The Most Popular Posts Of 2011 - Part One

If you're wondering what could account for the smell of burning candles and the off-key singing it's because this blog has officially reached its first birthday. Although the blog list on the sidebar insists that the first post was actually in January, that's because it was the first one published - there was plenty of writing and mistakes to be made behind the scenes before that.

The blog has been an interesting challenge in looking at new ways of communicating with different groups, and assessing which of the new media tools on offer actually give housing professionals something new and useful. I think in the New Year I'll perhaps be able to round up some more insightful thoughts on what I've picked up from the experience of blogging and tweeting.

Many thanks to each and every one of the 12,000 or so of you who have read the blog in 2011 and, as ever, if you have any feedback or thoughts then I'm always interested to read your comments and do my best to respond. To finish off the year I thought I'd give you the run down of the most popular (or at least the most read) posts of the year on the blog.

10th - Does Housing Get Diversity Wrong? Looking at the specific challenges of addressing diversity in an area like Trafford and how housing approaches the issue.

9th - Supporting Community Action In Trafford With the challenge of the Big Society ringing in our ears, how are we addressing the issue across our own borough? As requested in the comments an update to this is in the works...

8th - Changes to the Board An important update on the mechanics of THT and how the changes would impact on the organisation and its customers.

7th - The Past And Future For Housing Inspired by Remembrance Sunday and my reading list I dug out the crystal ball and tried to look at a possible future for the housing sector.

6th - What Do Housing Associations actually do? Here's 964,339 Answers Revealing the research done for our contribution to the neighbourhood audit and looking at the wider (and often unspoken) work that housing associations do.

Find out the most popular next week, along with some of the search terms used to reach the blog!