Ideas of March, or Thank you, Mr. Shiflett.

We do need more blogging.  Tweets are fine for their intended purpose, but there is only so much idea one can squeeze into so little space.

I like blogs because of what I learn from them; they encourage me to stay current, they expose me to new thoughts and they help me stay connected with the community.

I like blogs precisely because they aren't real-time. They are the result of observation and reflection.  I get to read someone's more fully-developed thoughts, communicated in full sentences, with examples, and even paragraphs!  Blogging forces one to crystallize one's thoughts, and teaches us how to communicate more effectively.  True written communication is not dead.  Blogs make me think; I not only like that, I need it.

I like being able to go back to a blog post I've bookmarked as a reference, finding again something I needed once, and need again from time to time. In addition, I get to see how the concept develops over time, as commentors contribute their thoughts and opinions on the subject.

Blogs also inspire me to contribute some of what I may have learned along the way.  This is where I've fallen down, terribly, often believing that I really didn't have much to say that would be of use to others.

I see otherwise now.  I've been teaching novice programmers PHP and Zend Framework with Zend Technologies since autumn 2008.  I get asked a lot of questions about programming, code design, object-oriented development, and testing.  Most of my colleagues are advanced developers, and they often blog about advanced techniques, and although those techniques help make a developer's life easier, some of the people I encounter daily aren't quite ready to take advantage of particularly advanced development practices.

I pledge to blog more often, and help flatten out the learning curve for the newbies.  We were all newbies, once, and if we're committed to lifelong learning, and to keeping our skills current, we remain newbies, in at least one area, all the time.

See you briefly on Twitter with a #ideasofmarch tweet.