Blog-a-rama

Blogs have been around for a long time, and the first time I came across the term was when I was doing the Tech-Net section at the New Hampshire Business Review.

Like so many things technical, I discovered them before their time -- or before anyone knew what the heck they were.  A lot of techie's were setting them up so that they didn't have to answer the same questions over and over -- "how do I get Windows to do this or that."  The person could refer someone to their blog and tell them to search it.  They weren't fancy in the beginning, just a list of text with headers, but they were easier to follow than bulletin boards because it was the same person posting the information.

The next world of blogs I became acquainted with as we drifted further into the future was political and other opinion-oriented blogs.  If you liked someone's opinion, then it was always fun to see what they had to say.  But they are very forgettable, unless it becomes a habit.  I will bookmark a blog I like and then never visit it again.  Let's face it, like anything, blogging can be time-consuming, whether you're reading it or writing it.

What is a blog?  The term like so many things Internet, is a shortened, scrunched up version of the term Web Log.  Heaven only knows how long that is to say, so hence, throw out the We and you have blog!  And of course it has turned itself into a verb, so if one writes in their web log, they are blogging, and it is also a pretty little noun because one who commits the act of blogging is a blogger!

Ahh, don't you just love it!  What is so fun about a blog is that it's not a monologue -- it's not just one person talking.  If people use the comments section liberally, whole conversations can spring up, creating a world of feedback and inspiration.  The potential is pretty incredible.  Depending on what a blogger journals, you can follow a person's life, without ever even knowing them.  You can "lurk" on a blog and never comment, coming and going with no one ever knowing.  Or you can make your opinions known, agree, disagree with the blogger.  There are no rules!

One blog I follow pretty religiously is Rosie O'Donnell's.  She knows there is a future in it, she just hasn't figured out how to make money doing it.  She is quite forthcoming in the fact that she doesn't need money -- and right now she gives it all away for free.  All of it being her thoughts, her opinions, her feelings, and a glimpse into her life.

Who cares?  Right?  Isn't that kind of silly, who cares what she does.  Well, I do -- and not so much because she is a celebrity, but because I relate to her on so many different levels.  The fact that she has taken herself and put herself into the digital world and stripped herself of everything that she hates (make-up, fake crap, insincerity, the fame game) and just says it like it is, I think, is cool.

She's not for everybody, I get that.  But I've always liked her.  And I loved her when she fought back against the corporate crap that dictated how she should run her magazine, when she didn't want to run her magazine that way.  Look at Oprah.  Oprah is one big corporate suck-up beauty queen.  They told her she had to put her picture on the cover of her magazine, she was like YAHOO.   Rosie was like "I am fat and ugly and I don't want my picture on every single magazine."

But ... that is how the bigwigs wanted it -- Look at Oprah's magazine, they said.  It sells because her picture is on it.  (That is actually the reason I cancelled my subscription, but don't tell them that!)  Rosie did it because she'd signed a contract, but she did it her way and it was a beautiful thing.  My favorite Rosie magazine cover is her in her hospital gown when she was hospitalized for a staph infection in her finger.  She is holding up her bandaged finger, she has not a stitch of make-up on, and she is making a face like "Ugh, I have staph."    I remember examining it and thinking, "Wow, she really isn't that attractive."  Go Rosie.  (Or as her blogging community says "Go Ro!")

She eventually ended up quitting the magazine because her antics such as above caused the publisher (Gurner & Jahr) to take away inch by inch her control.  "I cannot have my name on a magazine if I cannot be assured that it will represent my vision and ideas," she stated in 2002 of her reason to quit the magazine.

So she has been blogging now for quite a few years and she will say anything.  She is quoted daily on talk shows and has an enormous following.  She keeps referring to something she has in the hopper, and I suspect it is talking with guests in a talk-show format that will be available via her blog.  Just think of the possibilities!  They can talk about anything -- there is no network censorship, no big suits upstairs calling the shots.  

I personally think that the end of eunuch-reporters like Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer is a positive thing and I look forward to seeing what kind of backbone other people in the public eye have when they are interviewed (or blogged) by Rosie.

Thinking outside the box -- it's such a stupid corporate phrase.  And yet, the greatest corporate scorner of them all has been doing it all along.

I am not sure why this turned into a Rosie-thon, but that's the beauty of the blog!