Krista posted to Networked Rhetorics about social network analysis having not just people, but an object at its center and referenced Anne Galloway’s post. This has me thinking more about encouraging blogging, or tech use in general, among academics.

Last week I put together some ideas on how to encourage blogging. After having read the SNA information for class and reading Krista’s post, it makes me think that at least initially, how to market and encourage blogging (or increased use of tech) might benefit from a task approach. This assumption is also based on my awareness that some people who don’t blog don’t see it as being different from email or from discussion lists. In other words, they see it as just another tool and want to know how blogging is in comparison to other tools they are already using (the unstated question–”why should I go to the trouble of learning something new when these other tools do what I already know how to do?”.

Task: (short term: what will it do for me? — object oriented)
*use blogging as a tool to faciliate writing
*use blogging as a research notebook
*use blogging as a communication tool
then, once they appreciate the tasks that it will help them accomplish, provide additional information as to a goal approach:
Goals: (long term: what will it help me become/do in the long run?)
*build and share information across network
*increase ability to make connections
*increase critical thinking skills
Bottom-line, I think I’m running with an assumption (rightly or not) that people who are not first adopters would be more enticed from a task-centered encouraging approach, rather than a goal oriented approach that is hard to measure.

This is still a little fuzzy and if anyone has any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, please feel free to comment.