Introducing the NCCEH Blog
Welcome to the NCCEH blog! This is the first of what we hope will be many opportunities to update our stakeholders on the current goings on at the NCCEH. Why blog? Why now? While blogs have been around for about 20 years now, some have argued that blogging’s influence is on the wane. One might be legitimately puzzled to see the NCCEH finally taking the plunge on blogging at this particular juncture. The obvious questions would be “why blog” and “why now”? The simple answer to both these questions is that: for a long time, we have had content that we wanted to share with our stakeholders but it didn’t fit neatly into our other content categories.
As a result, we cobbled together a series of hacks methods for sharing this “alternative” content but none of them fully satisfied. Eventually, one of our staff suggested a blog as a way to deal with this “stuff” and… here we are. Blogs, in general, provide a nice, semi-informal way to share resources and information on a regular basis. Blog articles typically vary in length but a realistic range you can expect from us will be between 150 and 1000 words (this one is right around 600). As one would expect, some topics will lend themselves to quick notes and others will suggest a more expansive approach. We won’t be writing long-form essays here but we will make sure that our blog articles are more than just a tweet or social media link. If you are interested in following us on social media, BTW, check out the links in the upper right corner of this page.
6 types of content to be shared
There may very well be more than 6 content types shared on our blog but, in no particular order, here is what we are envisioning now:
- Sample resources/ comparison of links: We plan to provide articles like “3 things you should know about radon” or “the 5 built environment projects that we have our eyes on”.
- General announcements and communications: Things like new staff announcements, new product and event announcements, new project announcements
- Opinion pieces: We will be inviting a series of guest bloggers to submit their thoughts on a range of Environmental Health topics. If you think you might have something interesting to add to the conversation, just let us know ([email protected]).
- New legislation/ policy announcements: Environmental Health topics are top of mind with legislators and policymakers across Canada and around the world. We plan to help contextualize this work to EH practice in Canada.
- Monthly EH research summary: the NCCEH publishes a monthly summary of peer reviewed and grey literature articles.
- Oldies but goodies: While the NCCEH is always going to be working on “the next big thing”, we would like to remind you about some of the old gems we have locked away on the website. Our web repository is well over 500 documents and you will be forgiven if you aren’t familiar with every single one of them…yet.
In closing, we just want to mention that we see blogging as a way to be more responsive to our users. We know we won’t get it perfect right out of the gate and we hope that you will help guide us with content suggestions and constructive criticism. If you have any ideas for future topics or you might be interested in acting as a guest blogger, just let us know ([email protected]).