Aaron Brazell is talking about it in "Friends vs Fans" and Jared Goralnick talks about it in "Avoiding the online popularity contest to seek a deeper connection".

It all boils down to:  What is a friend?

There are some people on social networks that seem to add everyone and anyone they have ever, will ever, or ever want to meet.  This gives the massive networks of people whom they don't know at all or know in passing.  This seems to be the most common on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Personally, I approach it a bit differently...

I wrote about this topic six months ago - Blogging Strategy - and had an update on a few different efforts. So blogging about blogging... yes, get over it. ;)

So six months has passed... has anything changed? Do more organizations get it? Are more organizations trying it? Are more organizations engaging with their customers, supporters, employees, and competitors?

Unforuntately, I don't track the entire industry, I have things to do. But I do keep an eye on a few organizations and their trends... and occasionally happen upon other groups' efforts.

First, the obvious, there are numerous groups and individuals using it to build their brands, gain allies, and generally create a buzz around them and their services. In my own little corner of the world, the CaseySoftware blog has been online for over three years and I just passed my 500th post. Others - like Ann Bernard at WhyGoSolo - are newer to the space but have already built up a following in just a manner of months. WGS regularly generates more comments on a daily basis than CaseySoftware. Just one metric, but interesting.

Almost every day, someone passes me a link to a study or article worth a chuckle and then gets prompty filed away or deleted.  It's not that the thought it unwanted or unappreciated, just that they often don't elicit further thought.  Late last week, I received a link that was just the opposite.

Dennis McDonald - a Northern Virginia local that I've talked with a number of times - has released the preliminary findings of his study entitled "Blogging and Project Management".  Both as a long-time blogger and as someone building and working with Project Management tools (*cough*web2Project*cough), I found his initial discoveries useful.  Some of the findings were what you'd expect but some of the questions and comments that popped out at me were interesting:

• It appears that Project Managers are mostly unaware of blogging.  Is it simply ignorance and lack of exposure or has there been a conscious decision to exlcude it from consideration or has it been determined to be unsuitable?
• In their "replacing email" points, are they wanting to document discussions (dynamic, like a forum) or the decisions made (static, even if changed later)?  It seems like each of these would encourage/necessitate different tools and mindsets... neither of these seem appropriate for a blog.
• While I have yet to interact with a single organization that is doing wholly internal blogging, I've find high acceptance of Wikis within a number of organizations and have helped them develop "wiki best practices".  Do organizations see these as mutually exclusive tools/concepts?
• In the Open Source world - a skewed sample, no doubt - the acceptance of blogging/wikis/etc has been high and the creative application of the tools has been amazing.  I wish more companies would look at Open Source - not just to use - but to learn and review best practices from.  I think there's a huge amount of experience, knowledge, and mistakes that can be learned from.

Yes, I've already sent these to Dennis, maybe he'll have/gain insight to share with the rest of us.  I look forward to the full report.  In the meantime, the preliminary findings are available.

On a personal note... 

It was three years ago this evening that I started blogging.  It's funny to go back and read that post:  blogs.CaseySoftware.com is Online.  I was traveling for a deadend job, was getting more enmeshed in a deadend without a hope of escaping.  I started this site and this blog to pave the way to better things and had to blog under the super-creative pseudonyms "KC" and "CEO".  So silly.  While it prevented my boss from finding my name, it also made "KC and the Sunshine Band" the only thing that would appear for my Adsense for months...

I can't begin to name all the things that have changed personally, professionally, and in just about every way possible.  Some quick notes that I can think of off the top of my head:

• I've met some great people across the spectrum in terms of skills, geography, and experiences.  I've learned something from most of them and a lot from a few.  Most are linked in the blogroll to the left.
• Many of the other bloggers who started up about the same time are gone.  More than  half of that original blogroll are completely gone, some haven't updated in a over a year.
• CaseySoftware shifted from a parttime operation doing tiny one-off tweaks to existing projects to having a large and growing base of customers doing a mix of custom projects on top of a few established products and wholy new development work.
• Despite all my efforts, I still can't find a qualified junior/mid level PHP guy to come on parttime...  *hint*hint*
• Somewhere along the way, I was mistaken for someone whose opinion matters.  While I'm quick to correct people and point out the obvious absurdity of such a statement, I appreciate the mistake.  ;)

So anyway, if you've made it here, welcome.  If you've found something useful, let me know and I'll remove it immediately... can't have any of that lurking around.  ;)  Tomororw I'll return to the regular agenda.

About eight months ago in this space, I was encouraged by Tony Targonski to write some predictions involving the future of blogging in 2007. In case you're not one of my three regulars, here was my original quote:

Various governments will get involved... and not in good ways.

Yes, we've had free reign for a long time. Generally, the "blogosphere" has policed itself and ridiculed the liars and frauds into nothing... unfortunately, we all know that when something is working, the government has to step in to break it:

Guaranteed: Watch for the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) to step in and look at the usage of blogs in political races and come up with rules to make our lives more difficult.

Guaranteed: Watch for the Courts and various Law Enforcement Organizations to step in and continue to fight out the definition of "journalist" and related issues.

I hate being wrong, but I have to admit that I was horribly wrong on this one.