My weblog affair began just over one year ago with the desire to share my knowledge in supporting a large group of internal clients (sorry, that link is only available to firewall insiders) who were using my team's software. It worked so well that when I switched teams I decided to start a whole new weblog dedicated to sharing my knowledge and the learning experience as I got up to speed with a new suite of applications and websites in a new area of the company. It was a site to be maintained at work with my primary target audience being my colleagues. Then something happened that caused me to get way off-track. Scripting News linked to me.

It was exciting to watch a rush of people reading my weblog. I realized some of them cared about what I wrote, and so I started writing for them. As others started linking to and reading my weblog, I began to shift from writing for my colleagues to writing for an audience outside of our company. I started looking for opportunities to write about stuff that I knew would be of interest to the larger audience. I began writing to satisfy my own ego. This realization hit me hard when, on looking back on one day's accomplishments, I saw that I had done little else besides watch my list of referrers and my rankings on the Radio Community Server.

I also realized I was spending a large amount of time weblogging, or researching a story, or investigating how Radio works, or improving my weblog. Time I really should have spent providing value to my employer. This is not to say that Radio does not provide my employer with value. Rather that Radio, in and of itself, does not provide value. It is what I choose to do with Radio (share my knowledge) that provides value. If I choose to spend an excess amount of time sharing my knowledge of topics that matter not one whit to my employer, then I am guilty of misuing corporate resources.

I enjoy writing. I enjoy teaching. I enjoy sharing what I have learned with others. That is what draws me to weblogging. I want to continue doing this, but I want to do it in a spirt of humility. I want to do it in such a way that I find fulfillment yet I also provide my employer with value for my efforts. I want to find balance. This leads to some clarification of my weblog goals:

• I will write to share what I have learned with my immediate colleagues. Since I work with a great group of software developers, their interests and needs will often align with those of a much larger public audience. That is great, but my writing must be driven by my colleague's needs.
• I will write to share, to promote, to construct.
• I will not write to tear others down, to unjustly criticize, or simply to gain attention.

Sort of a weblogger's credo, I guess.
9:11:35 AM    Google It!