Andy and I are working on making some changes to make this blog better. We've been working through a vision statement and brainstorming some (hopefully) great new things for the blog. I've been putting more energy in to the bigger picture than the posts lately, so I apologize for not getting to some of the subjects I've been meaning to. Next week, I hope to get to the altruism in markets and tragedy of the commons subjects that have been requested by readers.
With that said, I'd like your input on what you'd like to see on the blog. I've been thinking about some potential series:
- Reader Challenge: We vote on what article/book we'd like to read. A couple of weeks later, there are posts on the blog about the article/book. Hopefully, we'll get a critical mass reading so we can have a back-and-forth about the selection.
- Podcasts: Would you listen to short podcasts?
- Live Chats: We'd pick a TV event to watch and use some cool software that would allow everyone to chat back and forth with each other. I've seen people do this with football games and such, so I don't know how well it'd work for non-sports topics, but if you're up for it, I am!
- Connect with the Classics: This series of posts would focus in on primary source authors (Hayek, Mises, Bastiat, others in the reference list of The Science of Success).
- Talk Back: There's a neat service that takes voice mails and turns them into MP3s, which means I could give you a phone number to call in and answer a question or comment. Then, I could turn those voice mails into a series of answers, which I could put out on the blog in audio form.
Anyway, those are some things I've been thinking about. I'd like to find ways to get everyone talking/commenting and thinking about MBM and liberty. Let me know what you think of those or whatever else you'd like to see.
It seems like the blog doesn't really delve into some of the more significant issues nor does it follow up/consider in detail some of the questions it asks. MBM is a fascinating topic and it was because of The Science of Success that I came across this blog but I haven't found that this blog offers as much value as it could.
Where the Science of Success was particularly useful was in the telling of specific stories - how the theory was applied, considering some of the risks and benefits, etc. That's something I hope this blog can bring out more. I think many of us who read this blog already agree conceptually with many of the ideas, but understanding how it gets applied (and obtaining the buy-in of others) is a different world altogether.
Posted by: Clement Wan | 27 September 2010 at 10:29 AM
Clement, thanks for the comment. This type of direct, specific feedback helps us tremendously. I will be certain to bring this point directly to the writers and see if we can take steps to get closer to application.
Are there any specific issues that you'd like to see us focus on? Would you like to see something like a case-based method where we present a case, everyone discusses what they'd do and then what happened is shown a week later or something like that?
Posted by: Ann zerkle | 27 September 2010 at 11:23 AM
I think it's far easier to approach MBM from a theoretical stance, like de Tocqueville, etc. - but it's far more difficult to visualize how this can be applied in practice. Failures as well as successes here would be helpful - as I can see how there can be a lot of potential for failure in implementation even if the basic ideas are sound.
I think cases are interesting - if they're real though you might have difficulty getting enough discussion? possibly a few issues that you find/elicit and first present the views of what you as experts think should be done but also open it up for discussion? I don't think attention spans are long enough to have too much of a time period between the case/problem and answer. Though if one particular case has sufficient feedback, a further followup would be helpful?
Posted by: Clement Wan | 27 September 2010 at 01:27 PM
Oh... as well... I notice for some reason you don't have the option on your blog to get notification if there are new responses... that would be really good to add or else a commenter has to return manually to check.
Right now I read your blog off a blog reader for instance and rarely actually come to the actual site. But I do think opt in email notification would be helpful for more engagement?
Posted by: Clement Wan | 27 September 2010 at 01:30 PM
I will take a stab at describing one of my many POVs on who the customer is for this blog:
Similar to what Clement was saying, I would expect that the typical contributor/reader is already sold on MBM, so we aren't looking for evangelism.
I would also expect that customer-X is willing to read, so for the regulars an assignment that allows us to look forward to a particular post would be fantastic.
Live Chats sounds amazing, but given the potential cost, I won't get my hopes up.
The only other thing that would be pretty neat is if on here, there was a sub-blog/wiki type interface that was a separate subscription, yet easy to find where persons are encouraged to post a problem that is harder to solve than usual in order to solicit feedback. This would have to allow multiple contributors, instead of just Ann, Ben, Al and Andy... I suppose it would be necessary to remind posters that this is a public forum and specifics cannot be divulged... take that back, it may be too hard to work out, i retract my request.
Posted by: David McGinnis | 27 September 2010 at 02:57 PM
David - a simpler solution is to send out a call to submissions of discussions of specific cases/questions from time to time so that there is no need for something as technically involved. Heck, there could be a regular "from the mailbox" type feature where if they don't get queries, make them up or solicit them and say that they are from the mailbox.
If the quality of the submissions/requests and the responses are sufficiently good, the number of organic/natural additional requests will also grow/begin.
Posted by: Clement Wan | 29 September 2010 at 01:43 PM
And that's why we value diversity of thought. good point.
Posted by: David McGinnis | 30 September 2010 at 08:10 AM
A live chat would be something i would enjoy a great deal. I get the most value from the interaction and the discussion of MBM.
In my operations group we have just completed a series of reintroductions to MBM with the 87 operators that are in our department and gaining there trust in how MBM is designed to empower them to do things because they create value. What im finding is now they will talk about MBM and the lightbulbs will go off.
Posted by: Johnnie Pearson | 30 September 2010 at 01:29 PM
One more thing on the Live Chats, Microsoft Net Meeting could be used as the venue. We already have it and it works like any other chat room on yahoo.
Posted by: Johnnie Pearson | 30 September 2010 at 01:31 PM
I agree with the ideas about posting real life examples - that helps me most. I really like the idea of presenting real situations and asking us "what would you do?" type questions to solicit our feedback. The days I like it best here are the ones when the original post sparks an idea and more than one person submits their perspective on the topic.
Posted by: Tammy Carroll | 30 September 2010 at 02:23 PM
Thanks to everyone for their comments! As we dig deeper into the vision/purpose of the blog, I'll be bringing these into the conversation. Always feel free to comment or shoot me an email if you think of anything else.
Posted by: Ann Zerkle | 01 October 2010 at 08:54 AM