Whats the point really?

~Prologue~

Ok… Today when I was on Twitter I saw this great Re-Tweet by Steve Garfield 

stevegarfield Retweeting @acclimedia: How to Blog by @hotdogsladies. A must view. http://tinyurl.com/5jbyqj

I clicked on the link in Steve’s Re-Tweet and was blown away by the slides that Merlin Mann (AKA @hotdogsladies) had posted.  After viewing them I decided to write this post.

~Two Answers To A Question~

Q: Why did I make NGdC (i.e. what is the point of NGdC)? 

A1: Short & Smiple Answer: To share information about things that I’m passionate about & become more intelligent in the process of sharing. 

A2: Long – Involved & Somewhat Complex Answer: I use to have a different blog, that really had no direction at all, it was just a thing that I used to blab about whatever happened to be interesting to me at some moment in time, and while I see nothing wrong with that I really wanted to take my blogging (my whole online presence really) to a different place, perhaps “the next level”…

When I saw Brogan & Smith’s ideas on “trust agents” I had a eureka moment.  I wanted to be a (damn good) trust agent.

That eureka moment in combination with my desire to relaunch my online hub, and the fact that Neil Gorman . com was there for me to grab seemed like the prefect storm.  I registered the domain name and created this blog. 

~So What Qualifications Do I Have~

1. I like to think of my self as a social scientist.
2. As such I’m rather fascinated by human social behavior.
3. I’m also a nerd who has been online in some form or another for a long time.
4. (Now lets have fun combining things) I like to think that I’m a bit of an exbert on human social behavior online.
5. I want to share my knowledge, ideas, and theories with the network (people on the internet).  I want to do this because I want people to ask questions, answer questions, make comments, engage in criticism, and share their concerns & their own opinions in a way that will make me smarter, and improve the overall quality of my ideas and theories. 

~My Blog is a Tool~

Most people who have talked with me about blogging know that I see my blog as a tool… as a sort of online lab (with out walls) to develope and refine ideas in a very public way. 

I see value in blogging (opperating a open idea lab) because I believe that it is a great way to build and become an agent of trust. 

~Back to Merlin Mann~

Merlin summed up what I’m attempting to do with my blog in his presentation better than I ever could, so I’m going to steal from his presentation.  I’m attempting to :

1. Share my passion.
2. Build participation.
3. Earn Respect.
4. Encourage opinion and public discourse
5. (and) improve my own online social behavior / ability to communicte & construct my ideas. 

The ways that I plan to accomplish the five things listed above is to…

• Find my obession human social behavior… mainly human social behavior online).
• Talk about that obession every day.
• Explain my ideas about my obession to at least one other person.
• Edit the crap out of my ideas (in the post writing, and in the comments section for each post.)
• Attempting to not take short cuts.
• And I try to always be positive.  AKA I try to NOT be a dick.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  I owe you one.  If you ever want to talk get in touch.

Take care.

-N