K-Blog Comes to a Halt

Back at the Innovations conference in March, I said I’d start a Learning and Development blog for staff. It later morphed into a knowledge management blog designed to revise a sales module we offer at our staff orientation. I recruited about eight subject matter experts and told several others I’d invite you in to watch the process.

Well, the process has been halted over a billing issue with Typepad, the blog host. After numerous help tickets, calls to both SSC and JPMorgan Chase, we’ve determined that the outside vendor Typepad uses tells them that I’m not entering a valid credit card security code when I fill out the appropriate field. Balderdash! I have verified my code with Chase and I’m using the correct one. My guest authors keep getting locked out.

Typepad does take the matter seriously, though. I’ve actually been able to talk with a human being from their customer service dept. And you know how much Internet companies hate to use telephone.-)

All this over a monthly charge of $14.95. (Last resort: I use a personal credit card, but only if the problem cannot be resolved.)

Other lessons I’ve learned. While the Blog Herald reports more than 100 million blogs, many people still have never read one, much less participated in one. If you’re going to set up a blog, I recommend you not only e-mail the info, but follow it up with a personal phone call or visit and be sure they understand how to gain access, read, and post.

I refuse to give up on this. I believe that K-blogs like this do have a use, for example, saving on meeting and travel costs.  (See David Collin’s entry proposing more emphasis be placed on electronic communication and less on face to face.)