Recently in blogging Category

You should notice today the blog looks a little different. That's because it is now hosted on Movable Type Version 4, which Zach at Cazinc helped me set up. It's also given me the opportunity to review my existing strategy/design/ approach etc.

The biggest change is that I have integrated all the content from my two previous blogs, this one and Moosehat.com into one place. I wanted a simpler life and have been thinking about having a single blog for a long time.

The design is still a work in progress but for today it is good enough to get working on. I still have a few things to do on the 'infrastructure', such as reinstall Disqus, then I'll work on the whole look and feel.

You will notice the Current Activity and Find Me Elsewhere blocks to the right. These are courtesy of Action Streams, although I did try friendfeed (the widget was not very flexible) and Zach just pointed me at Swurl, which I'll take a look at.

UPDATE: Action Streams is killing the servers in the background for this blog, so has been discontinued. Still looking at different options for this.

One request I do have of my loyal readers, is that if you subscribe through a feed please delete and resubscribe so you are picking up the updated version! Of course any comments and feedback would be welcome.

Tonight I had the pleasure of presenting to CMA members "A conversation about blogging." The intention was to give an overview of the subject and give some examples about why a Certified Management Accountant should even care about blogging.

My presentation is below and can be downloaded as a pdf here. When you look at the example slides, double clicking should launch your browser and take you to that page. Of course it may look slightly different as there may be new posts on the blog!

There was a good and attentive audience and my feeling is that the presentation was well received. I am not the world's most experienced presenter so I'm looking forward to receiving feedback from the people in the room.

To get things going my own impression was that the presentation was too long and that I could spend more time making some of the slides with screen shots more interesting. The balance of course if that an internet is not always available and being skilled in 'showing' websites live can be more difficult that it looks!

The presentation was followed by a very enjoyable dinner at a local restaurant. For me it was a very rewarding evening, sharing one of my passions with a new audience. If you are reading this and came to the event I would really value your comments to this post!

Technorati Tags: blogging, CMA, storytelling, technology

This week I will be giving a talk about blogging to members of the Society of Certified Management Accountants in Vancouver. My self-written publicity looks like this:

Stewart Marshall, a UK designated Chartered Management Accountant, financial storyteller and blogger introduces ...

A conversation about blogs.

What they are, who used them, who writes them, how you find them and why, as a CMA you should care. Stewart will answer these questions and introduce you to one of the most important communication tools available today. By translating the buzzwords and the geekery, he will illustrate the potential of this worldwide resource to you and your business. Stewart will explain how as a CMA, you can maximise the opportunity blogging presents, capitalize on the knowledge it can give you and even how you can participate yourself!

It should be a fun evening, I just need to finalise the slides ....

More information at the CMA BC website.

Technorati Tags: blogging, CMA, event, storytelling, Vancouver

I've just registered to attend Barcamp Vancouver 2007. What is Barcamp Vancouver 2007? According to the website it is:

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees are encouraged to give a demo, a session, a presentation, or help with one. All attendees are expected to be participants. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

So I'm going to talk about bloggers and beancounters, i.e. accountants and whether or not these are just two different types of geek! Seriously, I've been exploring the blogging experience from the point of view of an accountant and asking the same questions I suspect are asked by other groups of people.

WHAT is blogging anyway ? WHAT is the fuss about? WHO is doing it? WHY should I do it ? and maybe then HOW do I do it? Actually the last bit is not likely on this occasion as the audience will doubtless be more aware than I on that matter.

I have to prepare in advance of course and so far have only initial thoughts, but it has always struck me that the technology geeks I meet who wax on about things like Drupal, Ajax and countless other seemingly bazarre forms of techno-babble are very much like accountants.

Accountants talk about auditing, governance, double-entry, accruals and even more forms of accounting-babble. My question would be is the babble of one subject much the same as the babble from another? If as I suspect it is, then why can't one group choose to get involved in the other? My only floor in this arguement, so far that is, is that I can see plenty of accountants becoming bloggers, but how many bloggers will want to become accountants?

I'll write more about this as I firm up my thoughts, if you would like to contribute, please comment below. In the meantime I'm attendee 103, the event is filling up fast!