It's all getting a bit serious

I took a bit of flak about my posting The world's a safer place today, mainly from those with a different political perspective, but also from one anonymous reader who commented that he or she was "close to dropping you from my feed list, as I've had about enough of the irrelevant political commentary. Please get back to online learning, instead of pretending to be a political pundit."

Fair enough. One of the good things about blogs is that they attract debate and you can learn a lot from differing opinions. But it set me thinking about how this whole blogging experience had changed from when I started three years and 320 posts ago. I didn't start blogging for professional reasons and had no high expectations. I enjoyed writing for magazines and thought I could entertain a few of my peers, while experimenting with a new communications medium. In fact, what I found was that blogging transformed my professional life into a continuous learning experience. Events that would normally have had a transitory impact became the focal point for deep reflection as I sought to interpret my experience in a way that would be relevant to others. Clearly this worked for readers as well as me, because I attracted a bit of an audience, not just in the UK, amongst people I knew, but internationally, where I had few contacts. In fact more than 70% of my readers are now from outside the UK.

It's just possible that I have gained some commercial benefit from blogging, in terms of the consultancy work that I attract in the UK. There is very little chance of this extending overseas, as people hire consultants close to home. I have resisted the opportunity to place ads on the blog, because somehow the whole activity would then cross over into becoming a commercial enterprise. So, what I'm saying is that blogging is something I do for pleasure, because it's fun.

But the response to my Obama posting has made me think that perhaps the situation does change once you get a wide readership, and that this probably does places an extra responsibility on you, the blogger. Having a readership gives you power, not to influence voting in an election of course, but certainly to influence buying decisions and choices as far as e-learning is concerned. If you don't take that responsibility seriously, you can hurt people that don't deserve to be hurt. And unlike a newspaper columnist, you don't get rewarded financially for taking on this responsibility. You have to do it because you want to.

Luckily I do.