The risks of blogging
When I talk to people about blogging, it seems like they almost always want to talk mostly about the negative aspects. The positive aspects have to be explained to them, but the negatives are obvious.
For example, when I mention that blogging allows readers to leave comments, the first thing people ask is “But can’t people leave nasty comments?” or “What can I do when people complain?”
Or else people are concerned that their on line words will be used against them, somehow — honest thoughts will be taken out of context, and used to demonstrate a weakness.
These are legitimate concerns. I just wish people didn’t leap to the negative quite so quickly, however.
But I guess that’s because most of the internet (except regular, static websites) is still uncharted territory for most people. Forums, listservs, newsgroups, on line seminars, Skype — what are those? And what they have heard of, such as chat rooms for instance, seem to be all about lurking creeps and perverts, according to mainstream media.
There are some negative consequences of blogging; it’s no good denying it. I happen to think that in most cases the benefits outweigh the problems, but it’s much harder to get people to see that. Whatever the reason, most people seem to equate being on line with being attacked.
If everyone who thought of opening a store decided not to because of the possibility of being robbed, we’d be in a lot of trouble. Where would I get my coffee? Yes, robbery is possible. It’s a risk.
Well, in project management there’s a little thing called “risk management.” That’s where you take a systematic look at the possible risks, assess the probability of occurrence, decide the importance of the consequences, and devise possible ways to mitigate the risks.
I’ve written some things over the past nine months about the benefits of blogging. This week, I’m going to take a look at some of the risks of blogging, try to separate the real from the imagined, and look at possible risk mitigation strategies.
What do you think are the risks of blogging?
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