Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Enter the hesitant blogger


The decision to start blogging did not come easy for me. Not only am I really busy working on my dissertation and teaching Organizational Behavior at Boston College, but I've been one of those people that has seen the blog as little more than a glorified diary. Narcissists with unchecked delusions of grandeur blather on about their tuna casserole recipes, wax poetic about their trips to Epcot Center and screech about the latest episode of "The Bachelor." Not that there is anything innately wrong with those things, they are just not my thing.

It turns out, however, that this unrelenting wave of uninteresting things are not representative of the diversity of the "blogosphere". In fact, the form has a rich history (http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html). Blogs have given individuals with strong opinions and little access to mainstream channels low cost and effort ways of expressing themselves. Blogs also help unearth interesting things that are not on the radar of television stations or major websites (http://coolhunting.com/). Some blogs, such as the Consumerist (http://consumerist.com/) serve as watchdogs for the little guy by keeping tabs on big companies that cheat their customers. 

So, now that I am nearly out of grad school and have a swanky new job teaching Management and Entrepreneurship in New Orleans, I thought I might start my own blog. I am following in the lead of Steve Blank (http://steveblank.com/) and others that use their blogs to get feedback on new ideas that are not quite ready for prime time, to promote events and publications, and to provide a forum for others to help me understand New Orleans. 

The plan is to start slow and let the content develop organically - a sort of "emergent blogging". All I have now is the title of the blog "NOLA Entrepreneur" - which sounds generic and boring (I accept suggestions!) - and a job where I'll be responsible for advancing entrepreneurship education in a place that needs a strong community of entrepreneurs (http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2012/03/kiva_ceo_says_entrepreneurial.html)