“je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerai ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire” – Voltaire
“I detest what you write but I’d give my life for you to be able to keep on writing”
A certain discussion on twitter a few weeks ago forced me into this post that maybe each “independent” blogger has at one point in time. It’s about BIAS.
For starters let us be clear: every blogger is biased through his experience. If you work/have worked for a vendor, you are biased by your experience at that vendor. If you are a reseller you will be biased by the companies of whom you sell products. If you are a channel partner / systems integrator you most definitly will be biased towards the solutions you provide.
Personal Disclaimer:
I work as Solutions Team Lead for a VAR (Value Added Reseller). Our primary partners are DELL, HP, VMware, Microsoft and Cisco. Within that function I do the presales part of servers & storage and vendor management for HP & DELL. Being online at the different communities from both vendors, twitter, G+ and this blog I sometimes get invited to their venues as “independent” blogger.
What is acceptable BIAS for an independent blogger?
As I have no IBM, NetApp or EMC products in my portfolio I will not give criticism on the technical part of those products. What I can do is questioning if the value prop they are given is no marketing BS (ex. EMC Project Lightning or NetApp onesizefitsall). People who follow me closely know that I will stand corrected when necessary but will not apologize if you feel offended (as this cannot have been intentionally). Even more: I look forward every day to be corrected and learn more from all you smart people out there.
What is NOT acceptable?
As we all agree, spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) intentionally is one of the worst things we can do, independent or not. What is the margin between a personal opinion and spreading FUD? This one is thin and I’ll keep it up to each and everyone of you to evaluate your posts on that.
What I really have a strong opinion against is FUD from one vendor to another. If you write blogposts on the website of a vendor (hp.com, dell.com, emc.com, netapp.com, …) your post will be read by the entire world as a message from the company. Customers, analysts and press will copy your point of view as being corporate. Let them handle the criticism and focus on the strengths of you company. If you can’t let it go, get a blog in your own personal name and write your opinion.
Interesting link: Stephen Foskett wrote about how to preserve our credibility as independent bloggers.