Metrics for Insight

A while back Mary Abraham tagged me on the meme of why when and where I blog, and over the past few days I’ve been coming to the conclusion that blogging for me is a way of storing my memory in the external environment. This is not just recall memory, but sustaining the continuity of thinking over time… blog posts help me to think things through discontinuously. As I come across topics and issues of interest to me, related to things I’m interested in thinking through, I try to relate and assimilate them. That’s also why categories are helpful memory mechanisms for me to recall where my thinking has been in the past.

So I appreciate it when I come across people who are also thinking things through as they blog. Lee Romero has started a series of blog posts (here and here) on how he’s developing some relatively simple metrics for the communities in his company. What I also like is the smart, thoughtful way he’s approaching the matter of metrics, not from the routine “how are we doing?” angle, but for how the metrics can give insight into the way that the communities are working, or raise questions worth asking.

Back to the meme: When do I blog? – Guilt (at not having blogged for a while), procrastination (from “real” work) or being grabbed by an idea. Where do I blog? Mostly at my desk, occasionally in airports. I tend not to blog so much when I travel.

2 Comments so far

Mary Abraham

Patrick:

Thanks so much for continuing the meme.

Best,
Mary

Posted on November 17, 2008 at 08:20 AM | Comment permalink

Reith Zimmer buchen

I agree with you, we can leave our memories on our blogs at the same time share it with others. I always giggle after I remember something while reading my old post.

Posted on November 23, 2008 at 10:23 AM | Comment permalink

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