Rafael Dohms Web Engineer

The ideas of March

This year my New Year's resolution was to "write more" just as plain as that, blog more, write articles, maybe even a book can fit in there. Now it seems that resolution is in sync with the rest of the PHP Community and Chris Shifflet has once again caused ripples to roam the community with his Ideas of March initiative.

This blog for me is a crucial part of my professional self, hence the determination to revive the blog and the website in this year. "Why?", you may ask. Well its very simple, blogs can withstand the test of time, they do not come and go or just vanish from the internet, like tweets do. Tweets are fine to get a message started, but they suck for getting into real discussions and for actual knowledge growth, it works, but its shallow at best, the 140 chars limit will do that to you. But on the blog your limits are gone, google will keep that blogpost relevant for years to come, my first post on the Google Maps API is living proof, still the most visited article here after 4 years.

In a world where saying you are good at something is falling into misuse and disbelief, an active blog can assert to your skills and your career work, even your passions and your motivation. It can do all of that much better then a CV can, it can also provide you with professional projection, throwing your name around until it hits your potential future employer.

Its also all about knowledge. A blog  can spread your knowledge, it can bring you knowledge, in the format of comments, discussions and feedback (as Sean Coates put it), and it can also help developers who, like me, suffer of cronic forgetfulness. Seriously, its a bitter-sweet feeling to search google for a topic and end up reading your own blogpost from years past.

So why should you blog, not just tweet? in summary:

1. Timeless: Blogposts don't expire
2. Professional Projection: Get your name out there, show what you do well
3. Professional Growth: Learn, expand, teach and get feedback
4. Help yourself: store your knowledge in a searchable place
5. Details: Blogs allow you to do in-depth articles and discussions
6. Get evaluation going: start discussions, propose changes, make something happen

So i'll take the pledge proposed by Chris (especially since i have already commited to it) and blog more actively this year. You can also check me up on php|arch every now and then (in the future) and in brazil in our PHP Review magazine. Want to watch twitter? please do, i'll always link off from there to these posts.

So don't let this stop here, take the "Ideas of March" challenge yourself.