When I decided to get all gung-ho on blogging, I did it for all the wrong reasons. There was some perceived pressure from management that blogging would be an unwritten requirement to succeed come annual review. There was the competitive factor from seeing some of my co-workers embrace blogging and become successful at it. Finally, there was the desire to try something new.
I have since learned that there are much better reasons for blogging.
First, let’s assume you aren’t blogging with the end-goal of making money directly through your blog by advertising. That is a whole different reason for blogging. Once that is out of the way, most technical bloggers blog for the following reasons: Raise awareness of a product or technology, to form a relationship with a community that has a common interest or goal, ensure correct and accurate information makes it to the public, and most importantly – being passionate about something.
While my blogging to date has sort of touched on some of those areas, what I have lacked so far has been the most important aspect – the passion. I have spent the past few weeks thinking about this and whether blogging is the right thing for me to do. I have decided that it is.
I do have some passion around a few products and technologies that Microsoft (and others!) has or will have. I just have a difficult time expressing that passion outside of being hip deep in product CD’s in my computer room. I think some of what I get to work with and see is fantabulistic. I just don’t express myself well when trying to communicate it in writing.
BUT! I seem to be able to tap that passion when I do live presentations. I get animated and excited. I get stressed when demos don’t work, and spastic when they do (there is no better feeling than demoing a beta product that has given you grief for weeks only to do it live and it work). So how do I tap that same energy, broaden it’s reach and appeal, while overcoming my lack of written communications skills?
My Answer: ScreenCasts
Actually, it isn’t my answer so much as a borrowed answer. Some of my co-workers have done a few screen casts already. If you have not seen Chris Henley’s fantastic ScreenCast on Vista Voice Recognition, then you have missed a phenomenal presenter with true passion talking about a very, very cool and useful technology in Vista. Go watch it now. I will gladly pause typing while you do.
Welcome back……now, go watch his ScreenCast on Vista Parental Controls……and now go watch his ScreenCast on PhotoStory. ScreenCasts are one of the coolest ways to talk about and show the technology that we (and others!) have.
So what does this all mean?
It means I am changing my blog. I am going to narrow the focus of my blog to fewer technologies. I talk about a lot of different products, but let’s face it, not all of them interest me. It is a lot easier to get truly excited when you are excited about the product. It makes you WANT to talk about it. So what do I LIKE? Small Business Server, Media Center, ISA, Exchange and Windows. That sounds like a lot but when you consider that Exchange and ISA are a part of SBS Premium and I have worked with SBS for 7 years now, it lends some perspective. I also run my own Windows, ISA, Exchange, Web servers at home (which I wouldn’t be doing if I didn’t LIKE to). I also have a secret love affair with my Media Center (actually, I built it for the Nun 3 years ago under the guise of a Christmas present……it’s really mine…..she just thinks it is hers…..) that I wish to extend and grow. Like any love affair, there are rough spots and like any relationship that you want to succeed there needs to be some good communication. So I want to communicate my ups and downs with the product.
I suppose I could just narrow the focus to SBS and Media Center. Now that I have typed that up, it even makes more sense. I will leave that up in the air for now.
There is another part to this as well. Community Server 2.0 is available now and I have been itching to try it. That means the blog gets a face lift and over all improvements. My understanding is that 2.0 is more than just a new coat of paint too. So I am going to change the look and feel of the blog over the next two weeks to go along with the refined focus. Btw, I was originally going to do this in the June timeframe (after the wedding…after the relocation) but I am really excited about doing the ScreenCasts so I have decided to do it now instead of later.
Besides…..I still feel a perceived pressure from management, I am still competitive with my peers, and……it’s something new to try!
Cheers!
Ps….I recently attended an MVP Briefing in San Diego and met some fantastic MVP’s. During the session, Ed Hickey, a Director (someone correct me if this title is incorrect) in the MVP Program explained some of the most basic criteria to being an MVP – Be Recognizable, Be Credible, Be Accessible. All of which apply directly to blogging as well. So that is my promise to you, faithful readers.
Double Cheers!
…by Journey is one of a couple songs I hope to sing tonight at Karaoke. I am in Dallas this week visiting friends and family for the holidays. The Nun and I have already been to Karaoke a couple of time this week, but my friend Glenn Lukin with On Stage Entertainment has a new show starting this week that we wanted to go out and support. You won’t find it on his website yet, but you will see us at Stratos tonight at 8pm.
Cheers!
I have been in a blogging funk. The 19 people on the planet that read my blog have not seen much lately. I could blame the holidays… but it has been a good season for me since well before Thanksgiving. I could blame it on being too busy… but if I have had Xbox time, I have blogging time. Nope, nothing to blame it on except me. I just haven’t felt like blogging. I go to blog about something only to lose my passion about the post. Or I spend 2 hours typing a post up only to realize it didn’t say anything (I am not going to promise to fix that either).
I knew I was in a funk, I knew I had to fix it, and I wasn’t doing anything about it. A few weeks ago I started thinking about New Years resolutions and decided that I would get excited about blogging again and just do it. Tonight I found something interesting enough that I thought I would get an early start on the resolution. Tonight I found inspiration in….a pair of panties. A thong, no less.
(digression alert)
I am an American Idol fan. I didn’t become one till Season Two though. I heard a lot about Season One via The Nun who watched it mostly when I was traveling (the first season of Idol was also my first year in my current role…..which moved me from a 6x6 condo cube to a pretty significant amount of travel…..which limited my TV time…..which I was hardly going to waste watching some Christina Aguilera wannabe’s getting polished up by a bunch of corporate star-makers). The Nun gushed about the show and how she voted for Kelly Clarkson from the get go. I don’t remember seeing anything but commercials for Season One and none of it grabbed me. Season One passed me by and I was none-the-wiser.
One Year Later…
….I am a year into the new job, moved to SoCal, and things have settled into place. I now have some extra TV time. We also had a new Media Center PC which I had built for The Nun for Christmas (read this as, I wanted a new PC in the house and so I built the Media Center for her as an excuse to get it in…..it worked) so we were stockpiling shows I recorded as well as shows The Nun was recording. One day I watched an early episode of American Idol – Season 2 and….
…few months later….
…I am frantically dialing over and over and over to get through and register my vote to make sure that Clay Aiken beats out Ruben Studdard for the finale show. Ruben Studdard was ultimately declared the “winner” (define “winner” as “the person that was declared victorious by an American public that just doesn’t get it” - a strange phenomenon that seems to apply not only to reality shows but to our political processes as well). Clay Aiken, even though he lost (came in second place), has reaped much greater financial rewards, popularity, and overall success than Ruben.
In my opinion, there is no better proof of this than…..a pair of panties. A thong no less. (back on track). Now, before I start linking, I am going to ask you to adjust the sound on what ever you are using to read this with. No trickery here - just trying to help bring a smile to your face. Even without sound the link will still explain itself, but having the sound high enough to hear Clay speaking adds a certain surreal quality that shouldn’t be missed. If you are in an office space, no need to crank it to 11. Two or three should suffice…if there is no sound, check out the upper right side of the page underneath Clay’s mug…
…..a pair of panties. A thong no less.
Cheers!