A critical aspect of working with Nyaya, either as a staff member or volunteer, is to document our experiences and reflections on global health delivery through writing, video, and photos. Note that this is distinct from typical "journal writing" since it is public and reflects not only upon you but upon the organization and the communities in which you are working. In particular, when considering blog entries, we need to keep in mind that there is an important difference between our wiki and our blog. Our wiki is to the global health delivery community, can be rough, speculative, immature (yet should always be formal and refined). The blog however is to the public - in particular we're targeting supporters who will often not be medical or public health folk. We should always consider what message we convey, and how we brand our organization in the public sphere when we write blog entries. In short, nothing should ever go on the blog that isn't completely refined and worked through first.
Author Guidelines
General Principles
- Report on your experiences working in an impoverished and rural place, but do not glorify, disrespect, or otherwise belittle the communities in which you work
- Do not write disrespectful things about people, governments, or groups. The blog is not a place for making highly politicized statements.
- Send to a few Nyaya members as well as blog@ to look over. Preferably, you would send this as a google document and the photo attached. The blog manager (blog@ ) will post.
- Provide an appropriate category. Note that "News" items are automatically linked to our home page, so such items should be relevantly titled, very positive, and appropriate. Patient stories should never be news, and should always be categorized as "Patient Stories"
- Be absolutely rigorous and generous in providing appropriate references and acknowledgements and quotations when referencing outside sources. This article, on academic dishonesty, should be mandatory reading for all our authors: Did the penalty fit the crime?
- Sign your post with your name(s) in italics at the top of the post, right-justified.
-
Understand that other Nyaya members may edit your posts after posting if they feel there is some misrepresentation, but they will always do so with an email to you informing them of the change. We allow each other to edit our published posts because of the need for timely response to any potentially damaging writings. This is really so that we all may become better activists and writers.
-
Blogging as Personal Reflection, Organizational Marketing
It is important that our bloggers reflect on their personal experiences and make the blog personal to them. At the same time, it should be clear that the blog is a mouthpiece of the organization, and while a multiplicity of perspectives, ideas and approaches is encouraged to be represented, all ideas purveyed on the blog are representative of the organization. Nyaya Bloggers are encouraged to present their personal views, however all blog posts are reviewed and collaboratively edited via blog@nyayahealth.org prior to publication. Each entry should adhere to standards including 1) the entry meets basic professional standards [i.e., all entries must be polished and well-written]; 2) the entry conveys sentiments in concordance with Nyaya's vision and mission; 3) the entry does not make accusatory/inflammatory statements.
Blogging Should have Narrative or Intellectual Content
Most blog entries should not merely report on particular happenings or events but should carry a basic story and message that engages the reader. For example, unlike the wiki, which details protocols divorced from storyline, the blog describes the real-life application of these protocols in the context of our overall mission of pursuing health and social justice. Frequent reference to the wiki (see below on indexing) as footnotes to the blog post, but the blog content itself should be distinct from the more dry details found on the wiki.
Issues Pertaining to Patient Stories
- Patient stories should be appropriate to the lay reader and emphasize the social medicine and rural healthcare delivery aspects of the case. All medical terms must be explained very clearly.
- Include pictures with your text. These must be linked from picassa; guidelines on how to do this: http://wiki.nyayahealth.org/Communications#Pictures
- If you do not have a picture for the exact story, choose a general clinic photo.
- Make sure to include the names of all staff. It is important that you highlight the work of all staff and not just the doctor.
- Please include the age, gender, and home village of the people in your stories.
Indexing and Dissemination
The success of the blog depends upon successful indexing on major search engines such as Google. This requires that you follow the following:
- Include appropriate tags (e.g., health, caste, hiv). Include your name as a tag as well.
- Post, when appropriate to ghdonline.org and any other highly-indexed blogs that might be of interest. Google indexing depends largely on the number and quality of links that link us.
- Send to colleagues and encourage them to post on their blogs.
Maintaining a Positive and Diplomatic Approach
While we deal with challenging and often frustrating subjects and issues, it is important to maintain a certain amount of diplomatic decorum to avoid having a negative impact. The blog does not aim to be a "whistle-blower" to call out specific injustices but rather aims to tackle systemic injustices that Nyaya and the community members in which we work face. As such, care should be taken not to name specific individuals or institutions in an acusatory fashion.
