One of the good things about going to a conference (besides the presentations) is getting time to talk to people. One brief conversation with Jonathan Lewis at the UKOUG Bloggers' dinner was the trigger for this post.

"Is technical blogging a threat to the livelihood of the independent consultant?"

I suppose there are three classes of technical blog posting: the 'general interest' ones written by people that happen to be technologists, those that set out to inform on a specific technical subject and the ones that are in reality a blatant extension to the marketing efforts of some company. To be honest, I am not too interested in that last group, most technical blogs that I read (or at least those that influence me) sit firmly in the first two camps. But for this article I am only looking at the second group, blogs on technical subjects. I guess I also need to qualify 'independent consultant'; here, I do not mean contract resource bought in to supplement or replace in-house staff but a specialist hired to advise or educate on specific issues.
On the face of it, some bloggers, David Aldridge for example, post highly detailed technical articles on specialised issues. They impart knowledge supported by evidence, pretty much the same sort of thing as a good consultant would do. The key difference here is that blogger is writing first and foremost for him (or her) self (the blogger chooses the topic and sets the standard) on the other hand the consultant is providing information to order – the customer defines the topic and sets the standard for the response. It's this responsiveness to customer requirement that gives the consultant the edge over the blogger. Less technical blog posts serve to stimulate interest in a topic, which again is good for the consultant, surely it is no bad thing to have a potential customer base that is receptive to new ideas.

So, Is technical blogging a threat to the livelihood of the independent consultant? – In my opinon, NO!