Here are five of my blogging heroes (where I use "hero" without regard either to gender or cardinality), and some reasons why I admire them:
- Pamela Jones of Groklaw definitely ranks. Since 2003, she's been exposing legal and PR shenanigans against open source software from a variety of shady characters, ranging from failing software companies in Utah to lumbering monopolists in Washington State to patsies in paid journalism. She and her associates grab, transcribe, analyze, and explain legal filings, articles, interviews, and other primary sources faster and more comprehensively than anyone in the commercial media. Through it all, she's run the blog with panache, and a strong ethical drive, both in her well-placed sense of outrage and in being willing to make sacrifices for her principles (like resigning from a job because it might have created an appearance of a conflict of interest in her blogging). Through it all, she's been subject to harassment and intimidation, but keeps going. For her courage, integrity, dedication, and smarts, I salute her.
- Blogs can be great for teaching as well as reporting. The team at Real Climate, who as far as I can tell already have time-consuming academic jobs, have also done an admirable job at explaining developments and popular controversies around climate science, in a way that's both detailed and accessible to non-climate-scientists. Readers can get the latest scoops on new scientific research, op-ed and PR memes, or just get useful background on common climate questions. They also respond frequently to questions and misconceptions in the comments, and link out to many useful external resources in climatology and other sciences. The blog is a model for teaching when your classroom is the world.
- The lifeblood of many of the best blogs is in the comments. Teresa and Patrick Nielsen Hayden have assembled an impressive salon of smart, funny, and creative commentators at their Making Light blog, thanks to their eclectic interests, wide knowledge, wit, and an attitude that's both welcoming to new contributors but swift and firm with folks who misbehave. (By the time I get to any of their threads, just about any comment seriously out of line has already been disemvoweled, a technique I believe they pioneered.)
- For some people, blogging is an organic extension of what they naturally do on many fronts: engage the community to help develop and promote ideas for improving the world. That's the case with Lawrence Lessig, a lawyer who crusades for open access, copyright reform, and justice for abuse victims, all while being a law professor and helping bring up two small kids. (I can relate to that last bit.) He's a founder of Creative Commons, a movement that's helped make millions of creative works sharable, adaptable, and reusable. He himself shares his ideas through freely readable online books, talks, and his blog. He also solicits suggestions and critiques in associated book-wikis and blog comments, giving ample space both to those who agree with them and those who think he's all wet.
- The last blogging hero I'll mention is the one who sucked me into this: Dorothea Salo, whose Caveat Lector blog is one I keep coming back to, and not just because she works in the same environment (libraries) and has some of the same non-work interests (such as choral singing) as I do. For the past several years, starting as a burnt-out grad student and now a rising librarian, she's consistently given the straight story on the tribulations and triumphs she's experienced, unafraid to kick up a fuss or point out emperors with no clothes. And not in a full-of-oneself way (she's at least as hard on herself as on others), but in way that reflects the best of the librarian ethic of bringing knowledge to folks who need it. I get the sense, reading her blog and seeing the talks and tutorials she's presented, of someone who's learned a lot of stuff the hard way and wants to make sure that lots more people who need to, learn it as well, or become comfortable saying it as well. Whether it's improving service in libraries, exorcising gender inequities in geekdom, or revolutionizing the way knowledge is discovered and shared, she gives me (and many other information professionals) much-appreciated inspiration as well as kicks in the pants.
