I did an interview about blogging a while ago for Information World Review.
One of the things that got left out of the final version was a list of blogs from outside the library world which I read from a work point of view. Here are the blogs I listed. I limited it to four, as there is only so much reconfiguring going on ….
- Edge perspectives with John Hagel. A blog about how networks reconfigure organizations.
- Bubblegeneration. A blog by Umair Haque about how networks reconfigure strategy.
- Software as services. A blog by Phil Wainewright about how networks reconfigure applications.
- Rough type. A blog by Nicholas Carr about how networks reconfigure computing.
Now, Nick Carr covers lots of things, but his big message is about the ‘big switch‘ to ‘utility’ computing. Just as we no longer have individual power generators, he suggests, so will we cease to rely on local computing capacity. We will begin to rely on computing capacity in the cloud. Phil Wainewright covers developments among companies providing ‘applications on demand’ or ‘software as services’. We have seen less discussion of this trend in libraries in recent years than we have of that other game changer in software, open source. It is inevitable however that libraries will also follow the general trend here and source more of what they do from shared services on the network. Bubblegeneration is elliptical, dogmatic and provocative. Hagel posts occasionally, and is reflective and suggestive when he does.
Now Carr is an ex-editor of the Harvard Business Review and Umair Haque pointed the other day to his new blog within the Harvard Business Blogs, styled a collection of ‘discussion leaders’. These include well-known names such as Gary Hamel and knowledge management writer Tom Davenport.
It is an interesting investment by the publishers of the Harvard Business Review, and another interesting example of how organizations who want to ‘lead the discussion’ are developing network venues.
