Monday, June 16, 2008

How much time does web2.0 take?


I often get the question how much time it takes to blog... Since I'm a meticulous time-writer, I know this blog takes me less time than I'd imagine myself- 4-6 hours per month with 2-3 blogposts per week - but then I measure only the writing of blogposts. If you'd include reading other blogs and thinking through topics for blogposts it'd be much higher.

I was delighted to find the museum2.0 blogpost talking about the time it takes a nonprofit organisation to engage with web2.0. The image was copied from museum2.0's blogpost too. It describes what you can do in a week or less of web2.0. Got 1-5 person hours each week? Become a participant, but don't start running an online community. If you have 5-10 hours per week, become a content provider. With 10-20 hours per week, become a community director!
As my example shows- you can be a blogger with less devoted time- but is it meaningfull to blog without taking part in the rest of the blogosphere? Then it becomes a PR tool with a different purpose - just to inform. To find all kind of practical things to do with the hours you have, you can go to the blogpost and read the great suggestions.
But yes, it DOES take time, and if you don't pay attention, people will experience it as extra workload. I think this is a huge problem that organisations underestimate the time it takes to network or engage with others online. For a face-to-face meeting, you get your hours, but networking online is often not costed (enough) in hours. Or people think that an online community runs itself...

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