On Hansen

Given the current dearth of good bedtime TV (apart from the unquestionably hilarious Top Gear on BBC America), I finally had a chance to read "Unfashionably Late", an e-book by Max Christian Hansen recommended by Bmart.

The author is a blogger who explains in the book how he stopped and started blogging three times: "early, when blogging was unheard of", "when blogging was immensely popular and the blogosphere was heady with promise", and "when blogging was in decline". This resonated a lot with me. Not so much specifically about the blogging, but because I think that those of us who are into "new media", web 2.0 etc., often find ourselves eager to learn, eager to share - but held back in terms of really being able to move our associations forward using these tools because our members and volunteer leaders are just not ready for them yet. That was the essence of the post I deleted a few days ago about not telling board members anything they don't need to know; it seems like it's better, with care of course, to try new things out ourselves (as association people) if we can, with small "focus groups" (if that's what you want to call them) of interested members, before even attempting to institutionalize these new processes. But whether you do that or not, you often find yourself having to stop and wait for a few months or years before you can try again. It seemed like it was a similar push of momentum followed by a pull of circumstance (whether internal forces or external circumstances) that stopped Hansen each time, until he found he was ready to start again, but of course finding each time that things were a little bit different.

It's the crux of the "we have always done it that way" attitude, too - there's a real fear of trying new ways of working, of governing, of encouraging participation. That's something we have to fix, because the world is changing faster than anyone can keep up. There needs to be a nimbleness in how we approach change that just isn't there yet.

Something else I found interesting about Hansen's book is that he talks a lot about "currency" of blogging - where in order to be heard among the "noise" (the more of which there is, the less the quality of the sounds), you need to be able to get linked from "A-level" bloggers. He talks about driving traffic to your blog, likening the blogosphere to the example of Speakers' Corner in London where anyone can stand on a soapbox and talk, but no-one really listens. But to me, as a wide-eyed newbie to this, it's not about that! I've been to Speakers' Corner - the point is not to have a large audience of listeners, the point is to have a "space" where talking is encouraged, and where, if you are lucky, three strangers will watch you talk for a few minutes. Blogging for me is more about the act of writing, of putting thoughts down, like a diary (natch). Of course it has a wonderful added benefit that you might start a conversation with it, whether it's with one person or many. But I would be very surprised if any new blogger starting out today has the expectation of reaching (or desire to reach) the millions.

Hansen's right about something, though - the "bubble" of the blogosphere is so big now, you have to find your own small Speakers Corner. I'm pretty happy in mine, so far.