A voice in the wilderness

So I have just started reading WHAT WOULD GOOGLE DO by Jeff Jarvis (link here).  I have also been watching and listening to my dad Dr. John Strange (link here) expound on the power of blogging and I have just realized there is a missing link (sorry for the pun) to the simplistic view of blogging.

With the advent of the internet a fundamental thing changed.  The ability to publish became ubiquitous.  Anyone anywhere with any budget and an internet connection has the ability to publish their musings.  This of course redistributes power, it moves from the control of the publisher to control of the consumer.  And both Mr. Jarvis and Dr. Strange agree passionately that this new view is important and in fact vital in how we move forward in the new world order.

Mr. Jarvis points out that companies now need to engage and encourage discourse on the products, services, and image.  He shows quite well the problems that companies face when they don't understand that their customers are connected and talking about their stuff.  He recommends that every company invest in the blogging revolution.  Not having finished the book I may be slightly presumptuous, but in the first two chapters this is hit pretty hard!

Dr. Strange evangelizes on the need to educate through blogging.  He feels that the blog and the comments it solicits are essential to learning and teaching in our new internet era.  His course ED301 (check actual course and link) is dedicated to helping his students experience and participate in this new connected world.  He believes that our children and their children will be learning independently from traditional educational venues that the new teachers need to be able to teach how to navigate and participate thoughtfully in this new vast overwhelming sea of information.  If these teachers are unfamiliar with the landscape they will have great difficulty even conversing with the students, let alone be able to guide them.

And now to my point.  Blogging, writing, posting, creating, musing, publishing without an audience is like a a tree falling with no-one to hear.  It is not the publication of the ideas alone that generate the power of the internet it is the connections.  Google understands this because part of their original ranking model was/is that relevance is dictated by the community it is relevant for, the more links to you the more relevant your page, blog, post, comment, photo, video, web page, bla bla bla is.  If your thought or publication is not connected to others, even if it is has great value, or insight it will NOT be meaningful or impactful.  Only when others connect to it, and not just with cross links, but by reading it will its true value be ascertained.  And now to point two...

You need to connect to be connected to.  If you blog and you don't connect to others and don't connect your blog from external sources, you will be intellectually masturbating.  Your ideas will be available ONLY to you, thus only bringing personally pleasure.  So you need to participate in the discussion.  You need to find out where others are talking about your idea.  Who already has a blog about say blogging on the internet for example.  Have you posted your position there?  Did you link to your expanded argument, ie your blog on the subject?  Are you engaged in active discourse with others about your passion?  Are you continuing to post your supported thoughtful opinions to the table and respond to comments from your blog or flush out a stronger argument to your points?  Do you solicit opposing ideas and respond graciously to them?  Only by connecting to others and allowing them to connect to you will your ideas find viewers.  This is NOT "The Field of Dreams",  write it alone and they will not come.

So in summation, having an awesome idea, publishing it through any number of venues does not by default cause you to be heard.  If you want your ideas to be shared, pondered,  reflected on and discussed, you need to do those things with others first.  To be heard you need to participate in the dialog.

This post is going to be test of this idea.  I am publishing this without links and without linking to it.  My theory is that it will get no traffic until I begin to promote my opinion on other peoples blogs, sites, etc. 

After a couple of weeks I will begin to follow my own advice and connect with others.  Begin to participate in the dialog of blogging is important.  Then we shall see if I am just a voice in the wilderness.