Blogging at DAC 2008

Last night, a lot of people met at a Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) event for EDA bloggers. The emcee was JL Gray, who is one of 60 or so bloggers covering the myriad aspects of EDA.  Gray organized the event with help from Sean Murphy, Harry Gries, David Lin, John Ford, and Ron Ploof. The main discussions last night centered around what does and does not constitute a blog, what’s the difference between a blogger and a “real journalist,” and just who is running this show. Here are my opinions on these questions:

1. A blog is whatever I say it is. (Apologies to Lewis Carrol.) Some bloggers are big into hyperlinking. Some aren’t. Some write infrequently. Some feel compelled to “feed the beast.” Some have narrow interests. Some bloggers’ interests are wide ranging. John Cooley sends out emails and doesn’t rely on blogging software. So what? All of these people are conveying information and opinions about EDA and electronic system design.
2. The difference between a blogger and a “real journalist” isn’t clear cut. Some implied that the difference is one of journalistic ethics. I’m not having any of that. In some ways, bloggers are less constrained and are freer to write what they like. Make no mistake, all writers have biases. To believe otherwise is delusional. The best you can hope for is to have a writer be open and up front about his or her biases.
3. No one is running the show. It’s a stewpot of information. It’s anarchic. It’s wonderful.

This morning, there was a breakfast session on EDA marketing and many of the same people attended this session as did last night’s BoF. Rhonda McGee, the Director of Research for EDN’s parent company Reed Business Information, discussed some stats on the habits of the peculiar species known as engineerus electronicus based on the perennial “Mind of the Engineer” research study. Buried in her handout were some pretty interesting and relevant statistics. According to the study, 93% of engineers worldwide read blogs for business purposes. (It’s a little higher in Europe and a little lower in China.) About 40% comment on blogs and 10% write their own blogs.

Marketeers in the industry are aflutter with concern that a dwindling number of people are covering the EDA arena. Based on this BoF, I have to say that I’m really encouraged at the grass-roots efforts in covering at least the topics that are important to these bloggers. I fervently hope DAC and the industry find some good ways to support the efforts of these people, at least for those who would like support. Marketeers beware: some would clearly prefer to be left alone to do their own thing. Ignore their wishes at your own peril.