David McCoy

Blogs… sheesh!  Aren’t there enough blogs in the world?  Do I really need to start a new one?  There must be at least 24,000 blogs alone on ”Cats Doing Really Funny Things” and another 32 being created at this minute by new cat owners.  Can’t you find a blog on any topic in the world and find it in 10 languages?  Yeah, you can.  There are hundreds of good reasons for not starting a blog and I am ignoring all of them.  Here are the three reasons why I will run this personal blog – a blog that will be as much about life as it is about technology.

Reason 1: I am a writer, ergo I need a reader.  Calling oneself a writer is the ultimate form of narcissism, isn’t it?  It is also dangerous, inviting all kinds of, “Oh! He’s some writer!” sniping when a comma goes awry (Holden Caulfield has strong words for those who think good writing is all about punctuation).  Being a writer also announces that one has a self-declared calling; one that must be foisted upon anyone willing to listen.  Well, those of us who are poisoned with morpheme-tainted blood have no alternative.  We must write and we want readers.  The blog is just a manifestation of that sickness.  There are even support groups for such literary scalawags.  I am on the board of one fine organization, The Atlanta Writers Club, which has been around since 1914, serving those who run to pen and paper at the spark of an idea worth noting or a story worth telling.  You are my reader.  I plan to respect you and reward you for your precious time.  I know you could be over at the Cat blogs right now, laughing at kittens dressed like sailors and muttering to yourself, ”I can has cheezburger?”

Reason 2: I am a storyteller.  Oh, the curse of being a storyteller!  The “story” is the brash, wild sister of the written word.  She interrupts meetings, haunts the grocery store, and dances in the arms of old men and women who wait impatiently for her smile and laughter.  She plays with her hair while she goes on and on about a new barn door, a broken toe, or a mid-day encounter with the mayor’s cousin.  She talks and talks and talks.  And she entrances all who listen to her, dance with her, and watch her weave her tales.  I love her antics.  I spend most of my spare time telling stories, dancing with this wild child until the wee hours tire us both.  I have found that any complex topic can be simplified through story, metaphor, analogy and parable.  You, my readers, will never be given a dry well.  I will engulf you with stories so you too can dance and laugh as you learn. 

Reason 3: I am mortal. Mortals smell death at every corner.  We know we will not be around forever, so we try to leave footprints.  We want the world to know we were once here and that we had something to say.  I have been leaving footprints for years: the semi-famous Renaissance Man column (2003 – 2006, now defunct) for EAI Journal / Business Integration Journal, the Gartner Fellows Unconventional Thinking blog (now archived) which I hosted in an era when Gartner blogs won a Webby, and now the Gartner Business Process Improvement (BPI) blog (client access required).  Blogs are surely ephemeral, but they are another chance to leave footprints – good, clean, deep footprints. My readers will be given my best. I don’t plan to use the blog as a pedestal for semiconscious ramblings.  If my postings come out that way, it will be a problem with execution, not intent.

These are my three reasons for starting this personal blogging effort.  In the next posting, I will share my expectations for the blog.  Feel free to post a comment with your views on why we (a collective, world-wide, “we”) blog.  I am especially interested in why you blog, or – if you are still silent - why you have not yet started to dance and laugh in public?