When blogging, make something meaningful

Making something meaningful is the mantra of a post from Anil Dash, Vice President for Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type, TypePad and LiveJournal. Grows out of Anil’s belief when growing up with technology and a love of software, that the people who were creating this stuff were convinced that technology was going to change the world, permanently and for the better.

Well, I grew up loving the law. I mean from grade school level. I had no relatives who were lawyers. I just thought lawyers became lawyers to right wrongs, to make the world a better place. And despite three years of law school and practicing law for 17 years until 1999, I still do.

LexBlog, though now building better bloggers beyond the legal profession, was born from belief that lawyers empowered with an effective Internet marketing presence could help people and improve the image of our profession. And those lawyers who did a better job of it would have more work in the area they wanted more work. And guess what? Lawyers are building a better world through blogging.

There will times when I voice my frustrations and cynicism. People often call it bashing. But I’m just challenging others to do better, to do something more meaningful.

Anil’s vocabulary for the idea to make something ‘meaningful’, comes from Linda Stone. Anil pulled this from Linda’s presentation at Mark Hurst’s Gel Conference.

Does this product, service, feature, or message enhance and improve our quality of life? Does it help us protect, filter, create a meaningful connection?

Anil may have been addressing technology products in demanding that we make something meaningful. But ask yourself if you’re making something meaningful through your blog. Are you, perhaps in a small way, changing the world, permanently and for the better?

As lawyers and other professionals we have the opportunity to bring change. Are you up for it?

Thanks Scoble for reminding to read Anil’s post.