Contact/Blog Style Guide

Blog Posts
All blog posts should have a strapline introducing the writer, their work in the field of Open Data and a brief abstract of the content. They should also be categorized and tagged so that they are easier for people to find.

There are three types of post can be contributed to the OKF blog: standard blog posts, updates and feature pieces. Any ideas, queries, proposals, or demands should be addressed to blog [at] okfn [dot] org

Below is a brief style guide for writing blog contributions:

Keep it snappy.
600-800 words is plenty. Readers generally have a rather short attention span when they’re reading online - think about what it is you  want to tell people, and make sure you get it into your first or second  paragraph. Posts longer than 800 words will be edited down, so you can save us lots of work by keeping under the word limit. If your post for the OKF blog is an edited version of a longer post, we can link  through to the full version somewhere else, so that people who want to  can get the full story!

Highlight the particular.
Part of the strength of our community lies in the fact that so many people  are following closely related paths in divergent corners of the world. To keep your posts interesting, be sure to explain the particular challenges you have faced and vision that you have - the things that  distinguish your experiences from those of others around the world. Anecdotes and stories are great to help with this.

Write for the layman
As well as being a forum for us to share our ideas with each other, the OKF blog is a place where the uninitiated can learn about the importance of the open data movement. Much of the nuts and bolts work we do can be difficult to articulate. Keep it fairly simple, and exciting. And again, we can link through to a longer version of a post where you go into more detail.

Send us a picture!
All posts will have a picture with them, and it would be great if you could decide what that picture should be. A photo, a screenshot, an illustration or a graph - whatever it is, images help make words talk.

Updates
These are even shorter entries - 100-300 words - coming both from the OKF working groups and from related projects around the world. Send us your news as and when it happens, and we’ll keep the community updated! Our newsletter won’t be carrying these kind of updates anymore, so please do  contact us to make sure your stories are getting heard.

Feature Pieces
At any time there will be at least one featured post, giving more in-depth  coverage to a particular project or issue. These may be up to 1500 words in length. We plan to have thematic coverage of a topic, so if you are interested in writing a more extended piece for the blog it would  be *amazing* if you were able also to suggest other people working in the same field who could contribute shorter pieces to a discussion. If you’d like to write a longer piece, please get in touch and let us know  what you’d like to write about. And the guidelines for standard posts will still largely apply.

Keeping track of Guest Blog Posts
Keep track of guest blog posts via the Google form: https://spreadsheets8.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?hl=en_US&key=tWIJwrGGXbFLhCWU7kB0hUg&hl=en_US#gid=0