I've only met blogger Robert Scoble once, but my heart ached a bit as I read his account of rushing back to Montana to get to the bedside of his mother, who suffered a stroke.
The news today was worse, as doctors explained how much damage was done.
My own mother was hit by a stroke a year and a half ago, brought from an active, independent life to a life regulated by extended care aides, nurses and the limits of memory loss and partial paralysis. She's still hanging in there, using force of will to assemble the day's memories into her best approximation of normal. Sometimes she does a great job of it, but other days aren't good at all.
Scoble's mother is just barely there, and left orders not to resuscitate in case she was left in this state.
His bleak posts remind me of the early days of The Well, one of the early well-known examples of a community of virtual members banding together to get each other through tragedies and successes.
Scoble takes a lot of crap from critics. But in many ways he's a pioneer in corporate communications.
By sharing this family crisis with his readers, he shows how blogging is different from other communication methods. It's way more personal, and has the potential to reach past differences about technology platforms, corporate allegiances and pet peeves.
You can't fake this sort of personal communications. And with that openness, comes compassion and credibility.
Update: Dave Traynor writes on a similar vein.
Tags: robertscoble, blogs, health, crisis, family
Powered by Qumana
You're absolutely right. That's why I love blogs. They can show a personal side of people that helps to develop a bond with readers. The human element is the difference between blogs and newspapers/magazines/books.
Posted by: Josiah from PalPad | May 12, 2006 at 09:13 AM