Southwest Virginia Blogs

Sometimes the Internet reminds me of the canal that runs behind our house.  Its waters are dark, and you never quite know what's lurking there.

We can all go off half-cocked sometimes.  Yet on the Internet you can do a lot of damage to someone's reputation.  It's probably the biggest danger that I see to the free-wheeling Internet world.   

Over a year ago I did a post about a product that I really liked.  I got some positive feedback on the article, and I didn't think much more about it other than to see it show up in the stats once in a while.

Sometime this fall when I was swamped with other stuff, someone posted something negative about the company.  I should have checked it out immediately, but I was doing classes and studying for exams so it slipped my memory until I got a note from a friend of the owners telling me the comments were false.

I sent back that the owners were welcome to tell me their side of the story, and I would act accordingly.  I got a nice letter from the company owners which prompted me to remove the negative comments from my website.

I think one of the weaknesses of world of blogs is just pure lack of time and adequate resources to check everything in a freewheeling environment.  I am very careful about what I mention on my blogs, but it is easy to slip up.

I did a post on one of my other blogs on "Blogs and personal product marketing."  While doing that post last night, it occurred to me that  I've never sold anything in which I didn't have absolute confidence.  It turns out that all that confidence has come from using the product or service.

The other part to that is that I have been lucky enough to be in positions where I could fix problems when they happen as they inevitably do.  If you see me mention a product or service on one of my blogs, be assured  that I have tried it and am sharing my h0nest comments.

Maybe there will be some checks and balances on the Internet someday, but right now we just have to depend on the personal integrity of the individual.  I plan to guard mine jealously.

Maybe all of that is being a Boy Scout, but I have never had a problem with that.   The huge visibility that you can gain in an instant on the Internet from articles like my, "What Jobs told me on the iPhone," is both an honor and a huge responsibility.

While I plan to make the most of the great visibility,  I don't exactly have any plans to get rich off of it.

Sometimes the Internet reminds me of the canal that runs behind our house.  Its waters are dark, and you never quite know what's lurking there.

We can all go off half-cocked sometimes.  Yet on the Internet you can do a lot of damage to someone's reputation.  It's probably the biggest danger that I see to the free-wheeling Internet world.   

Over a year ago I did a post about a product that I really liked.  I got some positive feedback on the article, and I didn't think much more about it other than to see it show up in the stats once in a while.

Sometime this fall when I was swamped with other stuff, someone posted something negative about the company.  I should have checked it out immediately, but I was doing classes and studying for exams so it slipped my memory until I got a note from a friend of the owners telling me the comments were false.

I sent back that the owners were welcome to tell me their side of the story, and I would act accordingly.  I got a nice letter from the company owners which prompted me to remove the negative comments from my website.

I think one of the weaknesses of world of blogs is just pure lack of time and adequate resources to check everything in a freewheeling environment.  I am very careful about what I mention on my blogs, but it is easy to slip up.

I did a post on one of my other blogs on "Blogs and personal product marketing."  While doing that post last night, it occurred to me that  I've never sold anything in which I didn't have absolute confidence.  It turns out that all that confidence has come from using the product or service.

The other part to that is that I have been lucky enough to be in positions where I could fix problems when they happen as they inevitably do.  If you see me mention a product or service on one of my blogs, be assured  that I have tried it and am sharing my h0nest comments.

Maybe there will be some checks and balances on the Internet someday, but right now we just have to depend on the personal integrity of the individual.  I plan to guard mine jealously.

Maybe all of that is being a Boy Scout, but I have never had a problem with that.   The huge visibility that you can gain in an instant on the Internet from articles like my, "What Jobs told me on the iPhone," is both an honor and a huge responsibility.

While I plan to make the most of the great visibility,  I don't exactly have any plans to get rich off of it.

Sometimes the Internet reminds me of the canal that runs behind our house.  Its waters are dark, and you never quite know what's lurking there.

We can all go off half-cocked sometimes.  Yet on the Internet you can do a lot of damage to someone's reputation.  It's probably the biggest danger that I see to the free-wheeling Internet world.   

Over a year ago I did a post about a product that I really liked.  I got some positive feedback on the article, and I didn't think much more about it other than to see it show up in the stats once in a while.

Sometime this fall when I was swamped with other stuff, someone posted something negative about the company.  I should have checked it out immediately, but I was doing classes and studying for exams so it slipped my memory until I got a note from a friend of the owners telling me the comments were false.

