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February 6, 2005
Blogging 101 - Sharing
By QBlog in Blogging 101
Sharing doesn't come naturally to humans. It's a learned behavior. Children must be taught the benefits of freely sharing with others. Their tiny minds try to grasp that while sharing may seem burdensome, distressing and generally uncomfortable at first, the simple act can result in rewards far beyond their imagination. Such behavioral lessons serve as the foundation of our development and it's why the behavior of Mother Teresa is held in higher esteem than the actions of Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge.
So what does all this goofy sharing talk have to do with blogging? Well, like the Interent itself, sharing is a fundamental aspect of blogging. Most bloggers just love to share and most of them do it for free. They share helpful links, tips on tweaking some HTML, writing TiVo hacking tutorials, recipes or the latest news about city government and they do all this without any requirement for compensation. They do it for free. They do it because they enjoy it.
Business minds have a hard time grasping this blog-sharing mentality. "Wait, you're posting tips on how to raise saltwater fish and doing it for free? I don't get it. Why for free?" Similar questions were asked of the Internet's founding fathers. This idea of sharing is what fuels today's Open Source communities. But it runs contrary to traditional notions of how and why people are motivated to "work."
Bloggers aren't so mystified by the idea of sharing. Most of them "get it." They know that when they were first introduced to blogging, someone probably shared something with them to get them up to speed. They understand that sharing feeds a sort of "Blog Karma" and that "it's better to give than to receive."
So, how are you sharing? What are you doing to give back to the blog community? Or are you still in the learning phase, not quite ready to share? That's fine too. Just remember that as long as bloggers continue to share, blogging will remain a special way to communicate. When the sharing stops, so does blogging as we know it today.