Workplace blogs - need your thoughts!
Hi all,
I've been discussing the idea of setting up a blog at my work, the BC Centre for Disease Control. Essentially, we have a crap website that isn't due to be re-designed for years (health politics!) and I was thinking a blog with a variety of important health topics and research, updated daily, would be a great new direction for the organization.
Things we could talk about are H5N1 and pandemic influenza preparedness, the safe-injection site in Downtown Eastside which is one of the firsts in the world, food and water safety, poison control (did you know that 1 child every hour gets poisoned in BC?), roll-out of new immunization programs like influenza in infants, and loads more. It could be cutting-edge, informative and put the 'public' back into 'public health' - no other PH agency has a blog to my knowledge.
(this pic is an avian flu conference - looks fun, eh?!)
The problem seems to be that people at the BCCDC see blogs as informal, lacking professionalism, potentially politically dangerous, etc. I wonder if blogging might be like email that started off for military use but spread quickly to other areas. I mean, there are already 36+ million blogs in existence around the world... suggesting its a very popular way of interacting.
So, do blogs have a role in our world aside from the personal web-diary??? If so, what is it??
And would anyone here be interested in reading a health blog by the CDC?? Do you think it could be an important thing to do?
...In my research on blogging, I have found some fun health sites like H5N1 (m
ega-respect for Crawford running this amazing flublog!). And what I would consider a nice model of a professional health blog CIDRAP (though they specialize as an information warehouse too and don't have a comments section... and to throw it out there, big up to Minnesota for having a kick-ass public health research system).
Thoughts? Comments? ... this issue has been keeping me up at night but I haven't wrapped my tiny brain around the whole blogosphere yet...
I've been discussing the idea of setting up a blog at my work, the BC Centre for Disease Control. Essentially, we have a crap website that isn't due to be re-designed for years (health politics!) and I was thinking a blog with a variety of important health topics and research, updated daily, would be a great new direction for the organization.
Things we could talk about are H5N1 and pandemic influenza preparedness, the safe-injection site in Downtown Eastside which is one of the firsts in the world, food and water safety, poison control (did you know that 1 child every hour gets poisoned in BC?), roll-out of new immunization programs like influenza in infants, and loads more. It could be cutting-edge, informative and put the 'public' back into 'public health' - no other PH agency has a blog to my knowledge.
(this pic is an avian flu conference - looks fun, eh?!)
The problem seems to be that people at the BCCDC see blogs as informal, lacking professionalism, potentially politically dangerous, etc. I wonder if blogging might be like email that started off for military use but spread quickly to other areas. I mean, there are already 36+ million blogs in existence around the world... suggesting its a very popular way of interacting.
So, do blogs have a role in our world aside from the personal web-diary??? If so, what is it??
And would anyone here be interested in reading a health blog by the CDC?? Do you think it could be an important thing to do?
...In my research on blogging, I have found some fun health sites like H5N1 (m
ega-respect for Crawford running this amazing flublog!). And what I would consider a nice model of a professional health blog CIDRAP (though they specialize as an information warehouse too and don't have a comments section... and to throw it out there, big up to Minnesota for having a kick-ass public health research system).Thoughts? Comments? ... this issue has been keeping me up at night but I haven't wrapped my tiny brain around the whole blogosphere yet...
posted by Cataclysm @ 11:04 PM
4 Comments:
At 7:16 AM,
Anonymous said…
I could see a blog like this that is tied into fundraisers you are having (or your member charities are having) or "guest" bloggers (reformed users with HIV, a public health nurse, for example). Just to change up the format/content. And the real life voice of your stakeholders has a greater impact that facts n' figures...
Also, instead of using the term blog, perhaps approach it with the idea that it is a content driven website with multiple articles and authors. The name may carry baggage.
That's all I've got for now, but I think it is a great idea. Kudos.
At 9:26 AM,
Cataclysm said…
Thanks Christine!
This cracked me up... I got into hot water by using the term "social marketing" (which originated from Health Canada) - apparently "health promotion" is more acceptable!
Thanks!! Kris
At 10:52 AM,
landismom said…
I'm hoping you'll blog more about this. I tried to get my organization to start a blog about a year ago, but it didn't fly. I'm interested to hear more on your selling this idea.
At 1:28 PM,
Anonymous said…
You might want to check out this site, Kris:
It's all about how "social media" (i.e. blogs) are transforming media and public relations. You might want to check out this post in particular. I only skimmed it, but it seems to be about the fact that AOL is launching some new tools that they claim will get more corporations blogging.
~Doppelganger (Blogger isn't letting me login for some reason.)
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