#5: Internal Intranet Blogs and My Website Experience

For the first time in a while I can truly say I learned something that has expanded my world. Before taking this course my technological brainwaves were feeble and pathetic; but now I actually have a sense that I know what I am talking about when discussing these newly learned technologies. There are two areas in particular that I now feel I can discuss with confidence and expertise: Internal Intranet Blogs and HTML code.

I did one of my semester projects on Blogs in Special Libraries. I chose to research and discuss the blogs in a corporate setting because it is my area of most interest after graduating, and let me tell you that there is plenty of information on the subject, probably because there are now numerous consulting firms any organization can hire to set them up. Internal blogs, taking the place of old, non-collaborative Intranets or even e-mails greatly enhance an organization’s knowledge and information flow. They inspire sharing, community, and brainstorming, and they compound tacit knowledge and expertise. An Accenture survey revealed that 6 out of 10 managers cannot find the information they are looking for on a daily basis and that more than 2 hours a day is wasted looking for that lost information. This will no longer be the case with the new communication and information sharing social platforms available today. While researching this project I pitched the idea to the organization I work for and they are now in the development stage of an Internal Intranet Blog Platform. This class has already paid off.

The other project I worked on over the past couple of months was the creation of an original website. Since this was a project that was focused more on code semantics and visual creativity and not scholarly research, I found it to be an enjoyable and interesting experience (although I do now know that I would never want to sit and write thousands of lines of HTML code for hours a day as a career). But what I found to be fun was seeing it grow in “look” and complexity. I enjoy puzzles; I enjoy seeing them grow in front of me as I put time and work into it. This, to me, was a similar experience. The only problem I did encounter during my experience was the difficulty with FireFox vs. Explorer. At one point I went to Flickr to obtain photograph. Well, since I am building my site in FireFox I forgot that when you search and save photos while navigating in Explorer you cannot easily transfer them to FireFox and display them on your web page. I came very close to pulling my hair out when I realized this after searching for usable photos, all 20 of them, saving them, and not being able to use them as easily as I first thought. Let’s just say that it added a few hours of work I was not expecting last Sunday. My computer nearly paid the price for my gaffe.  But I calmed down and learned from my little mistake.

But coding and creating a web page it is an excellent skill to have, especially in today’s technological environment. I have the knowledge and understanding so if it ever does present itself, I can create a simple to slightly complex, elegant, creative, or professional web page on my own.

So this semester was a wonderful experience for me. I enjoyed having Dr. Stephens as my professor because of his knowledge of, command of, and enthusiasm for the subject matter. I enjoyed having you all as my classmates because of your friendliness and camaraderie. I wish you all the best in the future. Take care.