August 26, 2008
Posted by Ryan Graves
Normal People Blog too!
Recently I’ve become some what of an evangelist for “most” thing tech. I find value in the technologies that I use (that’s why I use them) and I try and share that value with the people around me.
Blogs for example: My Dad was a journalism major and is a phenomenal writer and I’ve encouraged him to start writing more, possibly using a blog format. My Mother studies a ton and prepares a talk each week for the Bible study that she teaches, and that would be a great content to post/share on the web. My sister is, so far, the only non-techie that I’ve been able to convince to start a blog. She works for a PR firm in San Diego and finally started a blog. Although her blog currently has only one post, it is a very solid post and will benefit her in her professional and her personal development. My next project is to convince my girlfriend, who is an inner city kindergarten teacher, to set up a “class blog” where she can ‘feature’ :) the work of the kids in her class and write about some of her experiences. This could also be a great communication tool between her and the class parents! Not everyone needs a blog, I get it, but many people have a voice, and in today’s world why not share that voice?
The blog that inspired the name of this post is Gotham Gal. She is the wife of VC Fred Wilson of AVC.com and I stumbled upon her blog via his (I think it’s awesome that he links to hers!). This blog is the most normal blog I’ve ever seen! and that’s a compliment. It’s contents consist of 1 thing and 1 thing only, her thoughts, which actually covers almost everything. Gotham Gal discusses her vacations, her children, often times her cooking or a good recipe. Her most recent post was about how her family is a bunch of political junkies, but a post last week was the recipe to a cherished Feta Salad (it was good by the way), and before that, about why her family loves technology. Great work Gotham Gal!
People struggle with the idea of putting their lives on the web and being very public. Remember, you control what goes up. Write about what you feel comfortable sharing, nothing more, nothing less. Use a pseudo-name if that makes you more comfortable, their is nothing wrong with that at all! In the end I just hope that my efforts to evangelize cool technologies (in this case, blogs) is taken for what it is meant to be, helping. I get a ton out of regularly writing this blog and I think others can benefit from the practice as well. Let me know if you consider yourself a non-tech person and you have a blog. Or, if you consider yourself a tech evangelist to non-techies. I’d love to share and learn your “tech”niques.
