Terrell Russell: This Old Network

I’ve been watching friends, colleagues, students, and mavens blog for a few years now. I’ve been watching and doubting – watching and waiting for each of them to decide it’s not the way forward. I’ve waited for them to see that I was right whenever I spoke of keeping your online identity as minimal as possible – keeping your mouth shut to make sure your words are your own so that no one can misrepresent them later. If you write it down, you can’t take it back.

I’ve been telling everyone who would listen that I’m scared of the Internet because I understand it – because I know how it works and how it never forgets. I’ve seen friends abandon their blogs – abandon their place in life where they spoke out, spoke their minds, spoke their feelings about things – because it caused business to conflict with personal – or worse, it hurt someone close to them. I’ve seen them stop writing because they weren’t sure who their audience was, not sure who was listening and perhaps, just maybe, because they talked to me and I convinced them it was a scary world and they’d be better off keeping their opinions where they could see them.

But I’ve also seen friends flourish. I’ve seen them find new paths, new connections with professional posts and insightful commentary. I’ve seen opportunities present themselves and chance encounters occur because the chance was given. I’ve seen colleagues be able to ask ‘the network’ for answers – the lazy web – and the answers came. I’ve seen all of that, and I’m a convert.

There are a lot of people watching. The Internet is a scary place because of that – but it’s also an incredible place. A place where expertise is granted on merit – where ideas that hold water really shine. It’s a place where if you have a good point and you have some readers, you’re very likely to make more of a difference than if you didn’t have a blog. This is why I’ve changed my mind and I join you all today.

I’ve started this blog to house my ideas – to hold my good points and hope that they hold some water.

Hi, I’m Terrell.

Tags: blogging - helloworld - identity - network - PowerOfMany - terrell