Much relieved Fulham FC fan James Lappin tracks the inspiration for his blogging career back to reading a Korean poem while waiting for a haircut in a barber's shop in Surrey
Q: What do you do?
A: I am a 39-year-old records management consultant and trainer,
working for TFPL in London.
Q: Where is your blog?
A: I am one of the contributors to the TFPL blog, at http://tfpl.typepad.com
Q: Describe your blogposts
A: I post about what I see as the big issues for information professionals in our age. Questions like
- To what extent can/should we integrate Web 2.0 tools and practices into the information mix of our organisations?
- How do we respond to the challenges and opportunities brought by the rise of SharePoint?
- How will the battle between Google and Microsoft affect our desktops?
- How do we strike a balance between our responsibilities for information governance, and the demand for collaborative environments such as SharePoint and Web 2.0 tools?
My colleagues have a range of interests, all centred on what is going on in the information professions. Like me, they post about events they have attended or organised, industry trends, and the questions they grapple with in their consultancy, training or recruitment work.
Q: How long have you been blogging?
A: I have had a personal blog at www.worldflapjackday.blogspot.com since New Year's Eve 2005. I still keep it going as a place for my drawings, for things that my kids say that make me laugh, and for my thoughts on contemporary art and Fulham matches. Val Skelton, our head of training started the TFPL blog in January 2007 and invited me to write for it.
Q: What started you blogging?
A: A Korean poem! I was waiting to get my hair cut in a Korean barber's in New Malden and saw a poetry book on the table. One of the poems compared the mind to a pond: many birds drop into your pond, but the white swan comes only occasionally. You should make sure your pond/mind is ready for the swan. A close friend had just died and it reminded me of him. I set up World Flapjack Day that night to write about it. Having written for my personal blog for a while, I realised I wanted a space to write about my thoughts on the world of managing information. I was inspired by the blogs of people like Euan Semple http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog and wanted to get in on the conversation. Blogging on the TFPL blog has been ideal: it gives me a platform and helps my company too.
Q: Do you comment on other blogs?
A: I don't comment on other people's blogs nearly as much as I ought to. By posting a comment you are showing the blog owner that you're interested in what they are writing about, and you have something to say about it too. You have made a connection, and something might come of it: they might look at your blog, they might like it, they might leave a comment or link to it. All good stuff! I love it when people comment on our blog. A comment on a post of mine alerted me to the existence of Pageflakes www.pageflakes.com which is a fantastic combination of a start page and an RSS reader.
Q: How does your organisation benefit from your blogosphere presence?
A: I see it as the online equivalent of some of the networks we run for information professionals (such as TFPL Connect). It shows our friends and customers what TFPL consultants, trainers and recruiters are thinking about, what we know about, and what we care about.
Q: What are the blogs you trust?
A: In the records management field, the best blog has to be Steve Bailey's RM Futurewatch http://rmfuturewatch.blogspot.com Steve believes that traditional records management tools and practices won't scale up to the volume and pace of 21st century information creation and exchange, and advocates harnessing Web 2.0 ideas to records management. In the knowledge management sphere, I read Dave Snowden's Cognitive Edge blog http://www.cognitive-edge.com/blogs/dave
Q: Does it help your career?
A: Blogging keeps me sharp. It motivates me to attend events, to listen to people, to search out items of interest, and to capture my notes on talks that interest me. It all helps to keep my consultancy and training fresh and relevant.
Q: Which blogs do you read for fun?
A: The best Fulham blog has to be the Craven Cottage Newsround
http://cravencottagenewsround.wordpress.com I also enjoy reading the Forbidden Planet blog http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog It's my favourite comics blog, and is a superb example of a company using a blog to showcase the knowledge and passion of its staff.
Q: Which bloggers do you watch and link to?
A: The first blog that I put on the TFPL blogroll was the Librarian's
Guide to Etiquette http://libetiquette.blogspot.com because it made me laugh.
The ReadWriteWeb blog http://www.readwriteweb.com is invaluable for developments in technology and Web 2.0. And Johnny Moore http://www.johnniemoore.com/blog blogs about facilitation and the uses of Web 2.0.
thank you
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