Ed Brill

Colin picked up a subtlety in some of this week's discussions:

I've noticed a trend, though, for people to start labelling the Domino blogging/online community in ways that are not particularly flattering. Some folks have insinuated that we're all a bunch of self-congratulating, back-slapping croneys who brook no dissent and who close ranks to shoot down any contrary voices. ...
A rather subtle dig, with a very clear purpose: to discredit the opinions being given, to disparage the posters, sidestepping the merit of their statements. ...The truth is that if you go back through Ed's blog, you'll see as many contrary and critical comments as there are positive comments.

I started blogging 18 months ago because I wanted to have a more focused way to interact 1:1 / 1:many with the Lotus community.  And it is a community (Jonvon had some words about that in chat the other day).  The result has been far and away more interesting than I ever would have predicted.  The blog community is now a source of product and marketing ideas.  It's also a networking venue.  There are social aspects to be sure, but why would that ever be a negative?
There were roughly 36,000 hits to this weblog last week.  I am quite certain that the discussion -- among those contributing, and for sure among those reading -- wasn't limited to "friends" of mine.
Over the last five months, I've narrowed focus of what I blog about.  This blog is no longer simply "Ed's personal blog".  It's an interesting trapping that now, as a result of the established and growing readership, there are topics that I just never touch anymore.  I'd love to tell my American readers who to vote for in November (though John would probably kick me off the server for doing so ;).  I'm not writing restaurant reviews here.  But it's all out of bounds now, for multiple reasons.  And that's because I want to have a core focus on Lotus and collaboration technology, for all interested readers. (The travel bits aren't going anywhere -- don't worry).  It's going to be more important than ever.
Link: Colin Pretorius: The Lotus Community >