Apology and Mental Shift

Breaking into a area that I thought I would never do, but I have to thank Facebook for dragging me into the social networking world. My opinion of social networks, mostly My Space, was never real favorable. I saw it mostly as a way for the college and high school set to post information and to keep in touch. Nothing wrong with that, it just didn't seem to fit into my or my family's lifestyle. And this is not to say that I am not technology aware, as an IT manager it is part of my job to stay abreast of what is happening in the technology world. So I was well aware of the rolling wave of interest and use in social networks.
Then the domino's started to fall. Along comes an idea for a family reunion on my wife's side. Well I knew that Facebook was a good way to track down folks around the country. And Wow did it work. Now Facebook is part of our lifestyle and family communication landscape. Thought more about the social networking opportunities in the professional landscape, so I joined LinkedIn. Seemed interesting, but not a lot of information communication between folks. Then our office began to discuss social networking policies for the city and I attended the ESRI UC in San Diego. Twitter was huge as a communication tool. So I joined. Completely sold on the business benefits in about 4 hours of trying to keep up on the non-stop information stream. And finally I'm blogging, just because there is so much information that pertain to projects we are doing or planning or trying to get accomplished that I feel like I now need a place to brain dump once in awhile.
So for my first blog I am making a public apology, I am sorry that I ever doubted, scoffed, or scorned the benefits or value of the social networking revolution. I am sold, you have me on Facebook, on Twitter, and now you have me with Blogger. I follow at home, I follow on my Blackberry, and soon I will follow at work. But I promise that I will also add to the community and be part of its advancement.
Now my role here has changed into being a social networking advocate by helping to create a social networking policy, to help change the mentality of management regarding social networks, and to promote the overwhelming business benefits these networks provide. Funny thing, change.