I sent back that the owners were welcome to tell me their side of the story, and I would act accordingly.  I got a nice letter from the company owners which prompted me to remove the negative comments from my website.

I think one of the weaknesses of world of blogs is just pure lack of time and adequate resources to check everything in a freewheeling environment.  I am very careful about what I mention on my blogs, but it is easy to slip up.

I did a post on one of my other blogs on "Blogs and personal product marketing."  While doing that post last night, it occurred to me that  I've never sold anything in which I didn't have absolute confidence.  It turns out that all that confidence has come from using the product or service.

The other part to that is that I have been lucky enough to be in positions where I could fix problems when they happen as they inevitably do.  If you see me mention a product or service on one of my blogs, be assured  that I have tried it and am sharing my h0nest comments.

Maybe there will be some checks and balances on the Internet someday, but right now we just have to depend on the personal integrity of the individual.  I plan to guard mine jealously.

Maybe all of that is being a Boy Scout, but I have never had a problem with that.   The huge visibility that you can gain in an instant on the Internet from articles like my, "What Jobs told me on the iPhone," is both an honor and a huge responsibility.

While I plan to make the most of the great visibility,  I don't exactly have any plans to get rich off of it.

Living a life without trust would be a huge challenge.  I don't think even the most wired and connected individual can survive without trusting a few real people. 

Still finding a real person to trust is a lot harder now that families are scattered around the world.  I've never thought of trust as a national trend, but Sebastian Mallaby's article, "The Decline Of Trust," in today's  Washington Post makes some interesting points about the decline of trust in today society, in both business and government.

And the absence of trust can feed on itself. Leaders function under stifling oversight; this causes them to perform sluggishly, so trust continues to stagnate. But occasionally there is a chance to escape this trap: A shock causes trust to rise, leaders have a chance to lead and there's an opportunity to boost trust still further.

We've recently had a double opportunity. The boom of the 1990s boosted trust in business; the 2001 terrorist attacks boosted trust in government. But CEOs and politicians abused these gifts with scandals and incompetence. Such is the cost of corporate malfeasance and the Iraq war: Precious social capital is destroyed by leaders' avarice and hubris.

I often found it strange that my former employer, Apple Computer, would bring in high level management people from outside the company and trust their opinion far more than employees who had been working for the company.    I don't know if the  steadily declining trust that Apple showed it employees is mirrored at other companies, but I am sure that the lack of trust hindered productivity in Apple field teams.

Mallaby also talks about the Internet encouraging "acerbic negativity."  On the one hand Mallaby might be right if you let yourself listen to only certain parts of the Internet.

However, I would make the argument that new communication techniques arising from the Internet actually encourage building new webs of trust.  While there are parts of the Internet, like anncoulter.com, that I'll likely avoid, there are lots of other communities where I can find kindred spirits.

As someone who doesn't like large government, but believes that if we are going to have government it should be good government, there aren't any political parties locally where I really feel at home.  Yet through contact established from my Internet presences, I've met a number of people with similar beliefs.

Most of us who regularly post have communities of readers who have self selected to the point that  our audience cares about many of the same things that we do.  I trust  the opinions of many of my regular blog friends more than I do any politician.  I value their opinions as highly as I do some well known pundits.

So while Sebastian Mallaby might be right to indict part of the modern world, there are many on line communities where modern technologies are driving new levels of trust and cooperation.  Besides blogs, you cannot  discount the social changes happening through instant messaging and on line communities.

Technology hasn't created a virtual southern village yet, but I have a confidence in new ways of communicating that will bring us closer together rather than drive us farther apart. 

I don't believe we'll end up a nation of people listening only to their individual iPods or screaming at the rest of the world from our blogs.

Living a life without trust would be a huge challenge.  I don't think even the most wired and connected individual can survive without trusting a few real people. 

Still finding a real person to trust is a lot harder now that families are scattered around the world.  I've never thought of trust as a national trend, but Sebastian Mallaby's article, "The Decline Of Trust," in today's  Washington Post makes some interesting points about the decline of trust in today society, in both business and government.

And the absence of trust can feed on itself. Leaders function under stifling oversight; this causes them to perform sluggishly, so trust continues to stagnate. But occasionally there is a chance to escape this trap: A shock causes trust to rise, leaders have a chance to lead and there's an opportunity to boost trust still further.

