Vol. 2: design-management.de

Hi All, as you might have noticed I’ve taken a week off after my latest blogging project for the SummerSchool at the Zollverein School of management and design. This has bee a quite challenging project however site statistics for the SummerSchool microsite are quite promising with a growing number of visitors. We’ll see how this develops over time.

Talking about “site statistics” I can proudly announce that my blog “design-management.de” has just “celebrated” its second anniversary. For more than 6 months now the monthly access statistics show a growing number of unique visits/IPs. The peek has been reached last month (July 2005) with:

18.252 unique site visits
2.757 unique IP addresses
from all around the world

On one hand this makes me proud (assuming that at least 50% are non search engine visitors) on the other hand I have no real clue about who these visitors are. In June 2005 some of you showed up by commenting on various postings and I even found some nice people from other blogs with whom I exchange ideas from time to time.

During the last days I’ve spent some time on thinking about the future of Vol. 2: design-management.de and right now I wavering if and how to continue it … Ironically I am close to understanding Jennifer’s point to be read here >>>

Even though I see myself as an early blogger (at least in the explicit “Design Management” area and which makes me proud) more and more blogs with increasing content overlapping are popping-up as well. (Hey, that’s capitalism, right?) Together with many free and exciting links sharing tools it’s almost impossible to trace and keep the pace on what’s going on there outside my narrowed “Design Management World”. Albeit I’m a passionate blogger I experience this development as “blogging overload”.

My prediction is that (at least for the “segment” of professional, topic related blogs on design, management, business, innovation and creativity) a market consolidation which is characteristic for “free markets” will begin in the blogsphere soon as well. Furthermore I see the phenomenon of “Network Effects” heavily working in the community as well and it’s interesting to see how I will be affected by this as well.

After all for me the question is: What will happen to Vol. 2: design-management.de in the near future? Maybe you the 2.757 unique IP addresses and visitors of this blog might want to help me understanding your needs and interests better. Therefore I was wondering these days about several issues:

• – What is your motivation visiting Vol. 2: design-management.de?
• – How often do you visit Vol. 2: design-management.de? (day, week, month, …)
• – How (if at all) do you benefit from Vol. 2: design-management.de?
• – What are the topics you’re interested in? What are other sources you visit in order to fulfill your needs?
• – What will you miss if Vol. 2: design-management.de will close down?

I would love to hear/read your answers, comments and/or perspectives on these issues and you can share your views either by commenting to this posting by clicking on “No or X Comments” below this posting or by sending me a personal email to: blog@design-management.de.