Introduction
I work for Bob Sutor in IBM’s Open source and standards project office. Given Bob’s level of activity and celebrity in the “blogosphere” I suppose it won’t be a surprise to anyone if I say that he’s been trying to get me to create my own blog for a long time.
So, why am I doing this now? Well, I’ve been participating in various public debates lately, such as the Goscon panel, and the need to be able to follow up and tell what I think on certain issues, such as OOXML, has been nagging me. Since blogs have now become the main communication channel for one to express himself, for better or for worse, I’ve decided to put aside all of the issues I have with them and forge ahead.
Now, let me explain why despite Bob’s insistence I have until now refrained from creating a public blog.
The first reason is that I find blogs to be very egocentric. And while I don’t claim to be particularly more humble than anyone else this fundamentally bugs me.
I’m a long time internet user and I used to be very active in public forums (a.k.a newsgroups) and mailing lists. The fundamental difference between these communication channels and blogs is that each of them typically focuses on a particular topic. Blogs on the other hand are centered around individuals. Furthermore, while comments and trackbacks provide for some level of dialog, blogs are primarily one way communication channels, unlike newsgroups and mailing lists that are essentially symmetrical. The fact that most syndication feeds merely communicate the blogger’s entries and not the comments only makes this worse.
Aside from the egocentric nature of blogs, another reason for not having created a blog earlier is the fact that blogs very often have no particular topic. This means that readers have to deal with all sorts of information that they may have no interest in to get to the information they do have an interest in. A perfect example of this is Bob’s blog. I’m very interested in Bob’s opinion when it comes to open source and standards. In fact, open source and standards being the focus of my own job it’s pretty essential for me to read Bob’s blog. But quite frankly I’m not so interested in his opinion on music and Bob Dylan. Not that I think there is anything wrong with his taste, I might actually be happy to engage in a discussion on that very topic while having a casual dinner with him but in the context of my work this is just noise.
Finally, the third reason for not having created a blog earlier is simply time. Lack of it that is. Like many, I already have a hard time keeping up with the email I receive and dealing with the long list of projects I’m responsible for. I know from past experience that engaging in public discussions on the internet can be very time consuming and I just don’t know that I can dedicate enough time to this to do it well.
For what it’s worth I’ve been wondering how Bob manages to write so much. Having just traveled with him I think I now have part of the answer. I think the amount of travel he does associated with the fact that he insists on being at the airport up to 4 hours ahead of his flight has something to do with it… 
Don’t expect this to be my personal diary. Even though the opinions expressed hereby are only mine and do not necessarily represent those of my employer I intend to use this blog primarily for work purposes.
Of course, the lack of time will remain a problem and for that reason if nothing else I won’t commit to writing on a regular basis. Hopefully though, one will find interest in what I manage to publish.
