Why blog?
And more importantly, why this blog?
To be honest, because several people whose opinions I value suggested I do it – all within a few weeks of each other.
Over the years I’ve been very fortunate. People have paid me to learn, travel and share my experiences with them. Learning about other people’s lives and businesses has helped me to help them. Years of consulting and teaching in one form or another have [hopefully] allowed me to be somewhat objective in dealing with things while recognizing my own limitations. Do I have biases? Of course. We all do. Mine will become obvious as we travel this blog together.
Like everyone else, I’ve contributed to some conversations and sat on the sidelines for others. I’ve made comments on Facebook that have generated interest and conversation. I’ve posted photos that people like and talk about. But whenever I’ve said or done something that’s slightly subtle on FB, it goes nowhere. FB is like a party or reception where everyone is sort of listening to the conversation they’re in, but have their eyes and ears open to everything else in the room. It’s a place for scanning and acknowledging, not studying and discussing. A while back I posted a FB comment that showed me that people only scan the first sentence and respond to it, without looking at the content and meaning of the next two or three. Of course, this happens in ordinary conversation, as well, so I shouldn’t be surprised. While I don’t expect people to study what I say, I hope I can start some discussions.
And…I’ve got nothing against FB, but…there are the regularly occurring privacy issues, as well as the copyright issues over what you put on their site. The commons is no longer the public place of American free speech mythology. Like the shopping mall where people congregate, the public commons has come under not just private control, but private ownership and censorship.
Oh, and did I mention the attention span of the average FB user, me included, when I’m there?
I’ll eventually move my photos to this site as well – and will announce these postings on FB for a while – until I get tired of doing it [or enough people get tired of me doing it].
So…if you like what you see here in the upcoming months, please tell your friends. If you don’t, please tell your enemies.