“Maybe you don’t work for or with a Global 2000 company, so I’ll let you in on a little secret: They Can’t Hear You! That’s right, the CIOs, and Enterprise Architechts, and, yes, even the journeyman programmer employed by these firms have no idea that there’s even a discussion going on. […] They don’t read technology blogs, they don’t know who DHH is, and they’re excited to get their new Vista gear.”
I was quite relieved when I read Pete Lacey’s post, as it means the world of cubicles hasn’t swallowed IT entirely. There are some companies where the CEO is blogging. Some might understand this as a marketing instrument and broadcast medium at first, but the medium will get them – there is no blogging without discussion. And if the CEO sets the example, employees are likely to follow.
There’s another, rather unpleasant aspect to this, however: If some (the?) blogging community unanimously votes for or against something, then this says nothing about the validity of this result for another, decoupled community like the Global 2000 flock. Just as an example, a discussion among technicians is likely to exclude commercial and organizational aspects, either willfully or because of lack of expertise (ignorance is such a hard word). A CEO would be maladvised to just copy their results.