One important reason to avoid naming individuals (not necessarily by name but by descriptions that are specific enough like DHO or a particular AHW or the government engineer or the water inspector) is about the potential backlash. We, who make these posts, usually do not have to directly deal with any backlash from the individuals we are accusing on our blog posts. But maybe the doctor or our accountant or whoever will get stopped in the street and confronted by the govt engineer or whoever. Maybe the next time we go to Mangalsen for some govt work, we will be asked about why we are writing on our blog that the government workers may have received bribes. Maybe the next meeting with the water committee will become more problematic for our medical director because we wrote about their possible corrupt practices.
While many of us would like to make strong statements and try to hold those responsible accountable for their actions, we have to tread carefully when we and our staff are vulnerable to getting poorly treated because of certain things we say on the blog that may be well-intentioned but can be interpreted as negative and accusatory.
Types of Entries
As above, blog entries should always have an "angle". But they can fall in different categories:
News-- note that these all feed into the home page as a "News" item on the left-hand bar
Patient Stories
Logistics and Management
Social Justice
Mortality Reviews
Blog Writing Protocol
Review by Blog Editorial Board
Writers should draft their blog pieces in google docs for collaborative editing within blog(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org, which is the listserve that includes the blog editors. To do so, first create a new document, title it "[Blog Drafts] TITLEOFYOURPIECE" then write your text. As per the guidelines above, we recommend heavy linking to other sites; URLs for these links should be embedded within that document.
When you have created a satisfactory draft, click on the top right icon to "share the document". Click on the arrow next to it and select share setting. In the permission box, make sure you click on the change option on the right and select "Anyone who has the link can edit". Click on the share tab and enter blog(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org at the bottom of the pop up screen where it states add people (obviously actually writing the @(AT) and the . (DOT)-- we can't post the physical address here for auto-spammers) . Next to where you add the address, there is a box that allows you to select whether they can view or edit. Choose the option to edit. Make sure in the personal message you add the original weblink to the document to send to blog@ (found within the dialogue box itself, just copy/paste). This is done because link that is sent by google docs requires everyone to have a nyayahealth email address. Finally, be sure to click "paste the item itself into the email"-- this is done to facilitate a quick-read by any editors who are currently in Achham or other places with poor internet access.
Subsequently, the blog editorial will discuss the piece with the author cc'd on all correspondence. The editorial board will work with the writer to identify areas of improvement as well as potential editors who will collaboratively edit the piece. The editorial board aims to review and formally decide acceptance or rejection for all blog submissions within two weeks. In cases requiring significant editing, or in times of great demands on the editorial board's time, the process may be extended significantly.
Nyaya Health Team Review
Upon acceptance, the writer will be given a final date for publication. This final date will be typically within 7 days and a maximum of 14 days from acceptance. It is the writer's responsibility to post the draft immediately to team(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org for review. The blog draft is sent in the same fashion as discussed above for sending to This is done so that the broader Nyaya Health team has an opportunity to review and comment on the piece. This "editorial crowd sourcing" helps to ensure quality by detecting final typographical errors as well as stylistic or marketing missteps.
Publishing to Wordpress
This is typically done by the Blog Manager, except in the case of regular, seasoned writers for whom posting privilege is granted. Login info to the blog: http://docs.google.com/a/nyayahealth.org/Doc?docid=df8rgpnb_15ctnjkthr&hl=en (nyaya login ID)
The final google document should be cut-pasted into MSWord and then cut-pasted into the blog (weird bug to preserve formatting). Photos should be embedded within wordpress.
1) Cut - paste the title at the top of the page.
2) Edit the permalink appropriately, with a simple URL and without apostrophes or other strange character
3) Check on the appropriate categories relevant to the blog on the right side of the page
4) On right hand side of screen, click edit next to "Publish immediately" and select the date you wish to publish.
5) Click the blue button that says "schedule"
6) Schedule the post for 0:00.
6) "Status" should now read "scheduled".
To post a slideshow of pictures, go to www.gmail.com with the following information:
id: nyayahealth
password: achhamdoti2063
At the top, click on the arrow and select photos. This will take you to the picasa gallery. Based on which pictures you need, you either select an existing album or look in the drop box and create a new album with a subject. If you want to select a couple of pictures from the drop box, you will need to click on edit at the top of the page and select organize and reorder. Select the pictures you need using the cntl left mouse click. Cut and paste the pictures from the drop box to the new album. Once this is done, change the captions for the pictures and then on the right side of the webpage select RSS. This is the web address you will need to copy. Once the address is copied, go to word press and make a new post. To insert the slide show you type the following in the textbox: [st picasa=PICASA_FEED_URL].
