My Rules for Blogging and Podcasting

With the recent "Laptops for Bloggers" non-issue that was turned into an issue (by someone), an outcry came out of the wilderness.  Rob Scoble brought out a good idea.  What about disclosure about yourself?  That way people can make their own decisions about you and if they want to read your stuff.  Well, I am taking this a step further and am going to put out my "Rules for Blogging and Podcasting."  Here goes:
  1. Minimize negativity.  My blogs and podcasts are not meant to be anti anything.  They are pro.  As a result, negativity will be minimized.
  2. Invite people from the community.  People doing work in the development community (MVPs, ASPInsiders, INETA leaders, developers creating products, and others) are always invited to come and talk.  While I joke around a lot, this is not just the Wally and Paul show.  Its a community show with community interests.  I want community involvement in the shows.
  3. Talks need to be on something that developers are interested in.  Having and showing source is the best of the options.
For people interested in speaking, here are my thoughts on the subject:
  1. The subject of the talk needs to be about a technology subject that is of interest to developers
  2. You need to clear the specific subject with me
  3. Uou need to purchase a usb or higher quality microphone.
  4. You need to get a copy of camtasia or other screencapturing program
  5. You need to plan out your talk, put it in some slides or something else that allows you to stay on target.  Contrary to popular belief, I do try and plan out my talks.
  6. Source, Source, and Source.  Developers want to see/hear about source.  Your talk needs to show source code and show it running
  7. Talks for the video podcasts need to max out around 30 minutes due to the size of video. Audio talks can go longer, but video is a better medium to communicate in.
As for "About Me," I am an MVP, ASPInsider, and a member of the INETA Speaker's Bureau.  A few thoughts on that:
  • If you think that makes me biased, so be it. 
  • It gives me access to all kinds of good information that I can then share with you.
  • It gives me access to people that I would not have known otherwise.  I can share the information that I have recieved from them as well as talk them into coming on the show.

I challenge others to document their own rules.

1 Comment

  • Of course you're biased, you're a person. You're not required to act as though you balance your view with the opposite. That's *why* I subscribe to your blog and hundreds like it - it's a look at the development landscape through many viewpoints. Please, let me do the balancing.

    Joel's article on this laptop thing is simply dripping with ego. He (and you) are no more credentialed journalists than my chia pet. He seems to think that he's carries so much weight with technical readers everywhere that if he took a free laptop we'd be incapable of tipping the scale with our own information. Even though I've lost a lot of respect for Joel over the last year, I still read him - but I have a mind of my own. Assuming I won't use it is just stupid.

    The day you stop acting like a person speaking about your daily life and start acting like a reporter is the day I start evaluating your blog as a magazine. I expect them to be balanced already. If they're not, I quit reading them. But I'm not surprised to see ads in the pages.

    I maintain a blog. I am not a reporter. If you're interested in my professional life, you can read it. But don't let me fool you - I'm not a journalist. I may push my own viewpoints on you. I may have passion about things you find boring, and stand on the other side of a line and proclaim I'm right and you're wrong. I'm a person spewing thoughts and words into the net.



    As an aside, I think Microsoft did well with the tablets - they used marketing budget to 1) market products they sell 2) reward the people out there that *already* market the products they sell for them.

    Yes, let's all reflect on how evil that is.

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