Halley Suitt is cool. Period. I loved her presentation this week at BBS 2005 on The Art and Science of Blog Writing. It's a topic I feel passionately about. In fact, the point of this blog is to deconstruct and articulate what effective blog writing is. It's a big topic... I'll keep chipping away.

A key point is the intersection between good blogging and good journalism. Your blog doesn't need to cover current events. Yet  you need to write

Halley Suitt is cool. Period. I loved her presentation this week at BBS 2005 on The Art and Science of Blog Writing. It's a topic I feel passionately about. In fact, the point of this blog is to deconstruct and articulate what effective blog writing is. It's a big topic... I'll keep chipping away.

A key point is the intersection between good blogging and good journalism. Your blog doesn't need to cover current events. Yet  you need to write like a great reporter (use specific examples, tell stories, attribute your sources, etc.) in order to be compelling. But wait, there's more...

Then you have to let it all hang out... let your voice develop. Get a little raggedy sometimes. Don't polish your prose too much.I need to do more of that myself.I tend to be a bit too proper in my blog writing style... probably…

Came back from Seattle's BBS 2005 and immediately caught a little stomach bug. Ugh. I've been combing through the 20+ pages of typed notes I took. Full of gems. Here's one from Robert Scoble:

"If I blog I'll get fired. If I blog I'll look stupid. It takes too much time... Get over it! Keep at it and eventually someone will do a Google search and discover what you're saying."

Good all-around advice for taking the leap into this new channel of

Came back from Seattle's BBS 2005 and immediately caught a little stomach bug. Ugh. I've been combing through the 20+ pages of typed notes I took. Full of gems. Here's one from Robert Scoble:

"If I blog I'll get fired. If I blog I'll look stupid. It takes too much time... Get over it! Keep at it and eventually someone will do a Google search and discover what you're saying."

Good all-around advice for taking the leap into this new channel of communication. The cool thing about blogging  is that you can't be sure what ripple effect your blog will have. The scarey thing about blogging is that you can't be sure...

Not to worry. ActiveWords CEO Buzz Bruggeman says (without apology) this is the "grade" that A-list blogger Doc Searls gives him. BUT Bruggeman, who runs a 5-person company, has managed to get major media exposure (and thousands of trial downloads of his product) through his blogging efforts. For the record, I give his buzzmodo blog at least a B. He quotes Shakespeare and the New York Times, writes about The Smell of Fear (Florida's

Not to worry. ActiveWords CEO Buzz Bruggeman says (without apology) this is the "grade" that A-list blogger Doc Searls gives him. BUT Bruggeman, who runs a 5-person company, has managed to get major media exposure (and thousands of trial downloads of his product) through his blogging efforts. For the record, I give his buzzmodo blog at least a B. He quotes Shakespeare and the New York Times, writes about The Smell of Fear (Florida's hurricanes)... and posts fairly regularly. It's listed below as a CEO Thought Leadership blog. He's also got a more product-centered blog, buzznovation.

Microsoft's Lenn Pryor (Robert Scoble's boss) is on stage right now at the BBS 2005 and speaking on "Corporate Blogging: Strategy and Policy." I was really struck by several things... Lenn comes across as super smart but not stuck up; he's relaxed and engaging; he's marvelously articulate. And so is Robert Scoble. Is this some personality profile they breed at Microsoft? Anyway, read my more-or-less verbatim transcription below of what Lenn

Microsoft's Lenn Pryor (Robert Scoble's boss) is on stage right now at the BBS 2005 and speaking on "Corporate Blogging: Strategy and Policy." I was really struck by several things... Lenn comes across as super smart but not stuck up; he's relaxed and engaging; he's marvelously articulate. And so is Robert Scoble. Is this some personality profile they breed at Microsoft? Anyway, read my more-or-less verbatim transcription below of what Lenn said about employee guidelines for blogging. They sound simple... but they're the result of a lot of thought. Oh, and if you haven't already read it, here's a related resource: Robert Scoble's Corporate Weblog Manifesto.

Lenn: "Microsoft has 1,200 bloggers out of 55,000 employees. So there’s bound to be a 'transgression' or a mistake in those words. But Microsoft has a way of dealing with that. We've developed a set of guidelines, working with our legal department."

BUT,…