Blogging Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

LEAD Agency has a new page dedicated to the promotion of environmental blogs and in creating it we cited the work of Ewan McIntosh, an educator in Scotland. McIntosh has a thought-provoking blog on topics ranging from social participative media to education and importantly, the future.

We noted on our Environmental Blogs web page that one of his musings is spot-on about the challenges we face when promoting environmental change. McIntosh's writing follows and I hope you see how this relates to environmental work:

Never Mistake a Clear View as a Short Distance

The challenge for those trying to predict the future is that, at one stage on the uptake curve you're made to look foolish as no-one joins you in the adoption of the technology. After a while, you give up on that bandwagon and think about what is worth betting your efforts on next. Just as you give up on it everyone else starts to adopt. You therefore look foolish twice over. I've written off many a fashion faux pas on that S curve theory.

Back to how this relates to our environmental work. . . well, for one, I hesitated to update this blog recently because no one sends any feedback or volunteers to be a guest blogger. Back to the master, McIntosh--there was a website explaining why blogging is important and linked to McIntosh's work as an example. Well, the explanation was as follows:

"If we give some good stuff to other people, we might get some good stuff back, like nice comments, or someone answering a question we’ve asked, or telling us something really good we didn’t know about."
This sums up my hope for the LEAD Evolution blog.

So, environmental bloggers, we LEAD bloggers are learning as we go and blogging is actually fun, but we want to experience the "A-ha" moment experience after receiving helpful feedback and possibly an offer or two from future guest bloggers. We won't even refuse help from celebrities! Brad Pitt, I, too, attended University of Missouri, and Sheryl Crow, I, too, was a member of the Singsations Jazz Group and Mr. Herbert was my piano teacher. (You can call the previous statement pathetic begging if you wish but a little humor injected into this blogger's musings seldom hurts).

In the mean time, I will praise the environmental bloggers that are experiencing the organic fruits of their labor such as Tree Hugger (they have been nominated for Webbies, Bloggies, Vloggies, SXSW, etc.) and to the newer bloggers like Oklahoman, John D. Sutter, who already has an impressive track record in environmental work and is now helping with his new blog, The Concrete Buffalo.