Jay Littlepage: Life In Balance?

Does the world need another blog? Well, yes - according to James

I just got back from Sun's analyst conference - as always it was invigorating, fun, stressful, illuminating, informational, and exhausting. It was great to spend time with interesting folks that I communicate with throughout the year but don't necessarily get to see much, other than events like this.

So what does this have to do with blogging, you ask? Well, i've been asked to blog before and was really resistant to the idea. Last year at this time I was running Sun's Customer Networked Services group and had been strongly encouraged to start a blog by my communications manager. Frankly, an executive blogging just because it is another comms medium is a really bad reason to do so. The blogs that interest me personally are written by people that are blogging because they want to, and have consistently interesting things to say. I didn't want to blog, and didn't think I could be very interesting on a regular basis.

The second time blogging was suggested by my friend Hal Stern last summer, just before I headed out on a four and a half month escape from the business world. I was planning on doing a lot of traveling and Hal wanted to see a blog from the road. While it was a little more appealing this time, it would have required me to interact with a computer on a regular basis during my leave. I've spent my entire career in the IT industry. Getting away meant getting away. The most advanced technology I used last summer was a 2002 Bobcat MT50.

Third time is the charm. I spent time at the conference yesterday with James Governor of Redmonk. James was suggesting in his usual subtle, understated, nuanced manner that the Services business within Sun (of which I am a part) was doing some really interesting things but was doing a consistently poor job of getting the message out. He asked how many bloggers we had in Services, and I could only name a few - reinforcing his point. While Services has always been an important part of Sun and is integral to our future direction there are many ways to get the word out - blogging being an important and underutilized one.

Message received. And it will be a lot easier to convince others to blog if i'm doing it myself. Thanks, James.