Archiving and Knowledge Management

In his latest article Jakob Nielsen says:

Most usability practitioners don't derive full value from their user tests because they don't systematically archive the reports. An intranet-based usability archive offers four substantial benefits.

He also adds:

I don't recommend establishing a formal knowledge base of usability reports. The current state of knowledge management (KM) is primitive, and you're unlikely to see benefits that are worth the cost and hassle. The exception here is if your company has already invested in KM for other documents, and you can piggyback on the existing system.

I am surprised that he does not mention blogs as a possible solution to archiving usability reports. While describing the benefits of archiving Jakob mentions the following: 1) Faster ramping up of new usability engineers: An Intranet blog (or a collection of blogs by engineers) will surely help a new employee understand what's going on. And blogs are chronologically arranged and archived. Blogs are searchable. 2) Track trends over time: Since blogs are chronogically arranged and they publish alternative versions (XML feeds), I think it is easier to chart trends over time using blogs. Also, blogs are easy to set up and they remove publishing as a stumbling block. Most blogging systems offer alternative methods to publish: publish via e-mail, mobile, PDA, instant messenger, right-click context menus... Also the consumption of content via blogs is different from a traditional website or intranet. People use RSS readers that allow one to read multiple stories from multiple sources at a single place; no hassle of multiple browser windows. No typing URLS or checking manually if your fav site has something new to offer, as the RSS readers normally update automatically. So, blogs offer a fantastic framework to author and consume content even on an Intranet. This combined with the fact that content is chronologically arranged, archived, and search-enabled, makes blogs an ideal solution for archiving and KM. I am really surprised that Jakob does not even make a passing mention of weblogs when talkiing about Intranet archiving and KM! A search on useit.com uncovered a comment by ex-CEO of Pyra Labs (the company that gave us blogger.com), Evan Williams' comment on the article Content Creation for Average People. Evan wrote:

I find it surprising, however, that you ask the question, "How can we increase the number of people who contribute content to the Web?" and talk about tools that provide structured creation, but fail to mention weblogs. While some may not consider weblogs "content," contrary to common definition, blogs are not about linking to web pages -- except in that linking should be a part of most any writing on the web. Pointing out sites may have been a place to start, but if you look at what's being published in the blog format today, you'll find it's everything from personal journals, to poetry, to punditry. Blogs are really about the format -- frequent, short bursts of text -- a format that happens to work very well on the web, both for readers ("people don't read on the web") and writers/publishers. Most importantly, in regards to your piece, this is a format that the average person can produce. One doesn't need to be a comfortable writer in order to post a short blurb about their thoughts on a particular subject/product/site/experience. What's more, even if the average person felt comfortable with a blank piece of paper, the time to write longer pieces is daunting to those for whom creating web content is not a full time job. Blogs let people get their thoughts down quickly, succinctly, and with enough structure to help them along, without being limiting on what they choose to communicate. If you ask me, you can't do much better than that in getting average people publishing content on the web. And the proof is in the tens of thousands of people who, because of blog publishing tools, now write and publish on the web every day, who never did before.

To which Jakob replied:

Weblogs are of so highly varying quality that I don't consider them a true solution to the problem. Somebody who is a good writer and has something to communicate will make a good weblog, for sure (see, for example, my current favorite: Doc Searls). But the average weblog is unreadable. However, I agree with Evan that there are aspects of the weblog format that lend themselves to improved content: The basic idea is that you write a short observation or note whenever it occurs to you: this is surely less intimidating than having to write an entire article. You can get away with the short notes even for substantial issues because of the weblogs' reliance on links to other sites as the way to present the full story. Even if your own writing is not that great, you will still provide a valuable service if you can identify sources of other good content on the Web and link to it. Thus, weblogs are a form of selection-based content creation: you have the entire Web to choose from and you get to post a few links every day. The best current example is Tomalak's Realm: he usually doesn't write anything, so the editorial selection of links and quotes is the only service provided by the site and that is enough to make it the second-most useful site on the Web today (after Google).

There is no research evidence that most blogs post short bursts of text. Probably we should take a survey and find out how much average people that are not 'writers' write on their blogs. I think the average post would me much more than a mere burst of text. Jakob probably should alter his view that a blog is a collection of links and that blogs rely on links to generate content. Polictial blogs act as watch dogs and they write extensive posts, which influence opinions of thousand of voters. There is no linking there. A whole bunch of bloggers reported on the recent Tsunami disaster in South-east Asia and filled the gap that the main-stream-media left. I call it a milestone in citizen reporting and publishing. Bloggers blog because blogs are easy-to-use. A usability guru ignoring them is unpardonable.

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