This in an interesting article explaining what it means to write a blog about what you’re doing, why you would do it and what the benefits are. It is particularly useful to help you understand the value of sharing your work.
This is how I started blogging – by writing about issues which I had come across at work. Whilst at the time I was blogging in public (and kept the information about who the parties were deliberately obscure) in todays internal networks, blogging in this way can be carried out inside your organisation, on an intranet or internal social network, and is an incredibly important means of developing and sharing ideas.
In the early days of blogging there were plenty of stories of people blogging for themselves and then discovering they had a huge audience. Exactly the same thing can happen internally. When you start sharing, all the value in your contribution is not ‘lost’, rather it is ‘found’ by everyone. Doing this can also teach you the value of your knowledge. When we’re working just in our own minds we can be blind to the value of our contribution to others. Getting it out on paper not only helps us to articulate what matters better, but also can help other people, who in turn can help us fill in the gaps in our knowledge.
Bryce Williams coined the term “working out loud” and defined it this way:
“Working out loud = Narrating your work + Observable work”
For Bryce, narrating your work is “journaling…what you are doing in an open way.” And making your work observable is “creating/modifying/storing your work in places that others can see it, follow it, and contribute to it IN PROCESS.”
This used to be impractical with most communications tools. (You’d never send email to a large group about things you’re doing throughout the day.) But modern collaboration platforms combine rich content-handling with Twitter-like activity feeds that make it easy to skim large amounts of content quickly.
That combination opens up new possibilities.
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Su Butcher says
It isn’t “just blogging”
If you want a definition of what ‘Working Out Loud’ is you can read these posts:
http://johnstepper.com/2014/01/04/the-5-elements-of-working-out-loud/
and the later
http://workingoutloud.com/blog/the-5-elements-of-working-out-loud-revisited
And as is natural with a movement dedicated to encouraging people to help each other, others have explored the concept and added value
http://learnnovators.com/getting-started-working-loud/
Su Butcher says
John Stepper who wrote the blog post above has been in touch via Twitter:
Su Butcher says
And not just a blog either. The website includes a set of resources for setting up your own ‘Circle’, a small group of people who work together over 12 weeks to make ‘working out loud’ a habit. There are also stories from all over the world about how the technique is being used.
John has also delivered a TedX talk on the story, just a few weeks ago: