Are you networked? Want to increase your network?
[Ok, while i'm still being inspired to post a new blog entry after reading this blog post by Robert Scoble (and before I lose my train of thought!).]
How networked are you? Do your peers know your name?
A lot of mine do, they know my name via 1) my blog and 2) the aus-dotnet mailing list.
I didn’t actually think many people noticed my little contributions to the list, or whether or not anybody actually read this blog. But apparently I have been noticed. I’m actually quite surprised when I introduce myself to a total stranger at a user group meeting and they say, hey, I see you post all the time on the aus-dotnet mailing list. My first reaction? Wow, I didn’t think anybody would notice.
From memory, Dr Pete wrote to the list saying there was about 530 users signed up to the list. Wow, the Australian .NET community mailing list sure has grown.
I’m sure it’ll just keep growing. As i’m sure there are many .NET developers who are yet to sign up to the mailing list.
Today I got an email from Keith Knight telling me that he had troubles with subscribing to my RSS feed. So I told him to try the FeedBurner version of the RSS Feed, and that solved his issue.
If anyone else is having troubles with it, try adding the FeedBurner version instead! 
Anyway, back on topic.
When I graduated, I knew one of the most important things for me to do is to network with my peers. Aside from a few posts on the aus-dotnet mailing list, my name wasn’t probably too well known, and I didn’t know mnay people in the industry.
However, I did have a blog. Ok, it was a personal type blog, but it was still a blog nonetheless.
Then I remember somebody posted about a new student blogging system by Microsoft called theSpoke.net. This was actually last summer, right after I completed my final exams. So I decided to explore the idea of blogging more about IT related topics that got my ears pricked up.
I was a little cautious at first, I wasn’t really sure what to post.
First off, I was just a student who just completed his university course and was stressed out about whether or not he’d get a job in the IT industry or not. Yep, that was my main concern at the time, getting that first job.
I had 0 real world experience, aside from my final year industrial experience project. I was exploring many of my options, should I go back to study? Should I apply to be a tutor? Or even move interstate to find more opportunities?
While going through all that, I had actually started to blog more and more over at theSpoke. Then I decided that theSpoke was a bit too limiting. Sure it was a great service, but it only allowed users who had a theSpoke.net account to leave a comment. I thought that was a bit restrictive, I wanted to make sure anyone who wanted to leave a comment, could leave a comment.
So, I decided it was time to move out of theSpoke.net and setup a blog here on my domain. Heck, it was just sitting here being unused after I abandoned my other blog.
The more I blogged, the more blogs I read. The more blogs I read, the more comments I left on blogs. Slowly, without realising it too much I had started creating a network with my peers.
Attending the user group meetings have been good, i’ve networked, and gotten myself involved. Which is what I wanted to do. Attending them meant I could learn a lot from the guys who are much more experienced than me, and at the same time, I could network. Blogs are good for this as well.
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Ok, now I want to talk about what people should post about in their blogs. I’ve been asked this question by some who aren’t quite sure as to what they should blog about.
I know I didn’t know what to blog about at first.
Some people have stated that the really cool stuff that they want to blog about is under locks and chains. (Eg: They risk breaking confidentiality agreements, and so on). I think that’s well and fine, but that still leaves you with a large variety of topics to blog about.
If you see a topic in the news that you know about and have an opinion on it, then write down that opinion in your blog. Afterall, a blog is your own, and your thoughts are what people come to read. (In other words, not marketing drivel, and so on.)
I do tend to censor myself on my blog at times. By censorship, I mean, I will not blog about every detail of what I did today, what I ate for breakfast and so on. That’s a big no no, for techinical blogs. But hey, if you still want to do that, go ahead, start another blog that lives seperately.
That’s not to say to censor out all personal topics from the technical blogs, there is still that certain balancing act needed.
Heck, many of the blogs out there aren’t actually technical ones believe it or not. There are the personal ones, there are the political ones, as well as other topic areas. It’s just whether or not you notice them or not, that is another matter.
The popular thing is perhaps social engineering software such as friendster and orkut, but the real social engineering software that not many refer to as actual social engineering is actually weblogs. Why do I say that?
Well, utilising software such as Technorati, I can view all those who have linked or mentioned my blog. This is the same as what friendster/orkut does. Isn’t the aim of friendster/orkut to expand your social network?
Blogging does this for you, and in a nice way. Message boards also help as well.
Like with any network, there are the smaller nodes of the network, and then there are the larger nodes.
The larger nodes get all the traffic, and occassionally that traffic gets rerouted through to one of the smaller nodes. In many cases with blogging, their smaller nodes can quickly increase in size and become one of the bigger nodes.
The web is connecting us in many more ways than otherwise possible. Blogging is one way to get your voice heard. But with more blogs, the more noise is generated. However, that is when the bigger nodes will start to look for smaller nodes that are interesting. When the bigger node notices something interesting that is perhaps happening at one of the smaller nodes, they will promote that smaller node and push some traffic over to the smaller node.
And off to bed I go!
Oh yes, i’m planning a write up for a presentation on blogging