tyabblemons Said:

Not an easy thing to do. You can send text messages, but that has many limitations, and group messaging not easy. The way we chose to do it was to use some free tools - Evernote, Postach.io, and Disqus are all needed to host the blog.

Postach.io gave us the ability to make a password protected blog - and this was the key. I made our Disqus comments private, and we had a closed system behind a password that we could use to communicate from any browser.

I thought it would be hard to get people to check the blog every day. I offered a small prize each day for a competition winner. Winning the competition was easy, and mostly relied on being the first person to read the 'prize' post. It turned out that I didn't really need to do this, although it's been so much fun that we've kept the tradition going. The family check the blog of their own accord, in their own time. And if I don't publish enough, they tell me to hurry up!

The things we post about are varied. Even our dinner plans are posted. This stops people asking "What's for dinner?" every night. We ask for jobs to be done, and we get no moaning about it. Everyone recognises that they're a part of a bigger picture, and the job they do is important. They can see that by looking at the post. They do their jobs without any protest. This is rather amazing!

We post about current events, and projects, and a million and one other things that families need to communicate. Politics, hobbies, pictures. Planned outings are a success. But the most important part to me is the family history. I do a regular post called 'Stories from Dad', in which I'll relate a part of our family history and how it relates to us now. I've had good feedback in the comments.

This recording of family history is an important part of our blog. I know that even after I'm dead and buried, the family blog can live on. The family history I'm writing now will not be forgotten. And with this family history, the kids have a chance to ask questions and have the answers recorded for all time. Maybe the history won't be lost.

We have opened up a radical new way to communicate as a family, but it's really working. I've moved away from Facebook, because it's not private. The postash.io platform is a closed loop behind a password. Only people with the password can read the blog.

I think some of my work in my family blog is my best work of all. I've had enormous satisfaction doing it. I am more motivated than ever to engage my audience and give them a reason to keep reading the blog. This doesn't appear to be very hard, but they deserve my best work.

Communications is at the very heart of a successful family. We've found a way to use a password protected blog to share information really easily with all of our large family.

"I could never get everyone together in the same room!"

Our family is diverse, and while we're a tight unit, we all have individual lives. We can communicate by SMS text for free, with our phone plans. But text messages can be clumsy, and often arrive at awkward moments - especially if you're a student studying in class. We don't want to distract the kids while they're in school. Also, Facebook is blocked by the school, and Facey is not the most private of platforms. The blog is a much neater option.

By using a password protected blog, they can check for updates at a convenient time for them.

I use tricks to keep them checking the blog. We give away a (small) daily prize to the first person to text me the code number embedded in the day's post. But it turned out that this wasn't really needed. One of my sons said "Dad, if you put comments on this, I'll never use Facebook again!" So I put comments in (by Disqus), and we haven't looked back.

We post about all kinds of things - about appointments, after-school snacks, dinner plans, jobs to be done and a million and one little things that we need to communicate to each other to keep the family running smoothly.

The family really likes the blog. They like the concept, and they like using it. They are able to publish to the blog if they wish, and have done, or they can just interact via the comments. We no longer have to find each kid and let them know what's going on.

Communications has always been the secret to our family's success.

We're using free Evernote and free postach.io to host the blog, and they provide the domain for free. I don't know what other platforms have a login option for a blog, but we keep it behind a password because our traffic is private.

"Twitter made searchable real-time communication available for the masses."

This was a game-changer. In the initial onset of Twitter, many journalists came unstuck, accidentally breaking stories that were meant for publication. The ability of Twitter to broadcast information in real-time challenged fire and police officials, who struggled to produce timely information. It was thought that if authorities didn't lead, then false information would circulate. And police operations can be compromised by having radio traffic transcribed to Twitter. But a fire may be fast moving, and impact on a town, and be reported on Twitter before authorities even issue a warning.

Overwhelmingly, Twitter has been good for the community. It is the only searchable real-timesource of information in the world. This means people can now get information about things that affect them, like disasters, in real-time.

Twitter has changed the way mainstream media break a story. Nowadays, a well known journalist will 'break' a story on Twitter as soon as it happens. They know the story will be broken anyway, so they may as well be the source. Then, they quickly submit their story about the event to their newsroom for publication. The consumer seeks the content that was broken by the journo to get more detail about the event. In this way, journalist's brands are now more important than the masthead they write for.

Following journalists on Twitter is a good way to get the latest news. Downside is, on the weekends they seem obsessed with sport...

For fire and other emergencies, authorities recommend you maintain multiple sources of information. Social media should be one of these sources. I think social media is a revolution. A people's revolution. And Twitter is king for real-time information.

Brad Lemon

April 2014.