We've recently had a double opportunity. The boom of the 1990s boosted trust in business; the 2001 terrorist attacks boosted trust in government. But CEOs and politicians abused these gifts with scandals and incompetence. Such is the cost of corporate malfeasance and the Iraq war: Precious social capital is destroyed by leaders' avarice and hubris.

I often found it strange that my former employer, Apple Computer, would bring in high level management people from outside the company and trust their opinion far more than employees who had been working for the company.    I don't know if the  steadily declining trust that Apple showed it employees is mirrored at other companies, but I am sure that the lack of trust hindered productivity in Apple field teams.

Mallaby also talks about the Internet encouraging "acerbic negativity."  On the one hand Mallaby might be right if you let yourself listen to only certain parts of the Internet.

However, I would make the argument that new communication techniques arising from the Internet actually encourage building new webs of trust.  While there are parts of the Internet, like anncoulter.com, that I'll likely avoid, there are lots of other communities where I can find kindred spirits.

As someone who doesn't like large government, but believes that if we are going to have government it should be good government, there aren't any political parties locally where I really feel at home.  Yet through contact established from my Internet presences, I've met a number of people with similar beliefs.

Most of us who regularly post have communities of readers who have self selected to the point that  our audience cares about many of the same things that we do.  I trust  the opinions of many of my regular blog friends more than I do any politician.  I value their opinions as highly as I do some well known pundits.

So while Sebastian Mallaby might be right to indict part of the modern world, there are many on line communities where modern technologies are driving new levels of trust and cooperation.  Besides blogs, you cannot  discount the social changes happening through instant messaging and on line communities.

Technology hasn't created a virtual southern village yet, but I have a confidence in new ways of communicating that will bring us closer together rather than drive us farther apart. 

I don't believe we'll end up a nation of people listening only to their individual iPods or screaming at the rest of the world from our blogs.

Living a life without trust would be a huge challenge.  I don't think even the most wired and connected individual can survive without trusting a few real people. 

Still finding a real person to trust is a lot harder now that families are scattered around the world.  I've never thought of trust as a national trend, but Sebastian Mallaby's article, "The Decline Of Trust," in today's  Washington Post makes some interesting points about the decline of trust in today society, in both business and government.

And the absence of trust can feed on itself. Leaders function under stifling oversight; this causes them to perform sluggishly, so trust continues to stagnate. But occasionally there is a chance to escape this trap: A shock causes trust to rise, leaders have a chance to lead and there's an opportunity to boost trust still further.

We've recently had a double opportunity. The boom of the 1990s boosted trust in business; the 2001 terrorist attacks boosted trust in government. But CEOs and politicians abused these gifts with scandals and incompetence. Such is the cost of corporate malfeasance and the Iraq war: Precious social capital is destroyed by leaders' avarice and hubris.

I often found it strange that my former employer, Apple Computer, would bring in high level management people from outside the company and trust their opinion far more than employees who had been working for the company.    I don't know if the  steadily declining trust that Apple showed it employees is mirrored at other companies, but I am sure that the lack of trust hindered productivity in Apple field teams.

Mallaby also talks about the Internet encouraging "acerbic negativity."  On the one hand Mallaby might be right if you let yourself listen to only certain parts of the Internet.

However, I would make the argument that new communication techniques arising from the Internet actually encourage building new webs of trust.  While there are parts of the Internet, like anncoulter.com, that I'll likely avoid, there are lots of other communities where I can find kindred spirits.

As someone who doesn't like large government, but believes that if we are going to have government it should be good government, there aren't any political parties locally where I really feel at home.  Yet through contact established from my Internet presences, I've met a number of people with similar beliefs.

Most of us who regularly post have communities of readers who have self selected to the point that  our audience cares about many of the same things that we do.  I trust  the opinions of many of my regular blog friends more than I do any politician.  I value their opinions as highly as I do some well known pundits.

So while Sebastian Mallaby might be right to indict part of the modern world, there are many on line communities where modern technologies are driving new levels of trust and cooperation.  Besides blogs, you cannot  discount the social changes happening through instant messaging and on line communities.

Technology hasn't created a virtual southern village yet, but I have a confidence in new ways of communicating that will bring us closer together rather than drive us farther apart. 

I don't believe we'll end up a nation of people listening only to their individual iPods or screaming at the rest of the world from our blogs.