I’m sitting on a panel with Guy Kawasaki today – this era’s definitive technology evangelist. It’s for SIPA, the Silicon Valley Indian Professionals Association. The subject matter? Blogging and beyond. “When it comes to blogging, there are three kinds of people, the early adopters, the late adopters and the clueless. Fortunately, there is no one in the third category where we live. You really don’t need to be a blogger to take advantage of everything that blogs have to offer.” Rajesh Setty is leading the panel discussion, with a few questions I’ll answer briefly here:

Why do you blog? I’ve been “blogging” for years, actually – Lockergnome has always been a blog. In the beginning, it was a simple newsletter – but as my interests expanded, and the market changed, I was forced to evolve the model. I blog largely because it’s easy to do – and because I have the chance to connect with other people, like-minded or otherwise.
I hope to one day expand Lockergnome to enable the subscribers to blog themselves, and to generate revenue from their Lockergnome blog.
That day is coming soon!

What is the secret recipe that you are using to make your blog successful? Since I’ve been doing it for so long, I’ve kinda been grandfathered into the whole scene. Being an early adopter can be stressful, but the rewards far outweigh the risks. Sharing information has always been a personal and professional passion. Moreover, you have to “do something” to “be someone” – and I’m always working on something new, whether that be a discovery system or daily comic strip. If you’re doing the same thing (online) that you were doing a year ago, in much the same way, then you’re not going to be very successful with a blog. Newsletters are no longer the norm, but it’s next to impossible to prove that to the newsletter’s audience.

How is the blog benefitting you and your organization? The “blog” is everything – although I have a few blogs that are around to achieve a different goal. My personal blog is there to funnel random thoughts. Lockergnome is there to serve the greater community of information junkies. Gnomedex is there to bring bloggers together. TagJag is there to help people discover blogs. Ultimately, however, the word “blog” melts away – it becomes pervasive, as a vehicle to deliver information to whoever seeks it.

How much time are you spending on your blog Probably not as much as I should. There are days when I don’t have a chance to write anything, and I’m typically not interested in posting content unless I can squeeze four or five sentences out of the thought. There’s just not enough time for me to share the things I want to share.

What are some things that you know now about blogging that you wish you knew when you started? I kinda started when the whole blogging phenomenon was getting started, so my knowledge expanded as the platforms expanded. There weren’t many tools in place for us to share information easily – and even though there are more content management solutions in the market today, it’s still very much a piecemeal ecosystem.

Where do you think this whole blogging phenomenon is headed? I’m going to use the word “pervasive” again. Instead of blogging about blogging, or podcasting about podcasting, we’re going to find ourselves immersed in solutions that ultimately help us do what we want to do – whether that be connecting with like-minded individuals, networking with colleagues, or sharing ideas with the world. The tools will become more powerful, and you’ll find many more people able to monetize their contributions to the Web. It’ll kill “the media” as we know it.

If there was only one thing that you wanted to tell a new blogger what would it be? Never give up. Never surrender!

[tags]blogging,myspace,movabletype,publishing,blogs,blogger,typepad,xanga,cms,content,friendster,wordpress,livejournal[/tags]