Applicant Community Blog
by Hella ~ May 18th, 2005I’m thinking about trying an experiment with next year’s applicant bloggers. This idea is largely a collaboration I’ve discussed over the past couple of months with Alex Brown.
As an applicant myself two cycles ago, I remember pouring over blog posts every day to catch up on the latest news. In an attempt to wade through the tangled web of content in a more organized manner, I decided to try Bloglines. But I was still left trying to navigate back to particular posts where I had commented in order to see if anyone had offered further commentary. So that’s where my main frustration is with the current state of things.
On a related note, it is oftentimes hard to find blog posts that match a particular category without going through the usual method of searching on Google by keyword. I think it would be more streamlined if bloggers were to categorize their posts among a somewhat standardized set of categories. However, Blogger doesn’t seem to allow this that I know of. And even if it did, what if people called their categories something slightly different.
So this is my idea (and I wonder if anyone at all would be interested). I am willing to setup a community blog that would have multiple authors. The authors all post and organize their content by categories. With the WordPress interface, I would be able to offer feeds by category or feeds by author, so really the only thing lost is the ability for individual authors to customize their template of their blogs (they would all use the same template). Plus, this would organize all the comments into one spot and produce very nicely organized posts for future reference. As the authors are admitted, they could then be transitioned into a student blog community by graduating class year.
To summarize, this would:
- Organize all posts by standard categories
- Centralize all comments for easy perusal across authors
- Produce one single master RSS feed for the entire community
If many authors were involved, it might be neat to add other features (via a custom database) to allow them to submit data on which schools they applied to, when they received status updates, where they have been admitted, and where they are matriculating. Some nice stats would come out of this.
May 18th, 2005 at 3:41 am
I would be interested to join in !
May 18th, 2005 at 7:54 am
Another program to look at for this is a drupal program called bryght and can be found here http://www.bryght.com/
I have been messing around with it for the University of St. Thomas.
Your idea I think would be a hit and a lot more user friendly than the current runaround system most of us readers have.
Andy
May 18th, 2005 at 8:58 am
I would be a game for this!!
May 18th, 2005 at 9:00 am
Something similar does exist at Fuqua albeit for a different purpose — keeping in touch with students on exchange. It’s a common journal, where all students on exchange can post their experience & keep in touch!
Check it out here - http://journals.fuquambaa.org/1
May 18th, 2005 at 9:40 am
Can you drop me an email: iwhoelse@gmail.com. I have something that may be of interest…
// Else
May 18th, 2005 at 10:11 am
Sounds like a good idea. Definitely more user friendly for blog readers, but maybe a little more work on the front for the blog writters.
Personally, I may have some concerns over control of content. Who determines the template (i.e. what links are included)? Is there an editor who oversees content of blog posts/comments or will it be a free for all? If it’s a community blog, what one person says could be seen as the view of the larger community, whether that’s what was intended or not. I like the fact that with my individual blog, I have control over the content that shapes my persona online. If I want to cuss, I can. If I want to get negative, I can. If I want to blow sunshine, I can. I’m ultimately responsible for my words, and my words only have an impact on me (in terms of my “reputation”). There is already a lot of concern in the blogging community about how our published views are perceived by classmates and what impact they have on that community. I worry that that issue is going to lead to some people censoring themselves, and I think the community blog may take that even a step further.
Don’t get my wrong though, I do like the idea and I think it could be a good thing, especially for blog readers.
I wish we could categorize posts on blogger too, although my posts are usually all over the map so I don’t know that it would help much! :)
May 18th, 2005 at 11:00 am
Great idea! Y’all are so creative. I suppose people could post in two spots if they wanted to keep their own blogs alive….
May 18th, 2005 at 12:34 pm
Curious, I wrote out a nice long comment and it vanished…. Hmm, I’ll recraft later.
May 18th, 2005 at 1:32 pm
Brad,
Have you considered going Wiki? I am actually working on an experimental wiki that’s a little different from what you envision but sort of brings people together to opine on a particular issue. Should go live before the end of the week.
May 18th, 2005 at 1:40 pm
very interesting … and something we are likely planning to do with the wharton adcom blog / diaries for this fall ?
May 18th, 2005 at 1:52 pm
Any attempt to impose order on a basic chaotic universe will result in chaos. (First Argegonian law)
While your intent is great, the number of categories that you will need to maintain will soon spiral out of control (pretty much like my label list on gmail) besides, all the bloggers will need to have the same idea of categories. As soon as bloggers become more familiar with the way a blog works, they will get expansive, and you will have posts that will need to be marked under different categories due to expanding material. After which the process will break down under the strain of a chaotic categorization structure.
Offcourse this is the worst case scenario, but eminently plausible. Other than that it is a great idea. :)
May 19th, 2005 at 4:03 am
Brad. That’s a great idea. I was actually going to suggest the same when I arrived at Wharton for the Wharton Diaries. All to say, count me in!
May 19th, 2005 at 4:41 am
Forgive me if this comment went through before. I think it’s a great idea. I also thought the Wharton Diarist posts should have been structured along similar lines. So, if you guys pursue the idea, I’m in!
May 19th, 2005 at 7:24 am
nice idea.. i have a small doubt.. all those writers whose blog inputs had lot if insight to application process have got admits and they would be starting with their B-school life. Then how would u find a new breed of writers who will provide the same indepth analysis as provided by the present batch.
:)
May 23rd, 2005 at 12:44 pm
Whatever happened to the comment I left the last time I visited? Me thinks you have a comment monster, eating your comments.
November 29th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
i googled for something completely different, but found your page… and have to say thanks. nice blog!