Last month, a friend and fellow blogger asked me why I blog... and I had to stop and think about it for a second, but it became quickly clear to me there are two main reasons:
1. So that I can document my ideas and experiences in a single repository, which I can then refer to later. Sometimes these are thoughts stirred by the current climate or an experience I've had. Other times I am directly "responding" to articles I have read - and thus this blog allows me to save a link to the article and why I thought it was particularly good or at least thought-provoking.
Although I mainly am just creating these blogs as a placeholder for ideas I want to think more about at another time... It turns out that I often use them as a source to explain myself more quickly to others. So if I get an email asking about my thoughts on EMR adoption or usability or the new healthcare plan, I can provide a quick summary and then a link to my blog which has details. In other words, although it takes some time to write the blog, if I can re-use it in these ways, I can actually be more efficient.
2. Writing helps me take some whirling thoughts and put some order into them - forcing some definite structure. In other words, it helps me generate a clear product that both I, and others, can understand and ideally use in some way.
So while I mainly write for myself, if these blogs stimulate thoughts, ideas and motion from others- then all the better. Last month, my little blog actually was recognized in the list of "Top 50 Healthcare IT Blogs", which I really appreciated (of course, maybe there are only fifty of us?). So hope everyone out there is enjoying reading along!
Lyle,
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting your observations and thoughts out there. For those interested in this topic, there's a good survey book:
Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
For me, one of the most satisfying parts of the learning, mastery and sharing that goes on with blogging is the comments.
Comments light up the night of interesting ideas, whether it's comments to my own blog, or comments to other people's interesting posts, or comments to published articles. Night here is a reference to your point #2,organizing and clarifying concepts.
Commenting in all of the healthcare blogs, whether reform, HCIT, or delivery innovation is pretty nascent.