A project blog is a type of weblog that records a project or a deliverable task, detailing the end goal, procedures and status updates. They promote sharing of tacit knowledge by narratively recording projects' research and development process on the Internet. Project blogs may also detail a hobby project to inspire others.
Contents
Purpose
In its generic form, a blog lets a person record events and ideas freely as individual posts without a container to define their scope and to group them by different goals. Blog posts of various purposes are recorded and presented in a single linear thread. Categories may be used to separate blog posts into a hierarchical structure, but does not conceptually separate posts of different projects of the same category.
When a user has multiple concurrent projects to blog, the creation of multiple blogs prevents the mixing of different project posts into one thread, and groups them under one web address, encouraging circulation and thus knowledge sharing. Once a project finishes, the blog will be considered inactive and out-dated.
History
The project web concept is discussed in some detail in David Siegel's book "Secrets of Successful Web Sites", published in 1997. Fortunately the book's companion web site "The Project Site" has been archived for posterity. John Udell in 2001 was one of the first to talk about the importance of a project having a 'narrative' or story to tell via a project blog.
Structure
A basic project blog contains two sections:
Implication
Unlike traditional project manuals which record proven deliverables with pre-defined designs and implementation procedures, a project blog records the developmental story of a project. During blogging, the project result, the most suitable procedures and timeline are still uncertain. With the only certainty of the determination to achieve the project goal, the project and blogging continues.
When the project develops, this uncertainty usually allows room for research and experiment which leads to knowledge creation. Project Blog encourages this type of tacit learning and the sharing of it by blogging, since "Narrative is one of the most powerful means" of expressing this kind of knowledge of experiential learning.
Linking up different projects and milestones from different project owners, particularly through tagging, accelerates this kind of knowledge creation. Project owners learn from others' stories, while the blog visitors transverse across different projects to gain collective learning.