New Mac Blogs
October 13th, 2006Scott Stevenson over at Cocoa Dev Central picked up on a couple good new blogs, which he’s included in his front-page summary of “Cocoa + Mac Blogs”:
Cocoa Samurai – Colin Wheeler is adopting an educational approach that I really appreciate. The more “Tutorials” the better, as far as I’m concerned. His article on Doxygen looks like it’s worth reviewing.
Losing Fight – Andy Finnell seems perplexed by his inclusion, claiming that he’s hardly writing about Cocoa at all. But the front page of his blog is littered with Core Data references, so I guess he might just be pertinent in spite of himself!
I’ve also noticed a few recent additions that are worth keeping an eye on:
Lap Cat Software – Jeff Johnson is one of the developers of the Vienna open source newsreader, who recently took the plunge into blogging. He’s on the right track with his detailed analysis of getting NSTableView to do the right thing in response to single vs. double clicks.
MacMojo – The official “multi-blog” of Microsoft Office Mac team. This is an example of Microsoft kicking Apple’s butt in terms of public exposure. I’m not suggesting this blog will be a completely transparent view of the inner workings of the Office team. There’s bound to be some self-censorship, at the very least. But they have a blog, and that’s a bold step. Where’s the Core Data Blog? The QuickTime blog, etc? Apple employees who blog do so outside the umbrella of their workplace, in a disjointed fashion and always carefully “not speaking for my employer.” All that effort is squandered, when it could be building Apple’s reputation as being engaged in the public discourse.
The Masked Blogger – speaking of Apple’s idiotic blog-stifling policies, this blogger decided to glorify the circumstances surrounding his or her anonymity. Not really sure what the gist of the content is – it seems to be specifically about the need to be masked, which could turn interesting. Judging from the Sainsbury’s references (perplexingly misspelled in the blog), I’m guessing the Masked Blogger works for Apple UK.
Erik Schwiebert and David Weiss – Two Microsoft bloggers who demonstrate that there’s room for both corporate and private blogging. These men contribute to the aforementioned Mac Mojo blog while still running their own private blogs outside the company. Notably – they are not secretive about their association with Microsoft, event from their private blogs.
Google Mac Blog – Add this to the list of “cooler than Apple” corporate blogging entities. Well, they haven’t really posted much here, yet. But the mechanism is in place for Google’s Mac proponents to communicate with their public. Go, Google!
I try to stay up to date with new Mac bloggers, but you know how it goes: it’s easy to miss out on things. So I’m sure there are some other recent developments that have slipped past my radar. If you’ve got something new to share, feel free to comment about it below.
October 13th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Another one over here :-) The Bitcartel Blog…
http://bitcartel.blogspot.com
October 13th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
All that effort is squandered, when it could be building Apple”™s reputation as being engaged in the public discourse.
I read John Siracusa’s post on this, and I have to say, I just don’t get corporate blogs.
Maybe the Mac Office team is an exception (I haven’t read it), but for the most part, corporate blogs just repeat the company line in fourteen different ways that are designed to sound candid. This is more true the higher up the chain of command you go. Some even go as far as to mix in personal stuff to make it seem more authentic.
Now, if that’s your thing, so be it. I just can’t blame Apple for not joining this game. They’d just be doing it to be part of the crowd. David Hyatt does it, but that’s because a lot of his stuff is in public view already, and WebKit isn’t exactly a strategically vital project.
Just my thoughts.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
Sugar Maple Software is another, which mentions you, by the way.
October 13th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Hi Scott – I got another comment offline along the same llines: that the corporate blogs suck. Well, to be honest I don’t find any of them as interesting as private blogs, so I have to sort of concede that point. But I do think there’s a good PR in expressing a line of communication directly from the employees to the public. If the blog really is written by employees, as in the Webkit blog case, it can really help open up the operation and build empathy among users.
You might end up regretting that comment about WebKit not being a strategically vital project. I’m sure lots of people would beg to differ! I suspect you were alluding more to its not being a project where shrouding it in secrecy would have a great business advantage.
October 13th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
But I do think there”™s a good PR in expressing a line of communication directly from the employees to the public
In theory, I agree. It’s just that it doesn’t seem that many corporate blogs are really direct from the employee. They’ve either been written or massaged by PR. That’s certainly PR’s job, but I don’t like the idea of letting readers think it’s candid if it’s not.
I suspect you were alluding more to its not being a project where shrouding it in secrecy would have a great business advantage
You’re right, of course. :) I meant the secrecy is not strategically vital.
October 13th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Well I think with Google and Microsoft (MacMojo at least) we might have two exceptional examples. Of course, the Google Mac Blog has yet to really take off but I have a good feeling that Scott Knaster’s involvement will keep it “true” to blogging spirit. Also, I might have already drunk too much of the Google Kool-Aid, but I think their corporate identity is still young and idealistic enough to keep it more honest than it would be at a more mature company.
Which is why I think Microsoft deserves real respect for MacMojo. I know you said you hadn’t really checked it out much, and to be fair I mostly just skim it. But the posts there are mostly associated with real names, associated with msdn profiles that contain links to external sites, a photo, etc. When the company puts a real identity along with the employee bloggers, I think they’re less likely to willing spew bullshit into the loudspeakers. Everybody will know it’s them that’s being shady, not just the company.
If anybody at MacMojo stumbles upon this, I think that one great improvement would be if you could list the “Occupation” in parentheses after the author’s name in the summary at the bottom of each post.
October 13th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
I’ll suggest that to our blog team, Daniel. We’ve tried to make our area of expertise obvious in our individual intro posts, but those do scroll off the front page over time.
Thanks for the links, both to MacMojo and my own site… :)
October 14th, 2006 at 4:07 am
You don’t even bother mentioning my blog?
I know I’m not doing anything really crucial for mankind like removing VisualBasic support from Microsoft Office, but, dude, I did invent the iPod. Have you heard of it?
October 14th, 2006 at 6:30 am
How would you categorize the WebKit Surfin’ Safari blog?
October 14th, 2006 at 7:13 am
I thnk the Surfin’ Safari weblog is one of the best examples that comes to mind of an Apple-endorsed public blog, allowing developers to speak directly to the world.
It’s not as if WebKit engineers (who work for Apple) aren’t privvy to private information. So they have to be careful about spilling beans, too. It’s just because of the Open Source aspect that I guess Apple is more approving of that.
And yes, Steve Jobs’s blog is the best example of all a company being straightforward and direct with the world :)
October 14th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
My comment is a bit long, so I posted it here.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:21 am
Yet another pro blog is the blog of Greg Miller, Google software engineer:
http://unixjunkie.blogspot.com/
October 16th, 2006 at 8:56 am
nik: Yes – I enjoy his blog, and really enjoyed the latest Google Calculator command-line tool.