The word carnival is an interesting one. For instance, I never knew it was held at a particular time of year, and as ever, Wikipedia shines the light on the world of ignorance on this soul. The definition I’m most interested in though is this one from good ole dictionary.com:
car·ni·val [kahr-nuh-vuhl] noun
1. a traveling amusement show, having sideshows, rides, etc.
In the UK, we don’t really have carnivals – or none that I’m aware of. We have funfairs and circuses and village and/or street parties, but nothing like a carnival. Either way, I’m not getting hung up on the etymology or cultural significance of what a carnival is. I’m more interested in how the blogging world has decided to take the concept of a carnival and adapt it for its own purpose.
A blog carnival is essentially where a blogger hosts a series of posts written by other bloggers and it centres on a theme. Here’s a good example of a recent carnival – The Carnival of HR Fall Colors edition. You can see how the host blogger has taken the time to help give a glimpse into each of the posts she’s linking to, and adds her own flavour to each in keeping with the theme of fall colors (Yes, I know it’s spelled ‘colours’, but it’s an American blog).
As I see it, blog carnivals are another way to curate posts and share them to a different audience. In #connectinghr circles we have two people that come to mind who do this curation really well – Michael Carty on XpertHR, and Martin Couzins on Learn Patch.
Over in them thar parts of the US of A, blog carnivals are quite the online event. And with good reason too, they’re a really good way of helping to support and promote fellow bloggers. The HR community over there have a long line up of people waiting to host carnivals and that’s a credit to the people who care for their blogs.
On these shores here, I’d like to see us UK HR (broad sense) bloggers take up the mantle and show what we’re made of too. We’re a good bunch of writers, and an ever increasing number too. More and more professionals are seeing the benefits of writing a regular blog. From coaching to employment law to recruitment to employee relations to learning and development to organisational development, it’s all covered. Many of us are aware of the regular ‘popular’ bloggers, and my fear is the new starters or the ones trying to make their voice heard, aren’t getting through.
So on Tuesday 30th October, I’m looking to host a UK HR Blog Carnival. The theme is ‘When potential comes to fruition’. If you want to take part, please write something on your own blog, and send me the link by Friday 26th October. The title of your post doesn’t need to be the theme, but your post should use the theme to prompt what you write about. I’m happy for bloggers in others parts of the world to take part too, so send on your link before the date.
My hope is that this becomes a regular blogging activity for UK HR bloggers. For now, let’s see how this first one goes, and we’ll take it from there. So get involved, get writing, and get me the link by Friday 26th October.
Cheers!
October 22nd, 2012 at 18:10
Sukh,
I’m honored that you’ve chosen to feature my blog carnival as a positive example. Yes, we bloggers from the American Midwest love our fall “colors”
I agree that there is much to learn from Michael Carty. Wishing you all the best in your exploration of the learning and development field!
October 23rd, 2012 at 21:01
A pleasure, it was a good example to help give others a sense of what a carnival is all about.
October 26th, 2012 at 13:35
[...] This post is part of the carnival of HR and L&D Blogs taking place over at Thinking About Learning. For more information click on this link. [...]
October 27th, 2012 at 08:28
Here’s weelearning’s contribution to the Carnival, Sukh!
http://weelearning.co.uk/2012/10/when-potential-comes-to-fruition/
October 28th, 2012 at 18:25
Hello! Thanks very much for sending through the link to your post. Could I ask you to adjust the introduction? This isn’t an L&D Connect driven piece, just a call to action for UK HR Bloggers. Additionally, I’m hoping this is not just a one off. That kind of means the whole introduction may need a re-write… sorry!
October 27th, 2012 at 14:10
Hi Sukh
Hereby my post from Human Resources Global Limited.
Thanks for opportunity!
http://www.humanresourcesglobal.com/2012/10/news/enter-at-your-own-risk-potential/
October 29th, 2012 at 09:53
[...] blog post is part of the UK HR Blog Carnival (details here), where a number of bloggers are writing about ‘When potential comes to [...]
October 29th, 2012 at 11:56
[...] This is a different blog to the one I would have written if I had been able to see properly. Having said that, the points I wished to raise were covered very eloquently by both David Goddin and Alison Chisnell. I urge you to check out their posts and others in the HR Carnival so ably organised by Sukh Pabial [...]