Shouninjutsu

Yea, I’ve known about blogging since it started.  Been reading blogs since they started.  And it’s not like I don’t have anything to say– anyone who knows me at all will confirm that.  And in fact, I’ve not only had a series of personal websites (not to mention profession-related sites too numerous to mention) and even a couple of other small blogs over the years.  But I never really felt “bitten” by the the blogbug.  So why now?

Credit basically goes to two people and their respective cohorts. 

My daughter-in-law, Ashley, who with at least encouragement if not actual assistance<g> from my son Jordan, started a Haug family blog several months ago.  I have eight children ages 25 down to 3, and while most of them still live close to us (with the exception of a married daughter Kourtney, who lives in Boston with her husband Adam who’s going to law school), the three oldest have “left the nest” and are off on their own.  Another daughter graduates next year, and then we will have officially reached our empty nest “half life.” I was touched and appreciative that Ashley took the initiative to start a blog to help us all stay connected.  I have really enjoyed it and participate often– maybe more often than everyone would like.  It’s not like I haven’t had a chance to speak my peace over the last 25+ years!<g>

Howard Kaplan and the crew at Future Now, Inc.  I met Howard at a tradeshow recently and found his presentation one of only two during the entire 3-day event that was worth anything.  Went up afterwards to tell him so, and enjoyed our brief chat.  As a result, checked out Grokdotcom.com, Future Now’s official blog.  And for the first time in a long time I’ve found myself actually sucked in to the dialogs happening there!

——————————————-

The proverbial straw that…you know, the camel’s back and all… was a recent post (”You and I Still Learning about Blogging”)by Jeffrey Eisenberg, one of the founders of Future Now, Inc. where he quoted a blog post by Marc Andreessen who apparently also just recently started blogging (so even if I’m late to the party, at least I’m still in good company<g>)

I should have started doing this years and years ago. Anyone who says blogs are not widely read is incorrect. I have been absolutely amazed at the range and diversity of the people who have been reading this blog, and so quickly.

It is crystal clear to me now that at least in industries where lots of people are online, blogging is the single best way to communicate and interact.

…writing a blog is way easier than writing a magazine article, a published paper, or a book — but provides many of the same benefits.[…] Arguably blogging is better because the distribution of a blog can be even broader than a magazine article, a published paper, or a book, at least in cases where the article/paper/book is restricted by a publisher to a limited readership base.

Another recent influential post (”Aren’t You My Competitor?”) by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey’s brother and also a Future Now co-founder, where he referred to a Joe Duck post who in turn pointed to Kent Newsome, discussing a new “Blogging Revolution.”  While I don’t particularly feel as radical as those referenced authors about the need to “refresh” my personal blog reading habits, it did inspire me to get my own voice out there.

Whether anyone ever reads this blog or not, I frankly don’t really care.  But I’m thinking at least I’ll enjoy it, and perhaps I won’t feel so compelled to burden Jeffrey, Bryan, Howard, and Robert Gorell’s Grokdotcom posts with so many lengthy comments!<g>