Review of a Blog

In my academic activities I have consulted and referred to blogs. I inform my teaching from my research as well as latest developments in industry. For the latter, one way has been me using industrial contacts which can be accessed these days via their views expressed in their blogs. In my understanding, as at times we use ‘personal communication’ as a reference and citation in our academic works and publications. Nowadays, a reference to a bog of a person is not far from ‘personal communication’ type of reference.

In my latest research paper, I particularly referred to one blog which is authored and run by Professor Richard Ashley who has established a world-wide reputation and impact in the water environment. I have known him for just under two decades. His blog is contains information about flooding issues. One of my research interests is flooding and climate change. His blog has been useful to provide me up to date information from the industry and commerce regarding flooding. Research and technological advances reported in journals and books can not be as up to date as they could be falling a few years behind what is happening in right at the cutting edge of the industrial and commercial sector. However, authenticity of a blogger could be an issue, that is why I would prefer to follow blogs of well established names in industry, at least nationally if not worldwide.

Another aspect of blogs is that you can save ample time in terms of ‘personal communication’. For instance, I did not have to speak the Professor to collect his latest thoughts on flooding issues. I can simply consult his blog. However, if a blog is not kept up to date regularly, then that could be an issue and you might have to contact and speak to the blogger directly to gather his latest thoughts and views about a certain topic. In case of blog of the Professor, it is regularly updated. His blog’s link is given below as an example should one want to visit. I want to render my blog look like his when I reach his stage of career.

Another aspect of me consulting blogs is that I can narrow down my questions and queries, should there be any, to much much fewer. For instance, from the blog of Professor Ashley, I found that there is one specific aspect I need to talk to him and I contact him via his email for which I got the response and that informed my academic endeavor at the time.

http://www.engineeringnaturesway.co.uk/author/richardashley/