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No blog is an island


Mike Hutcheson is one of the cleverest people I've ever met. He calls himself a serial start-up guy and with good reason, having been at least one of the driving forces behind ad agencies and creative businesses like Colenso, Hutcheson Knowles Marinkovich and his current gig The Lighthouse Ideas company. Hutch is an author, speaker and affable genius who has quite a way with words.

I received an email notification that his recently launched personal web site had a new blog entry. So, being neighbourly, I went for a visit. It was an amusing piece on why movies are better than opera. Not to much of a stretch to argue and less for most people to accept.

A couple of things about Hutch's blog: first, it doesn't seem to use blogging software but some kind of php source code - a content management system of some sort which makes it look very much like the content on the essay pages and secondly; I left a comment which remains unpublished which made me think about the etiquette of publishing blogs.

On the first point, blogging software tends to allow the blogger to join the 'blogosphere', I am just getting my head around that, but I decided not to maintain a static journal on my website for that reason - for some reason I like the little toolbar at the top of this page that says I am part of a community. No blog should be an island...

When someone leaves a message on my blog I quickly check it to make sure it isn't going to upset the horses with crude language or irrelevant links. But other than that I exert no editorial controls. It is not for me to decide to censor the opinions of others, even if they disagree with mine - perhaps especially if they dissent . I think that is a part of the communal aspect of blogging. One day a post will fire up readers to take the topic and run with it. I certainly hope so. To me that is part of the web 2.0 experience - the sharing of ideas in a dynamic environment where everyone is welcome to speak.

Of course my point about Hutch's blog not using some kind of proprietary, ring-fenced code may affect the second part - it might require a third party to authorise the comment - who knows? I think Hutch should commit to joining the blogosphere proper, he would be a brilliant addition and point of reference. His infectious humour would have a viral effect.

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