Although the original article in Chronicle Careers is some days old now, I can't blog for myself without commenting this. I did find a reference to it in the Photoethnography Blog and after following some links I found these two very interesting blog entries about this article (read the comments!): Matthew G. Kirschenbaums blog and this entry on Planned Obsolescence.

So what do I try to blog like?

I don't write about internal gossip in my company (even if there is some) and I 'm always very cautious blogging about work related topics. You'll find some things which fit pretty well with part of my hobby interests: part of my job is the administration of our small network. As we don't want to spend too much money, I can (if there's sufficent time) almost anytime implement some open source solutions. But I won't write many things about our fuel cell business, except things which we're publishing anyway (yes, I'm working on fuel cell systems primarily). I won't comment on strategies of my company as well. This is discussed internally and after it came to a decision, I think it's important to transport this with one accord.

I am publishing under my name. Everyone can use Google or blog specific search engines to find my blog. If you have to blog in secret, because you don't want your colleages to know, you should look for a new job anyway. I don't advertise this blog to my colleagues, though, but I won't deny it as well. One reason I don't advertise it very openly, is...

The main problem with blogging.

The discussion on Planned Obsolescnece had some posts about hobbies not being reputable. And I think that's true for many people. Speaking about hobbies, which help to recreate from work and load the battery to be creative again, is often not well regarded with one exception: going to parties (and drinking a lot and maybe meeting people you normally wouldn't like meeting at all). But having hobbies alone (or in small groups) is often seen problematic. And worst is computers, computers at all. That's just freaks, seeing no light, having no social life at all…

And that's the misconception

Many people sitting in front of a computer in their spare time are just leading a different social life. With blogging it's more and more noticed on the outside of these communities, but I think there're some similarities to open source communities. Just look at most of the larger open source projects. That's many people working on some project (some even need some serious project management) interacting socially very often; just not face to face.

With blogs a similar community is more easily accessible to everyone connected to the net. You'll find blogs to almost any search string you submit to google nowadays (whilst the software project you'll only find if you're interested in some related topic most often) so people get to know these networks. Comparing it to a open source community isn't very good, because bloggers are usually not working on a project together (not counting colleagues and blogs about software projects) but are writing on things they're interested in and building networks as other bloggers find them and comment in some way—so I'll rather call it “blogging networks”.

But finding blog networks doesn't mean the bloggers are understood. E.g. in my company I installed a blog based on Nucleus a while ago. But for most of my colleagues blogging is an unknown concept to them. Writing an email to all (which will be lost at least for some much earlier often) is the concept right now, even if it would fit very well into the blog. This is a learning process, which will need time…

To blog or not to blog?

I think it's important what you write in your blog, but I never would say, someone is a problem because he/she has a blog! Then I could start saying, he/she is a problem because he/she is human. Definitely you can use a blog to get an impression of the person, and why shouldn't you if he/she advertises this openly in a letter/email or something else (actually I'd be glad to see someone having some fun in their spare time and communicating it).

If a friend would ask…

if I'd advice him against of pro blogging, I'd tell him that right now there're many people who don't understand blogging and bloggers, but that's no reason to refrain from blogging. To be loyal to your employer is self-evident in my eyes, even to a former one. And I would advise him to use his real name. In Germany there're even some laws and it's not yet sure, whether they require a private blogger to publish his name, address and so on (I think they do but that doesn't mean I think that's sensible).

Last but not least

I think Mr. Ivan Tribble falls into the trap himself, as Daybreak comments on Planned Obsolescence:

As I mentioned elsewhere, what's odd is that this author commits pretty much every sin that the column claims bloggers commit. Actually, it reads rather like a bloggy rant. But really every day I read better blog enteries than this column.

I don't know if this entry is a “better” rant than Mr. Tribbles, but I did need to write that…