Why Blog?

Recently a group of managers at work asked me to explain why I blog. This is a very good question, because the answer might not be intuitively obvious. Perhaps by sharing my rationale here, I might encourage others to blog as well.

1. Blogging organizes thoughts. Recently I nodded in agreement when I heard a prolific author explain why he writes. He said the primary purpose for writing his latest book was to organize his thoughts on a certain topic. Writing an entire book is too much for most of us, but consolidating your ideas into a coherent statement is usually sufficient.


2. Blogging captures and shares thoughts. Once your thoughts are recorded in electronic form, you can refer to them and point others to them. If I am asked for an opinion, I can often point to a previous blog post. If the question is interesting enough, I might write a new post. That satisfies this reason and the previous one.


3. Blogging facilitates public self-expression. This is a positive aspect of the modern Web, if approached responsibly. Many social networking sites contain information people would not want to preserve for all time, but a carefully nutured blog can establish a positive presence on the Web. If you blog on certain topics that interest me, I am going to recognize you if you contact me.


4. Blogging establishes communities. The vast majority of the blogs I read are professionally-oriented (i.e., digital security). I follow blogs of people handling the same sorts of problems I do. I often meet other bloggers at conferences and can easily speak with them, because I've followed their thoughts for months or years. Book authors share a similar trait, although books are a much less fluid medium.


5. Blogging can contribute original knowledge faster than any other medium. Blogging is just about the easiest way to contribute knowledge to the global community that I can imagine. It costs nothing, requires only literacy, is easily searchable, and can encourage feedback when comments are supported.
   

Why do you blog? And if you don't, why not?