Not a reboot, but maybe a patch

I’ve been rattling along on this blog for over a year now and while I’ve mostly stayed true to the original self-imposed charter, recent events have caused me to reflect and implement a tiny but important change.

The byline has been “Best practices, random analyses and wild speculation” since I started this.  That was lifted directly from the internal corporate blog I ran inside Nokia as a former employee (The Long Tail for all you current survivors).

Losing my position at Nokia meant gaining a little bit of journalistic freedom.  I’m still committed to keeping proprietary information sacred but I was able to reorient perspective if nothing else.  Criticizing from the outside is different.

For the most part my post-Nokia audience has been small.  But the attention given this blog in recent weeks, and especially recent days, has led me to to the conclusion that it has reached a point of critical mass, which I found both exhiliarating and frightening.  Gaining a greater audience is every serious writer’s goal– but like Spider-Man says, “with great power comes great responsibility”.

This is made especially poignant by two particular articles and their response.

The first relates to my last article, MeeGo and the N900 meet blogger irresponsibility.  The essential issue revolved around the blogger’s regrettable headline, which led to a great deal of angst and confusion.  True, these fuel the internet, but I think we should switch to unleaded.

The second involves the original article about the N900 micro USB connector falling out, and its follow-up.  I quickly realized many readers were looking here for something authoritative in the absence of news from Nokia.  While I do have some relevant expertise and experience on that matter, the best that I can do in general is be a voice of reason when all hell is breaking loose.  The rationality shown by most people experiencing the micro USB problem was an inspiration.  They truly demonstrated that calm persistence gets the solution, and I want to build on that.  Along those lines, there will be a post mortem soon.  Be warned: it will be a long one!

So I have changed the byline.  You’ll see it’s now “Best practices, random analyses and sober speculation”.  Sure, I’ll continue to wander off into uncharted desert territory on occasion but I’ll do so carrying water rather than vodka.

I don’t do this for a living, so there are no sponsors to offend, no trips to lose, no devices to hastily send back because I may scare some PR rep.  Still, I’d rather this be a blog that people can rely upon rather than one to seek sensationalism for its own sake.  To that end, I’m relaxing my concerns over stars and thumbs and view metrics.  However, I’m still hoping for more dialog with you all… so keep commenting!

I’ll happily shovel out the spam.