Blogs and I
The importance of blogs in my life continues to increase. There are many things happening simultaneously. For one, my blog is attracting more traffic, which has increased the feedback I get from people and a responsibility to ensure that I keep the updates happening regularly. I am becoming an interactive private radio station. Second, I am making some good connections with people via the blog. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that most of the new people I am coming into contact with now are because of the blog. This is interesting because it is putting me in touch with people I would not have otherwise ever dreamt of being able to connect with otherwise. It would be fair to say that weblogs are the shortcuts in the social world of connections.
Third, I am reading more and more bloggers. Thanks to the Info Aggregator and RSS, adding a new blog to read has become a breeze: whenever I come across a blogger I like, I just add the RSS feed into my aggregator, and can then rest assured that the updates will flow right into my mailbox. At last count, I had 150+ subscriptions. And to think that barely a few months ago, I was reading no more than a dozen bloggers! I cannot help feeling that blogs and RSS are bringing about a dramatic revolution in the way we access, contemplate and distribute information. The implications are far-reaching: no technology in recent times has given me a 10X improvement in what I do in such a short time.
Writing a blog is a significant time investment. But I feel, the benefits are also immense. It takes time for the benefits to accrue, while the time clock starts from day one. I have been maintaining a blog now for over 16 months. The blog has its own value chain to write, I need to read, think and build my own view of the world. It also forces a daily discipline, especially if, like me, one decides that there should be something new every day. It is something I learnt when we were doing IndiaWorld by updating daily, a site can become a constant in the readers life.
I think each of us has something we are good at, something we are passionate about. It could be trekking, photography, fiction, cooking or designing. If we can take that passion and share it with others via a blog, we will find that over time, the community responds, and we get more back then we give. Of course, the receiving takes time that is where one needs to have the patience and faith. Blog daily as if you have a thousand readers, even though there may be none and over time, they will come. Blogs give each of us a voice. They are home pages come alive, and with personality. That is why I believe that blogs are not a fad, they are set to become a permanent, rich part of the web landscape.
Tomorrow: Random Musings (continued)
TECH TALK Random Musings+T
