The Learned Man!

Indian e-Learning Bloggers - Way To Go!

Here are the top e-Learning related blogs in India by their Technorati rankings. Its good to see a few new blogs crop up, especially around the ID space.

I dont think any e-Learning blogger harbours delusions of being a Technorati Top 100 Stud someday, maybe he/she does!, but its fantastic to see the community growing and so many talented and vastly experienced people coming forward with their thoughts and opinions and weaving their own special communities around themselves. Some, a couple of years late maybe, but better now then never! I'm hoping tons more of you will hop on to the blog bandwagon in 2007. Try it...you might just get hooked on...!

To see the rankings and the buzz around these blogs for yourself all you have to do is go to Technorati and type in the name of [xyz] blog.

1. http://elearning.typepad.com  (now also accessed at www.thelearnedman.com)
(We are humbled that so many of you keep coming back day after day to get your dope on the Indian eLearning landscape. Our newsletter currently reaches over 800 mailboxes around the world!)

2. http://simply-speaking.blogspot.com
(New ID centric blog by TATA Interactive's Geetha Krishnan. This blog has gained ground fast, garnering a dedicated and growing readership. We are not surprised!)

3. http://e-learnindia.blogspot.com
(Asim offers his own quirky views on the e-learning landscape. I have enjoyed reading selective parts of his sometimes, long pieces. There is no doubting that this is a very opinionated blog and we would like to see an increase in the frequency of posts.)

4. http://elearning.kern-comm.com
(Multi-author blog by the team of Kern Communications. Should really be under "corporate blogs", but given the size of this company I thought I'd introduce it here for now. Once again...More posts please!)

5. http://discursive-learning.blogspot.com
(Another new ID centric blog from TATA Interactive's Anil Mammen, really - TATA seems to be churning out the bloggers! We would though, like to see an increase in the frequency of posts)

Maybe we shouldnt be asking for an increased frequency of posting from some of these bloggers, given that ID guys like to take their time and churn out long and very intense posts! :)

As usual, please mail in or plug in your comments and let me know about blogs that should be here and are not!

2 Years Of The Learned Man! eLearning Blog & Resource

This March, The Learned Man! Blog completes 2 years in existence. This is a time to pause & reflect. It's been a fantastic last year with hundreds of people signing up for the newsletter, the LinkedIn network and hundreds more writing in with comments, and views. Every time I make a new connection with somebody I know that starting this blog has been the right thing. I am glad I have been able to fill a void and provide people associated with this booming industry with useful and practical information. I am taking this blog into its 3rd year with the same passion, even more so, to keep you informed, and continue building a community of like-minded people.

I woud like to share with you some comments and thoughts received through our LinkedIn network:

“It is a great effort on part of The Learned Man! to create a platform where diffrent people from the elearning industry can come together and share their views.”
– Shymanta Baruah

“One man who had the brainwave to bring the entire e-learning group in India together under one umbrella. As commendable his effort is ... so is his efforts to constantly update and upgrade the site ... such that the site leaves the user with a fresh string of thought each time he/she visits it.”
– Monali Phukan

“Hi , I think The Learned Man! has done a great job by starting our very own indian E-learning Blog and tabulating E-learning efforts. Would like him to reflect implementers point of view & their issues to make it a complete E-learning site. All the Best & look forward to the next issue. Cheers sunita”
– Sunita Sinha

“I think The Learned Man! has done a wonderful job by creating this community which would help us getting in touch with our past colleagues and also share ideas over the net.”
– Swamit Rawat

“The Learned Man! is doing an indepth study on e learning which is now blossoming in India. He has successfully kept track of the e learning industry: trends, size and future.”
– Shyamal Moghe

“On Learned Man...I came across this blog while looking for some information on elearning on the website. I found it interesting and was happy to see an Indian being the owner. I have got some interesting information on learned man. Infact I think it would be great to see a lot more people around in the elearning industry contribute and leverage the same. Cheers. Keep the good work going”
– Shakun Gidwani

“The Learned Man! Blog has been one of the best resources for IDs and CLOs on the web.”
– Matthew Nehrling

