Final thoughts

Well I have to admit I was pretty sceptical when I started this course and found out it required me to create 15 blogs. I really didn't think there was any value in creating and maintaining a blog as a means of discussing the course and my own personal opinions of it.

As it turns out though I ended up learning a lot about this new medium and its implications in the new IT landscape. It certainly created some headaches for me as I tried to add some of the gadgets that were required but with the help of a friend (Thanks Shawn!!!) and good ole Google I managed to figure it out.

I had read some articles in an IT magazine, Wired, on how blogging was going to be the wave of the future and how every big company was going to have to adopt this new strategy or be left in the dust. I thought this was just shameless propaganda on behalf of the PC mag and its writer but I can see now that there may be some truth to that statement.

Allowing consumers an inside look at a corporation through the blogs of their staff has multiple benefits. No longer is big business this nameless faceless entity. We can actually associate a person with the company and learn valuable information about their top management. We also get an inside look at the organization's culture and learn about new innovations and products they may be introducing.

Conversely organizations can gather very pertinent and invaluable information about their consumers when they add their own blogs to company websites. What better way to gather feedback than through consumers voluntarily voicing their uncensored opinions and thoughts on blogger sites or right on the company's own website.

Overall I feel it has been beneficial to this course as a whole and to me personally. As I have stated I tend to resist change but am now glad this was part of the course since it has given me an inside view on the value of the blog. I may not yet be "swearing by the blog" but this course requirement has certainly opened my eyes to its benefits.