CBA G260: Blogging and Business

This is the syllabus for the 1-credit MBA course with the above course number and description, as taught by Andrew Watson in the Spring 2006 semester at Northeastern University. It will be taught on two Saturdays. On each of these days we will meet from 8a.m. to noon, in 470 Dodge. (The key number is 75943. Rumors that the sessions will run until 1pm are unfounded.)

I published an outline about two months before the first meeting. I'm updating it about a week before the first of the two course meetings. I'll update it again after the first meeting, although not in such a way as to add a mountain of "new" reading for the second meeting.

Assessment and Assignments

As is usual for one-credit MBA courses at Northeastern, grading will be on a pass/fail basis. If you need a letter grade (e.g., you want me to record something like "B+" rather than "pass") please inform me of this multiple times, including when you submit your final assignment.

The First Meeting: March 25

You should come to the first meeting well prepared for discussion of the following.

The Business Week (May 2, 2005) cover story. You can find it online or in the library. What do you think of the article, and of the advice it gives?
The Fortune 500 Business Blog Index. I provide this link for two reasons. First, it's a discussion of corporate blogging. Second, it provides links to company blogs.
At least one "business blog." The previous bullet of course provides links to some of these, but if you find a business blog by a different route, that's fine. Read enough of the blog to address the following questions. What is the purpose of the blog? How would you describe its tone? What good might it do the business? What harm might it do the business? What good/harm might it do the individuals who write the posts?
The proposal written by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble for their book on "why businesses should blog and how to do it effectively." If you were an editor at a publisher, how would you react to this proposal? How would you react to the idea that the authors would be posting drafts of chapters to the blog? What do you think of the idea of posting the proposal to the blog?
Take a look around S&S (Shel and Scoble's) book blog. It's now called Naked Conversations, since that's the name of the book. (The blog was originally code named Red Couch.) You might for example look at the draft chapter on non-English-speaking blogs, or some of the other draft chapters. What do you think of the comments (including "trackbacks") and the authors' responses to them?

We will also talk about the following topics, although no preparation is required from you.

Blogging services (some of which are listed below).
Feed readers (e.g., Bloglines).
Ideas for the final assignment.

Between the Meetings

Your preparation for the second meeting includes starting a blog. Your blog can be about anything you want, although it would be best if you can make a case that it is business-related. We'll talk about some of the services you might use toward the end of the first meeting. Examples of these services are:

Make a few posts to your new blog (or to your existing blog, if you had one before the course and don't want to start a new one) before the second class meeting. Post a link to your blog in the Discussion Forum of the Blackboard site for this course.

The Second Meeting: April 8

You should come to the second meeting well prepared for discussion of the following.

Your experience of starting a blog. How did you decide which tool(s) to use? How easy was it to get started? What were the most difficult aspects of starting this blog?
The "blog backlash." Find out about this. You could for example do a search on "blog backlash", and follow some of the links. You might decide to read the Forbes (Nov 14, 2005) cover story, even though it's not freely available online. How would you describe the backlash? Inevitable? Justified? Hysterical?

We will also discuss:

Feed readers. We'll discuss questions such as: why are feed readers better than email as a way of subscribing to a blog (or other source of web content)? Why are they worse? What do we want in a feed reader?
What's happened in the two weeks since we first met? How have these events been blogged about?
Multiple blogs. When does it make sense for an individual to have multiple blogs? When does it make sense for an organization?
The future of blogging: for you; for organizations; more generally.
Final assignment ideas.

The Final Assignment: Due April 17

There is a considerable degree of choice in the final assignment for this course. Let me start off with a guideline as to how much you might write, if you choose to write a paper: five double-spaced pages, including an exhibit or two.
Your assignment could take the form of blog entries rather than a paper. It could include a podcast.
Here are some suggested topics.

Review of a book, or substantial article, on blogging.
Account of the backlash against blogging. What form has it taken so far? What form will it take in the future? How strong are the arguments?
Comparison of blog services, or feed readers, or other related software.

These suggestions are intended to start you thinking, not to stop you thinking. We can talk about any further ideas you might have in email, in the Blackboard discussion area, on your blog, or elsewhere.
You can submit your assignment by email. Your email can carry a paper as an attachment, or can point to your blog--whatever is appropriate to let me read it.