Mar 5, 2006 | blog
Kent Newsome posted here on the linking & traffic discussion going on in the blogosphere. He really came to some good conclusions – at least ones that I agree with. Traffic and linking is important to a blogger, for most of us it may not be the main reason, but it is a reason. We all post, link & comment as a way to participate in the blogosphere, to multiple ongoing conversations.
While we may not admit it easily, we do seek traffic or links as a means of acceptance of sorts. It is important to a blogger, as it is the main way we know we are getting heard, that our opinion is meaningful. Of course, most of us also have the perspective that we don’t need the traffic, that we don’t need any links. But I think that would limit the interest of any blog – having no other inputs or views brought to the conversation.
Anyway, check out Kent’s post – its a very interesting perspective.
Mar 5, 2006 | blog
So some people may ask what I do… In short I’m something of a misfit in corporate IT departments in that I have never settled on one specialty in IT over another. I’ve worked on most technology platforms that have surfaced in the past 25 years to one degree or another, liking most & hating some few. Some have been in-depth, some I’ve barely scratched the surface on.
My current corporate title is “Sr. Client Technologies Analyst”, but thats a cover up for saying I look at everything and figure out how to integrate whats best for the company at a given time. Of course that time may be in the future and not now. I keep thinking it means “don’t know what I want to be when I grow up” as well.
Its interesting how after spending 15 short years in IT that I’ve not found a specific specialty niche, instead, the niche is still what it has always been for me – Information Technology as a whole. I won’t and can’t pretend to be a specialist in any one aspect from technical to managment, from financial to administrative, but that is what I am eventually responsible to understand. When a technology comes along, how will it fit into the company/corporate culture of the moment or future – its really a crystal ball experience.
Whatever comes along next, it’ll still inspire, thrill, frustrate, and reinforce my notion that IT crosses all business boundaries, social boundaries, both good and bad. In short – I’m one of those old-fashioned, original Geeks that is all about technology.
Mar 4, 2006 | blog
With the recent discussions of A-Listers, debates on whether traffic is the right/wrong reason to blog, and the success & failure of memetrackers to correctly track and rate blogs, I felt I needed to voice my opinion. The only problem was that I didn’t think I had anything to contribute to the conversation. Discussions on “a-listers†& gatekeepers really got me thinking about blogging more as what it really is – a discussion, a conversation that everyone can be involved in.
Everyone has an equal opportunity – I can tell because watching my states shows what search & blog tracking bots have crawled my blog. Knowing that – I feel confident that if people are interested in what I’m saying, they’ll click a link and arrive here to read my opinion.
The thing that really has attracted me to blogging is the opportunity to voice my opinion – it’s not a natural thing for me. Some people may disagree at work – I have a tendency to disassemble some pretty-well thought-out or well-meaning ideas/solutions. But that has to do with what is best for the company, what fits within the company policies, security requirements or budget constraints that I’m aware of. My personal take on technology, where it currently is, and what we should be expecting is a wholly different thing, and would probably surprise many coworkers.
Writing is the other thing that has attracted me to blogging. It is something that I’m ok at. I mean I write great technical pieces at work, documentation, how to manuals, procedures, polices, etc… but that is dry analytical stuff. Blogging is my own thoughts, perspectives and opinions. So offering them up for public consumption has taken a few steps for me – and allows me to really work at perfecting the writing thing. I’m getting better, though my old high school English instructor 20 years ago would never believe I would try my hand at writing and publishing to a public venue.
As the discussion of A-Listers progressed, I found that I did not have a problem with the group many call a-listers. Though many of us are live in different geo-political spheres, the discussion to me has invoked a lot of thought. A lot of new ideas of what blogging, technology, corporate antics, personal time, and in general life may be about – at least for me. The discussion of this same group being “gatekeepers†to the blogosphere is an interesting viewpoint, but does not bother me in the least. If what I have to say is important, or relevant, people will find the site – surely there is enough technology tracking the blogosphere for anyone to find content to their tastes.
My viewpoint on the idea that traffic is the ultimate gage of a sites “worth†or that I need to generate traffic for my blog to be relevant is this: who cares about traffic? Ok, I’ll admit that just like the idea of being a “rock star†was alluring I was 14, the idea of being an “A-Lister†can also be an alluring draw. The reality is that blogs are a platform for conversation. They are a personal space that you can customize to your needs, to tailor to your viewpoints, your opinions and interests.
Some recent articles & posts on how some of the new memetrackers do not seem to be picking up or ranking everyone’s blogs correctly is troubling, but will work itself out. I doubt that anyone at these companies has any ideas of being “king-makers†or being able to pick and choose who is on the A-List or whatever. The phenomenal growth of each new Internet market niche is enough to make any company struggle to keep up with demand or growth.
So with this long post I’ve laid out some of my basic ideas of recent discussions. Probably its too-long a read for a blog post – I seem to remember reading somewhere that long posts are a “no-no†in the blogosphere, but I believe that additional context is needed from time to time. And, the best way for me to grow my writing abilities for short posts is to build a few long ones from time to time.
Mar 4, 2006 | blog
What an intriguing solution – I finally made it over to 37Signals to check out their Basecamp product. After having heard quite a bit of buzz about the company and its efforts in simple easy to use solutions, I had to check it out myself.
While checking out the Basecamp site information, I bit and signed up for the free account to try out the service. My wife and I will run our upcoming home purchase as a project in Basecamp, and in the process, I will write a review both for the blog here, and for my department at work. The group I work with is really in need of a simple project managment application that is affordable, secure, and flexible – Basecamp appears to do this well.
So look back here later in the coming months, I’ll post bits & pieces as I find how Basecamp either helps or hinders our home buying process!
Mar 3, 2006 | blog
Microsoft has updated Windows Live Local – much nicer than the old VirtualEarth site. And they’ve updated a number of the overhead aerial photographs as well. Suggest you check it out, I just “wasted” an hour searching, zooming, scrolling, viewing… a lot of fun.
Mar 3, 2006 | blog
Ok, so I’m working with DotNetNuke for a project my wife has plans for. I’ve loaded up a test install of DNN 4.02 to “play around with” and learn a little bit about the system – impressive so far. We may stick with this for her site as it will allow her to be able to edit/change the site without a lot of worry over the nitty-gritty HTML, SQL, .NET, ASP, etc…
Hmm, I may just keep this in mind for one of my side projects I’m working on as well. There are just so many add-ins that can expand and extend the platform in many interesting and useful ways.
Now I know I could do this same type of thing with PHPNuke as well (heh, this site is running on Linux, PHP, MySQL…), but I’m just not that good with PHP yet.
I’ll need to talk with a buddy from work, who’s a guru at this stuff, to get a handle on some of the options available. Check out his site when you get a chance – www.jerryloss.com, and his hosting service as well (Hi Jerry!).
