Well, now that I have started on the path of blogging, I realize that I have bitten off more than I can chew.
The standard sense of being overwhelmed when starting any new venture.
It's that same old story - initially a bull in a china shop working one's way to surgical efficiency. In the Unix world, I would have been called a "newbie". And received much scorn and derision for my ignorance of what to many others is just plain common sense.
To use another metaphor, I am just starting to speak, so the blogs are coming out cryptic or inappropriate. Very much like a young child learning to speak... so it is with this in mind that I ask of your indulgence.
Like a young child, I really do need to listen for a while before attempting to speak. And also learn the words that one is not supposed to use. In this case, it's the making of mistakes that causes learning. Call it learning theory or signal theory, either way, it's action, reaction, response. Repeat until no more errors.
I will be spending a fair bit of time reading the other blogs on Sun as well as elsewhere (blogspot?) to learn of the code of conduct but more importantly, etiquette of blogs and similar online broadcast communication.
It's different than email, which had a netiquette, and alt.movies.wierdo-type newsgroups, which are more narrow channel information, and both brought lots of FLAMES. But they were targeted and responsive. Particularly with email. Make a mistake, get flamed. Also with the newsgroups, there was a strong sense of ownership coupled with righteous indignation to bring the unruly back into the fold.
Blogging feels much more like broadcasting, now that I have stepped into it, and I believe that broadcasting sensibilities are at play. I look to media like radio and television for how to deal with mass appeal without response. They reach out a lot for feedback. Please call, write, email, drop by and let us know what you think. It's that one to many communication that has very few of the many returning the favour.
And along the way, with limited feedback, I'll attempt to improve my blogging etiquette. Further, this is coupled with the fact that I am posting from within a corporation, Sun, so I have to be mindful of additional code of conduct and etiquette. Much of it unwritten and ascribed to common sense.
In closing, a couple of yogi berra quotes come to mind :
"You can see a lot just by looking"
"Common sense ain't so common"