Leggo of my Ego

There is nothing like a blog to really show you who you are. What you link to, talk about, and look at, you?re laying it all out there for the world to see. And as time goes by, you?re probably very proud of your blog. Pride and ego seem to take quite a precedence in terms of blogging. I mean, my ego is the size of a huge planet (very much like Jim noted about himself), and I wonder if that?s what it takes to blog. Then I remember all of those lonely, self-obsessed Livejournal kids, and think better of it.

So as posts begin to pile up, you begin to tell your friends, family, loved ones, and even coworkers about your blog. Your own little space in the world, uncensored! How great is that?

Well, it?s a double-edged sword, that?s what it is. You want the benefits (the forum, the freedom), but you don?t want the detractors (hurtful comments, impact on personal relationships). For example: I?ve written about things before I?ve told my spouse. She reads my blog, calls me, and wonders what I?m doing telling the world about upcoming events before I tell her. I then try to explain that I?m usually just expressing some positive or negative emotion regarding it, and was certainly planning on telling her about it. The most recent example is BlogNashville, which she found out here first, and not from my mouth.

Well, that last statement isn?t really true, is it? If a blog is an online voice, then she did hear it from my mouth. I would also like to say to whichever hapless husband blogger tries that line out, please don?t send me the ER bill. And that I?m also very sorry for the recent loss of your lips.

But the fact remains, as Joi Ito pointed out, when you begin to open yourself up to scruity and those comments begin to wear on you, you near the dreaded word of all dreaded words in the blog canon, ?Boring.? One of the reasons blogs are fun to read is because they do present one-sided points of view and interesting thoughts/aspects on subjects you like to read about, even if those subjects are cakes and reality TV.

But just as the abyss looks back into you, so does the blogosphere and your readers. They will put chinks in your armor, and wear away at your originality and non-conformism until those ideals are all but dead. Am I a little skittish now about writing about car lots and my experiences there because of a certain debacle? A bit, sure. The word, however, is hesitant, and fortune favors the bold. Bold people are not hesitant, but a post and its reaction made me that way. It changes how you function and how you write. This is powerful stuff when taken into context, and I think all of the bloggers out there need to pay attention not only to what they are writing, but what they are not writing.

Of course, when you do speak up on a hot issue in a public space you get a lot of attention. Robert Scoble ripped into Steve Ballmer during a very interesting time in the blogosphere, and most couldn?t believe it. The man has Sco-balls which grants him the ability to speak his mind.

But what of people in my situation? I have a few readers (thanks guys), and I have a good job, and a great family. I could never lambast my boss on my blog and not have serious repurcussions. Even though Scoble has positioned himself as a leader and a figurehead that if MS were to fire him over his Ballmer grilling it wouldn?t have been out of the question.

Ah, but it would: The PR disaster that would follow would destroy all of the efforts MS has made over the past few years. Channel 9 would become a ghost town. MSDN Blogs would lose steam, and I?m guessing that MS would once again become a closed circuit, routable only into itself.

So it becomes a question not of what to post vs. not what to post, but really what you can boldly post and still stand behind it. Scoble posted boldly and won, but other blogs that try to tell The Truth and get burned, all while taking the stand of noncomformity.

Food for thought. Coming tomorrow is the Patented Family Update(tm). See ya then.

So long and goodnight
So long not goodnight

Tags: Blogging Livejournal Scoble Microsoft Channel 9 MSDN Blogs