Ten Questions about Blogging

About two weeks ago, I was contacted by Ian Failes (ianfailes@iprimus.com.au), who was conducting some e-mail based interviews about blogging. He asked me a series of questions and I responded. I asked him if he minded me posting them to my blog. He said he didn't mind, so here are his questions and my responses.

1. Why did you start a blog?

Jon Udell suggested it last year during a conference call. I no longer remember the details but it was somehow related to Linux Magazine. I'm good friends with Adam Goodman (the owner and publisher) and I've written for LM regularly for a while now. He got me and Jon on the phone to talk about blogs or something related to blogging.

2. Do you know how many people visit your site and blog, and what types of people they are?

I have a guess. I'd say that on a weekly basis, roughly 400 people read my blog (or parts of it). A lot more people read it on a less regular basis. I suspect that most of them are techies or friends of mine (or both).

3. What kinds of things do you put in your blog (ie. are they personal things or things you would like to share with others, or are they observations about the world you live in)?

I tend to blog about a variety of stuff. Some days it's technical tips about MySQL, other times it's a rant about work, still other times I'll just write to say I'm doing laundry. I do draw the line at some personal things, of course.

I started with the intent of blogging about techie stuff but quickly found it natural to write about whatever I felt like saying.

4. Why do you think bloggers are prepared to be personal in their blogs?

It's hard to say. Some people are just naturally open about themselves. Others like talking to a semi-unknown audience. They'll tell things that they don't even discuss with the close friends and family. I'm sure that some of them just want attention.

5. Why do you think readers of blogs read them?

Sometimes I wonder. :-)

Seriously, my friends read to find out what I'm up to. Everyone else probably reads because they find some percentage of what I say useful, interesting, entertaining, or otherwise worthwhile. At least that's my hope.

6. What kind of blogging sites, if any, do you like to visit? Why?

I subscribe to and read between 100 and 150 blogs every day. Many are other tech blogs, friends of mine, or people who've linked to me in the past. The blogroll on the right side of my blog home page is usually up-to-date.

7. Do you think that blogs will remain an individual and person thing or do you think it will become a way for companies or professionals to express themselves too, or is this already happening?

I'm not sure. I've been anxiously awaiting the evolution of "corporate blogging" but it's difficult to know how it will unfold. Jon has done a good job of tracking CxO (CIO, CEO, CTO, etc.) blogs. He ends up adding new ones to the "CxO bloggers" box on his blog when they surface. Right now they're mostly from tech companies. That's no surprise.

The big issue is whether or not corporate PR organizations are willing to the the CxO speak frankly and directly to the rest of the world. I suspect that most PR folks will fight it. Like many things, we'll need a critical mass of adoption to showcase the real benefits of corporate blogging.

8. Are there any problems that you foresee with blogging happening now or in the future?

There are many problems with blogging today, some technical and some social.

The technical problems center around making blog tools more accessible to non-techies and providing clean and simple mechanisms for cross-blog communication, like TrackBack. As time goes on, both will get better and better.

The social issues are a bit more interesting. What's safe to blog about and what's not? Why? Can you be fired for saying something bad about your employer or co-workers? Do you blog differently if you know your Mom is reading your posts?

I wrote about this a while back and got some interesting responses. Unfortunately, the best ones were via private e-mail and will remain that way. Suffice it to say, some companies and some families aren't as receptive to blogging as others.

9. What do you think blogging will be like in the next 2-5 years?

Blogging will have become mainstream. AOL and Yahoo will have blogging integrated (to some degree or another) in their services. Search engines may very well deal with blogs differently than they do now. Scott's Feedster is a preview of what's to come.

Expect to see blogging and annotations appear on popular news sites.

Beyond that, who knows. Those are the things I'm expecting to see. Maybe it'll become integrated with popular instant messaging systems too?

10. Is blogging just the modern version of 'dear diary'?

Not at all. Blogs, by nature, are both public and linked. Their power and popularity come from the human need to form communities. Some people think of their blog as an "on-line diary" but it's so much more than that.

The End

Posted by jzawodn at May 03, 2003 07:47 PM