Final Quality Check
The Blog Manager is ultimately responsible for the final quality review to ensure a professional quality and error-less posting. This is critical given that the blog is a key strategic marketing media. Upon posting, the quality check performed by the Blog Manager will be done by clicking on the post in preview mode and:
-read out loud the post to catch any final spelling/grammar errors
-make sure the post has an author
-make sure all photos are high-quality and appropriately captioned
-make sure sufficient tags have been created
-make sure there are the appropriate categories
-make sure the blog URL is concise
Blog Management
Personnel
The blog is managed by the following individuals:
1. Chief Editor. This is the Director of Operations of Nyaya Health. S/he has ultimate veto power over any submissions if they are not of satisfactory quality. Ideally, s/he does not take part in line-editing of pieces but rather delegates that to the rest of the editorial board.
2. Blog Manager. The blog manager operates operates the blog. S/he is responsible for reviewing pieces submitted to the blog, as well as delegating the editing responsibilities as needed to other members. The contract for this position is here The Director of Operations of Nyaya Health
3. Blog Editors. The editors are called upon to edit blog pieces.
The blog@ listserve serves two primary functions: 1) it acts as the central email to which all blog submissions go, as managed by the blog manager; 2) it allows other members interested in the blog to see blog submissions as they come in, so if they have some insight or comments prior to publication, they may provide them. The observer-members are not expected to read all the submissions and will not typically edit submissions unless requested by the blog manager. More about group listserves. Note that all Nyaya members will receive the blog post once it is published and can comment and request edits/revisions as needed, so not being an observer/member of the blog@ list certainly does not exclude Nyaya members from the blog process.
Working with Writers
It is important to recognize that writers come from very different backgrounds and skill levels. Some might have extensive experience in writing polished pieces for public audiences. These writers should be encouraged broadly to engage in whatever topics they are passionate about, and should be given significant creative leeway, keeping in mind of course the general flow/themes/styles of the blog. It can be off-putting to the more "sophisticated" writers to give them a bland "assignment". For the more novice writers, however, there needs to be significant cncouragement and provision of blog topics to help them to overcome the writers' inertia.
Comments and Pingbacks
Blog@ will get emails with comments from people which sometimes might be spam. Evaluate the comment and its applicability to the blog and accept/reject it. Typically accept unless 1) trying to sell something 2) is neg Word Press will also send an automated ping back in your inbox. Again if it is relevant/not selling anything/positive/professional, accept; else reject.
Subscriptions
Readers can subscribe via the website. This is managed automatically; there really is no management tasks for this. To view current subscriptions (to monitor performance), go to main blog admin console Tools>>Subscriptions.
Monitoring Uptake/Usage
Every month, our google analytics account will automatically send to blog@ a monitoring summary of the blog usage. This is done within the google.com/analytics console with login info from http://docs.google.com/a/nyayahealth.org/Doc?docid=df8rgpnb_14zks3mvgm&hl=en
The blog manager and chief editor are responsible for discussing usage on at least on a semi-annual basis, and strategically planning as necessary for any changes to increase usage.
Scheduling of Blog Posts
Blog post scheduling will be determined by the blog manager via blog(AT)nyayahealth(DOT)org. Scheduling will be maintained with the following ideas in mind:
- There is inconsistent supply of blog posts and scheduling should accommodate this ebb and flow.
- It is important to maintain regular and consistent content on our blog, both to engage our readers and encourage them to continue following our work, as well as to maintain a professional appearance.
- Some blog posts are important to maintaining relationships and/or networking and may receive priority in the blog queue (for instance, reports that Nyaya has received support from a new foundation).
Publishing Webinars
Oftentimes, at conferences we present webinars that are uploaded to our slideshare page. These should be embedded within the blog. To do so, go to the slideshare viewing portal. Make sure you can see the slide show on your screen. On the left, you will see 5 icons, the wordpress icon is the 4th icon. Click on it and copy the address that is on the wordpress hosted blogs. Copy and paste the code that starts with "[slideshare id= " directly into the post wherever desired. See examples here:
http://blog.nyayahealth.org/2010/03/07/nyaya-presents-its-work-at-globemed-summit-2009/http://blog.nyayahealth.org/2009/07/10/anmf_conference/http://blog.nyayahealth.org/2009/04/24/telemed_symposium/
Additional Blog Ideas
Please post additional blog post ideas here: Sandbox_Blog
Press & Publicity
For information specifically about Press and Publicity, please see PressRelations and PublicityAndPress.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.