Asymmetrical Information

Exactly right. You are where I was about ten years ago. Polishing my skills hoping for better, and better compensated, jobs (even to the point of getting a professional degree from U Cal @ Berkeley).

Guess what occured to me - in reality, lots goes with working for someone, and you need not do it.

In 1776, most people here worked for themselves.

Now, thanks to technological innovation, the great bleak years of the company man and the large organization and the union are fragmenting away.

I built my own company, it ain't hard once you get by the fear and conditioning. This is not a sales pitch for self improvment tapes - it is more possible today then any time in the last 40 or so years.

When I graduated from Boalt Hall - the best career path was an associate position in a LARGE law firm and doing what you were told (even in ethical matters) for 9 or so years. A few years later the best way to go was open your own shop and get clients by hard work and savy marketing. Any kind of clients. The big firm associates were fired, anyone with their own client base was golden.

In addition to academic freedom, the main advantage academics and other professional intellectuals have is time. Most people simply don't have time to post several times a day or, indeed, surf and read a lot of stuff on which to blog.

I use an alias in commenting because of my work.

The solution is to use alias on your blog. There is no reason for anyone to know your true identity unless you want to use your blog to further your career or your ego.

Very true. And the nice thing about using pen names is that you can use them to reflect either your mood or the overall image that you wish to project unless for some reason you feel a need to pass for "normal". ^_~

For some folks, blogging is an excercise in "LOOK AT ME!" For others, it's an excercise in ideas.

My real name is a pseudonym, so I just pretend to be the deadguy I'm named after. No one is ever going to read my blog anyway. It is just a way to express all my evil thoughts without getting punched in the face by someone. It is neither intelligent nor funny...but it is mine.

James Joyner's comment - that free time is key to blogging - resonates with me. I am lucky that I get to use a little work time to do my blog, because it also is the material for our client newsletter. Since it is an office blog, I can't be blatantly political or abrasive, but I can handle that - it probably improves my writing, anyway.

Still, I have to get client work done, too. Oh, and I have to get home to stay with the little kid and get him to bed while Mom takes big brother to the scout meeting, and oops, it's bedtime... you parents know what I mean. A few free hours at the office without impatient clients calling wanting, well, client service could do wonders for the blog, if not my income.

I don't reveal a lot about myself for that reason. I don't want my company to know about my blog, and I don't tell my co-workers. I hope to be self-employed soon, so then it won't be an issue.

I use a nome de plume when blogging (sounds better than "alias" no?) for reasons that I cannot divulge for reasons I cannot divulge. And yes they do, in part, have to do with the company I work for.

Good points. A pen-name is also useful I think in making one a bit more "objective" - it is quite funny how adopting a different persona can have this effect.

Also I work for a media organisation and I doubt if airing my views would do my prospects much good. Another reason for going self-employed, eventually.

I think that academic clubbishness plays a role. Very few academic blogs link to mine, and I think is because I am not at an academic institution.

Academics tend to think in terms of scratching each others' backs. They use references to one another's papers to do that. They do the same with blogs.

I'm not an academic but I was an undergrad (B.A) and grad student (M.S.) It's been my experience that PhD's probably can devote more time to blogging than other professionals because they have grad students who teach their classes, grade their students assignments, do the research for their publications and perhaps even round up the best of the web every hour for their blog.

Why do academics blog more? Tenure and Grad Assistants.

I live near Wilkes-Barre, PA, in Luzerne County. Its an incredibly corrupt area, and we're in the midst of a peaceful revolution in politics that may just see the old Democrat machine that has run the city and county since WW I overthrown. A target-rich environment for any blogger with a taste for local politics.

My employer counts, as major customers, many agencies, NGOs and companies or corporations that would protest vociferously if I ever openly blogged about this area the way I want to. Many are tied to the current system by a web of marriage, friendship, contributions and shared world view.

A local blog, Wilkes-Barre Online, is written by a decidedly blue-collar type who has the luxury of an employer who agrees with his views, so he can blast anyone he wants. I don't. Hence, my still-in-the-prototype-stage blog will feature a nom de plume.

I know this is an argument for self-employment. That is why I'm studying for a degree in Computer Science. Meanwhile, I'll accept that some may view me as less reliable, or less courageous - I need a steady paycheck.

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