to perform work that somebody thinks is useful and thereby trade some of your time for some of your customer’s money. In the ideal world, salt mining goes smoothly, with nobody getting bogged down in some interpersonal dispute and forced to waste valuable time trying to resolve it. But, real life is what happens when you’ve already made other plans. If you’re a fan of our "In the Trenches feature," you might like the next Web citation, which is designed to keep you from getting bogged down in those salty disputes. It’s the source of two blogs about employment law and arbitration issues that have been around since January 2005. It’s the work of Ross Runkel, Professor of Law Emeritus at Willamette University College of Law, Salem, Ore. Send that desk rodent to investigate www.lawmemo.com, where it will find links to the two blogs near the top of the page. After you make your selection, you’ll see that both varieties are indexed by the month they were posted and by the topic. You access them through links low on the right side of the screen. Go forth, do right, and stay out of the trenches.

From the halls of labor

Blogging is an important and convenient way to get the word out to your constituency. That the AFL/CIO realizes this fact of life is demonstrated by the organization’s Web site home page. If you can organize your way to http://aflcio.org, you’ll find that the single largest element of the page, above the fold, is an invitation to explore a large collection of blogs that have some rational relationship to organized labor. Click on “Visit the blog” and scroll down on the right for some choices. The entries under “Union & Related Blogs” are just that. Those shown under “Blog Friends” are others who post blogs and the entries beneath “Web sites” are other organizations, each of which can lead you into more blogs.

Using a shot-in-the-dark approach, I clicked on “Working assets,” found under the first blog category. The entries appear to get updated daily, so you might not find the Feb. 11, 2008 blog that was titled “Economists Catch Up to American Public Opinion.” That one was based on an original article from Business Week by Jane Sasseen that David Sirota posted here to get things started. It argued that economists are beginning to doubt that free trade is such a good thing for the U.S. economy. When you explore the postings, I’m sure you’re going to hit on something similarly provocative.

From the NAM

The National Association of Manufacturers, Washington, D.C., is another entrant in the blogging game. And that organization jumped in with both feet. Between November 2004, and mid-February 2008, the dozen or so contributors who provide content for this blog have racked up nearly 5,000 entries. The topics range from a simple commentary on the news of the moment to philosophical blurbs about the ideal relationship that should exist between manufacturers, American institutions and the rest of the world. Of course, quite a few feature political comments and opinions about the three branches of government, in particular, the legislative branch. Most entries are a quick read, maybe two or three paragraphs, which is exactly the format I think a blog should have. Be forewarned, one can lose track of time if you jump in at http://blog.nam.org/archiveline.php. Happy reading.

A multifaceted guy

You might recognize Joel Leonard as the main preacher in the pulpit we give him to expound on the Maintenance Crisis. You might be surprised to learn that he’s a multifaceted guy who has a sandwich named after him. And, he blogs about it. When you visit Fincastle’s Diner in Greensboro, N.C., to order a Joelburger, you get a double Angus pimento cheeseburger served on sourdough bread. How can one go wrong with that sort of feast? Any calorie-starved mouse can learn more at www.thejoelburger.blogspot.com. If you can’t get to Greensboro, you can dream.

Closer to home

As you might guess, Plant Services is in the blogging game with three entries. You access these words of wisdom by going to www.plantservices.com and using the drop-down menu behind the word “Blog,” which is found just below the search box. You can select from Plant Performance by the magazine staff, Reliability Tips and Art of Change by Daryl Mather. Give our homebrew blog a try, and post your comments, positive or negative. We dare ya.

Full immersion

There’s no limit to the topics that one can blog about. If you can think it, it can appear. Sometimes it’s amazing to discover the sort of material that some people are driven to post online. To see what I mean, all you need do is jump right into the center of a full galaxy of blogs found at http://quacktrack.com. This is Quack Track, a blog index that claims to offer “697,000 links to 168,000 blogs in 6,500 categories.” It would be tough to do much better than that. Anyway, an abbreviated listing of major topics available include art, business and finance, law, science, sports and athletics, technology, transport and travel, and much more. Clicking on one of these higher-level options starts you on a drill-down exercise that might require three or four clicks to access the actual words, images and videos in the various blogs. All of this is brought to you by Jay Campbell at Santa Cruz Tech in California.

Without comment
http://technorati.com/blogging
www.trumpuniversity.com/blog/index.cfm

E-mail Executive Editor Russ Kratowicz, P.E., CMRP, at [email protected].

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