A Blogging Manifesto

I normally don’t write so much on blogging. However, many people within our company are starting blogs, and I am stumbling across some great links I just have to share.

Robert Scoble, an employee of Microsoft, bills himself as a “Microsoft Geek Blogger.” I read his blog daily. He’s a great model of honesty, transparency, and a writing style I really like. When I wrote a post entitled, “Memo to Windows Marketing Department,” making fun of Microsoft’s goofy code names, Robert was the first to post a comment in response to my article. He said,

Yeah, our code names suck.

So do our product names, actually. “Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005” doesn’t exactly roll off off my tongue.

You gotta love that kind of honesty. It only served to endear him to me further (and probably thousands of other people who saw his comment).He and his pal, Shel Israel, are writing a new book on corporate blogging called The Red Couch. Our own Nelson Business imprint made a play for the book. I was personally involved in trying to sign it. Unfortunately, our offer was nuked by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., one of our major business book competitors. However, I was impressed when Robert personally called me to give me the “bad news” and express his appreciation for our offer.

The ClearContext corporate blog linked to a great article by Robert called “The Corporate Weblog Manifesto.” He wrote it way back in 2003—eons ago in Internet time. However, it is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it. If you have already have a blog or are thinking about starting one, this is must reading. Robert parallels my own philosophy of blogging almost exactly.