“I visited the Learned Man! a year ago. I recently decided to revisit it and Whoa! A quantum leap in terms of professionalism. What is terrific is the insider news of the e-learning industry in a consolidated form, be they frank interviews with foreign experts about the state of the Indian e-learning industry or recent recruitments. A very helpful initiative!”
– Himali Mirchandani

“The Learned Man! has taken some great initiatives toward creating a community of e-learning professionals in India. I really appreciate his enthusiasm and energy.”
– Rakesh Poddar

“The E-learning blog is a great initiative Looking forward to more great things in the blog..”
– Balaji OS

Business Blogging: The Two Sides Of The Coin

Trawling through the blogosphere, I came across a couple of great posts on business blogging. There are some great take aways in there.

Chris Wetherell of massless in his post titled, "Corporate blogs, written well." says "I've grown to enjoy the official Yahoo! Search Blog and the Ask Jeeves Blog. They update frequently, have substantive, well-written posts and each blog has a unique style and is engaging. That corporate voice whose tenor usually creeps into the-song-every-company-likes-to-sing is dampened and even absent at times. Often each product announcement or investigation highlights a personal story that allows excitement to be palpable but downplays self-aggrandizement and often exposes the author's voice. It's real (or seems real) and it makes each post fun to read.

The Google Blog hasn't caught up yet. It's a surprising mis-representation - the culture we work in is fast, decisive, and colloquial but the blog voice is stiff. It's your not-so-cool uncle unbuttoning his shirt, listening to The Postal Service (but only the single of Such Great Heights) and proclaiming that Yeah, I totally dig your stuff you kids, this hip-hop speaks to me too. Um. Dogg. *flashes hang ten sign*."

I tend to disagree just a little bit on the Google blog, I have really liked their "How I Got To Google" series where they take up interesting recruits and get them to share their stories / talk about how they got to Google.

Dan James who is the CEO of silverorange, in his "CEO Blues" has a post titled, "Companies Can't Blog" where he says, "Companies don’t blog, people do. This simple truth is why we have CEOBlues.com, AcstofVolition, DeltaTangoBravo, WorksinTheory, and Newrecruit instead of blog.silverorange.com. A company, no matter how large, is a collection of people. It is those people that are interesting, not the company. It is those people that are best suited to shape a site and its content. It is those people who are the best representation of a company."

What Dan is saying is that instead of having a multi-user blog like http://blog.company.com you get your people to have their own blogs and let their individual personalities shine through. That may work great for Dan but I think the other way around where you actually have a http://blog.company.com and get your bright minds to blog on this one site will work well too. Being involved in the e-Learning space my case in point would be the in-the-news Tata Interactive Systems Corporate Blog which is a multi-author blog and which seems to be shaping up quite nicely. Good selection of topics, well written posts and good use of pictures to bring out the culture and personality of this company. These are interesting times and let us see how both of these kinds of blogs shape up and evolve!

The "All New" Learning Circuits Blog

The Learned Man has been included in the team that will author the Learning Circuits Blog under the stewardship of fellow blogger Dave Lee.

This multi-author team includes stalwarts Donald Clark, Ben Watson, Clark Aldrich, Clark Quinn, Stephen Downes, Godfrey Parkin, Jay Cross, Josh Bersin, Jim Schuyler, John Fallon, Judy, KnowledgeStar, Ryann Ellis, Mark, Peter Isackson, Spike, Richard, Scott Wilson, sokap, and Tom

The Learning Circuits Blog was Started in April 2002 by Jay Cross, to provide a forum for discussion of topics raised in Learning Circuits, LCB was one of the first "team blogs" on the Internet. Its all-star team of contributing authors sounds off on the latest issues in the e-learning field.

With the explosion in popularity of blogs in 2004, it was time for LCB to evolve. In January, Jay asked Dave Lee to step forward as Blogmeister for the group.

"The Learning Circuits Blog was one of the first multi-author blogs. I am hoping Dave, Ryann, and the LC Blogging Team evolve this one-way medium into a two-way, collaborative learning environment. Somebody's got to break new ground, and I can't think of a more worthy group to do it." - Jay Cross