This image pretty much sums up where I’ve been the last few days: moaning about being overloaded, shouting about government arbitrarily pulling funding streams after days of work, complaining about being bogged down in policy documents & reports & spreadsheets. There’s something about this time of year when people are tired, illnesses are floating round, and the year-end brings an admin mountain….

It got me thinking about the honesty of a blog; I was reading an article about corporate blogging which talked of the dangers of being ‘too open’, and got me wondering about what I hold back organisationally (or personally). It’s been good to see that Stephen Bubb’s blog seems to be pretty true to his tone of voice, and is also fairly open (about ACEVO–NCVO, about Futurebuilders’ coverage in the press and so forth). Of course, though, there are things that don’t get blogged, some as a result of competition (on which subject, it was interesting to read John Craig noting the difference between a (healthy) competition between ideas, and an (unhealthy) competition between institutions)….if I blogged about every opportunity SSE were pursuing, or every new idea, then I would a) do nothing else and b) give away any advantage over competing organisations in different areas. It’s certainly easier to blog about the contest of ideas…

Having said that, looking back over most posts, I think I have kept pretty true to one of the three blogging keys: authenticity (the others being passion and continuity). At times, criticism might be more reined-in online than it is face-to-face, but I don’t think I’m alone in that, and the vast majority of the posts are positive anyway (even if what our intern Thor called "your cynical British tone" may occasionally come through). Ultimately, I’m passionate about this movement, this organisation, the work we do and, most importantly, what this enables SSE students and Fellows to do. Sometimes that means competing with institutions, sometimes collaborating, but also sometimes competing with ideas and with communication. All worth remembering when the papers are up to the eyeballs, and the blog posts have diminished in frequency.