The first quarter of the year has gone already, and what a quarter it has been for large-scale disasters!
- Floods in Australia (Qld and Vic) and Brazil
- Cyclone in Queensland
- Snow Storm in NE USA
- Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand
- Tsunami in Japan, and all the subsequent trouble with radiation
- Earthquake in Greece
In the midst of all this we have had BC Awareness Week, and interestingly a range of discussions about if we really learn too much from these experiences. It is often the case that the organisations we work for do not learn about the need to maintain a level of preparedness.
I used the end of the quarter as a point for reflection. To compare the the posts that I have enjoyed researching and writing the most – and those that have had the most hits.
The most popular single page views during the quarter (in order) have been;
- From Piper Alpha to Deepwater Horizon
- This has been the most popular single page by a long margin
- It was one I enjoyed writing, which is great when it is popular to read
- It is also part of the series on Culture and Resilience, which has been my primary area of interest lately.
- A Focus on community
- I suspect this was popular due to people searching on the Rockhampton floods, rather than any intrinsic value to the post
- The series on AS/NZS 5050 is still getting a lot of interest
- If you added all 3 parts of the series together is is the most hit content on the blog.
- In some ways it is a shame – while I enjoyed writing it, and I think it is a good contribution to the standards approach, it is just a standard.
- It is also nice to see I am getting my money’s worth as I had to license the content from Standards Australia
- I tend to be disappointed when there is little or no interest in ideas and thinking – but massive interest in standards and “toy soldier” responses.
- Have to keep reminding myself, we are not a profession!
- Non-routine risk and resilience
- This one really surprised me, mainly because I published it March 3, 2010!
- It was also something that I was keen to write about at the time, and talks about ideas that underlie the approaches in AS/NZS 5050
- It was also, to the best of my recollection, the first time I wrote about the ideas of Aaron Wildavsky, which have been revisited in the Culture series.
So, overall a mixed bag of those keen to read about new ideas and those just looking to adopt a cookie cutter approach.
One thing that certainly still amazes me is the reach of this medium. In the quarter there were 531 visitors, from 49 countries. Top 3 being;
- Australia, approx 50%
- US , 20%
- UK, <10%
There were 26 posts during the quarter, the others I had hoped would have been more widely read include;
- The need for BC/Resilience people to develop skills in Sales and Marketing
- The idea of promoting resilience as a craft – rather than a science, and
- of course the Culture Series I noted above.
Finally, with respect to my 3 focus words. Observatory has been neglected and will have to get some attention in coming weeks.
Craft is about the skills and their application. This has been well covered, but I am becoming concerned about about learning and acquisition of these skills – in particular the “soft skills””. It is what we do with these skills that matters – what we produce rather than the way we go about applying them.
Community is never ending. Disappointing in number of comments – only 8, perhaps I should be more controversial!
I would appreciate you telling me WHAT WOULD MOTIVATE YOU TO MAKE A COMMENT ON A POST?
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