Here are the top 10 blog posts (by page views) of 2011:

1. Gmail and GSA – one giant step forward for government (Friday June 17) – Joseph Peters  402 views
2. Why RIM Fails – The Kindle Fire (Thursday September 29) – Joseph Peters 289 views
3. Shaw’s Customer Conversations on Data Use. Great, but what about online tools…? (Tuesday March 1) – Ellis Westwood 246 views
4. Using NVivo to Truly Understand Participants’ Views and Ideas (Monday June 13) – Stephan Telka 98 views
5. Announcement – Mary Pat is becoming a Partner at Ascentum! (Monday September 19) – Holly Clark 82 views
6. A Short History of Crowdsourcing (Friday June 24) – Ellis Westwood 68 views
7. Social Media tackling obesity one picture at a time (Thursday April 14) – Cassandra Tavares 64 views
8. Inspiration and Iron Fists (Thursday September 22) – Joseph Peters 63 views
9. In Conversation with Ellis Westwood, Ascentum’s new Director of Project Innovation (Monday December 5) – Holly Clark 63 views
10. Kathleen Petty and Fostering Dialogue in Canadian Media (Tuesday July 12) – Stephan Telka 61 views

Looking forward to more great posts and conversations throughout 2012!

-Stephan Telka-

You’ve probably heard a lot about blogs recently. Maybe you even write your own!

Short for weblogs, people use blogs to write about things that are important to them: whether it’s news, politics or a simply a personal diary.

Blogs may seem like new “fad” technology, but they have exploded in popularity over the past two years. The reality is that people read blogs in large numbers!

A recent study shows that almost 60% of Canadian internet users read blogs – more than in the US, UK or Europe!

But, what does this mean for dialogue and deliberation? Well, it means…

• People are becoming more interested in reading other people’s stories, ideas and commentary.
• More blog readers means more Bloggers. People, as well as organizations, are becoming more interested in sharing their own experiences in an online space.
• Citizens are looking beyond “traditional” media sources for news and views about what’s happening in the world.
• Blogs, in addition to popular tools like Facebook, are leading to the growth of personal networks online where people develop relationships and share conversations.

Blogs are about helping people learn new ideas and share points of view.

So, more blogs means more dialogue and deliberation! And that’s good news for all of us…

- Ellis Westwood -