Where can I go to learn more about project management? Where can I go to learn more about gardening? Where can I go to learn more about building a deck? It the “olden days”, you used to have to get off of your butt and go to a library for in-depth information on subjects like this. Even if you had a set of encyclopedias, you still had to get up out of the chair, walk over to a bookshelf and select a book. With the Internet and laptops, you don’t have to travel any farther than your recliner and there is a world of information in front of you!
Well, I’m going to add to your long list of online resources today. Hopefully, these can be as much of a resource to you as they have been for myself. I wouldn’t throw away my textbooks for these, but if you know little about a topic, many of these can get you quickly jump-started.
You have heard me mention Helium before. Helium is a place for writers to get published online on a wide variety of topics. I have a small number of project management articles published there. The neat thing about Helium is that it is very competitive. Helium approves an article’s title and writers write to the topic, which ensures some measure of quality control. Other writers rank the articles so that the best ones tend to float to the top. On the down side, the best may or may not make it to the top because of bias. For that reason, an article’s ranking can change dramatically over time. Obviously, the higher ranking articles are the most likely to get the most hits.
You have heard me mention Associated Content as well. Associated Content is also a place for writers to get published online on a wide variety of topics. Unlike Helium, there is no ranking system, but instead Associated Content offers an area for comments. If you like a particular article on project management, for example, you could leave a comment on the article’s page. Associated Content also allows a little more flexibility because the author can choose their own title, add a picture to the article, add additional links and even specify a limited number of keywords. Because Associated Content allows the authors to pick their own titles, it is easier to get upfront payments, but it also means the upfront payments tend to be lower.
There’s also Bright Hub. From Bright Hub themselves: “Bright Hub’s goal is simple: share knowledge about how the simplest scientific idea evolves into tomorrow’s technology.” I will leave it to you to decide how accurate that statement is, but I can tell you that Bright Hub writers must be approved before being able to write for them. Unfortunately, they seem to have other hurdles that make it confusing and not too easy to start out. However, from what I’ve seen of their project management articles, I do like the quality of them.
Lastly, there is Examiner.com. It is somewhat more like a blog, except the bloggers are called “examiners” are expected to be an expert on what they are writing about. Examiner.com has an application process also. I cannot tell you much about the application process, as I’ve never applied there. I don’t like how the interface works, frankly, and I do not want to write for a site that I have trouble reading, keeping up with the comments and navigating. However, others may not find it as distracting, and there are decent articles on a variety of subjects on Examiner.com, including project management, naturally.
There are many more that I could have mentioned, but I wanted to put out information on the ones I am familiar with. If you have a favorite resource that has quality project management material on it, please include a link to it in the comments.
Random Acts of IT Project Management 