David Kluskiewicz

“Narrating your work.” That’s the real change that current technologies are enabling. On his last appearance on the Gillmor Gang, Jon Udell put today’s technology in context.

The opportunity that blogging, social bookmarking, and podcasting offer is not efficiency, but the realistic flow of information.Unlike a book, or brochure, these channels help us understand not just outcome, but process. That’s something that’s hard to know, unless your conduct is very transparent. Think about elections - personality, life story, behavior and voting record are all considered before making a decision. In many cases, there’s no difference between two candidates’ positions. What differs is how they got there. The process.

“How did you come to that conclusion?” Any time I hear someone tout a piece of conventional wisdom, I ask that question. Regularly updated channels, like the ones Udell suggests are windows to the elusive processes of how people come to complex conclusions. They won’t have all the answers, but they will definitely add perspective that polished statements lack.

Blogging and other related personal publishing technologies are all rivers of information. Updated regularly, they can provide better information on which to base decisions. Udell suggests that blogging could even replace the CV or resume. Though this method of narrating one’s work may not have caught on yet because of the inevitable humility that comes along with not being right, it will over time. There are so few truly new ideas, that it will be difficult to stand out. What will make us stand out is how we got there.