One of the challenges of running a blog – especially one written by a team of collaborators – is to ensure the ‘right’ editorial focus. About a year ago, Vlastimil Vesely and I decided to provide regular feedback to our circle of contributors by asking them to vote each month for the two best articles published to nowEurope in the preceding month.
The result of this vote is the ‘featured posts’ block displayed on the right-hand column of this page. This is intended as an aid for you, the reader, to find the best content posted at nowEurope. However, Vlastimil and I got to talking and we realized it might be a good idea to publicly highlight some of these posts, and describe why they were chosen.
Guenther Krumpak has developed an authoritative ‘voice’ on nowEurope and this article, ICT Brokerage Brno: ICT better off than other industries, is a good example. Guenther has strong opinions, which he doesn’t hesitate to express. However, he also mixes this with humor. Many of our nowEurope contributors start out with either a dry academic writing style, or a jargon-laden marketing style. Neither of these styles really work on a blog. Guenther has just the right touch.
Gregg Kirsch also has a strong writing style, as in this post, Patents: Are They Worthwhile for a Start-up Company?
Many of us regularly attend conferences and themed events, and we also write about them at nowEurope (such as Guenther’s example above). In this post, Three rules for getting the most out of any conference, I wasn’t focusing on the content of the event, but rather how to experience that content.
This raises the question of what should be the focus of nowEurope. This is a question we regularly discuss. Obviously, we are not all going to agree.
For example, in a recent post, Guenther Krumpak argued that we should stick more tightly to the mission of CITT, which is to discuss issues surrounding technology transfer in the Centrope region. I do agree that this should remain the central focus. However, I also feel strongly that nowEurope can and should feature a broader set of topics – provided these are also interesting to our core audience.
The question, then, is how far we can cast our nets? I’m afraid there are no simple answers. Take, for example, this recent post from Gyula Vamosi: How can we encourage Gypsies to blog?
Arguably, the Rroma minority is a topic specific to the Centrope region. Gyula’s topic is also ICT-related. However, this post addresses a social issue, rather than a business or technology issue. Finally, this post clearly has nothing to do with technology transfer.
And yet the line is fuzzy. In March 2009, the nowEurope contributors selected as ‘best of blog’ a post by Jiri Peterka entitled ‘The most effective Internet motivators? Children!‘ The post examined the role that children play in motivating their parents to purchase a home Internet connection. Arguably, this is also a social issue although Jiri was addressing a wider demographic (Czech children) rather than a regional minority. However, it’s a well written, thought provoking article and I also voted for it as best of blog.
