I’ve been working my way through Eric von Hippel’s  newest book Democratizing Innovation  (Eric was my doctoral advisor at MIT – I didn’t get my Ph.D.)  I needed a break (I’m reading it carefully because I’m worried that Eric will call me up and ask me hard questions about the book.)  Amy and I went into Boulder yesterday for massages (the power was out at the hotel – so no massages) so we swung by The Boulder Bookstore to pick up some reading material for the time between ~massage and dinner.

Amy picked up the Sunday NY Times (great NY Times Magazine this weekend, BTW) and I picked up The Washingtonienne .  I’d seen a review somewhere that it was titillating, provocative, enlightening, and a fast fun read.  I found it titillating, provocative, depressing, and useful for anyone that’s thinking about blog privacy issues.

  • Titillating: The story of The Washingtonienne was reasonably widespread in Washington DC and across the blogosphere in 2004.  The author – Jessica Cutler – was fired from her job as an low level staffer in Sen. Mike DeWine’s (R-Ohio) office for blogging at work about her personal life.  And – it was a pretty raunchy, hard partying, high sex life.
  • Provocative: See titillating.  Then – as you watch everything fall apart in the second half of the book, think about what was really going on.
  • Depressing: Near the end of the book, Jessica gets introspective in a useful way.  It’s powerful in a similar way as A Million Little Pieces and – while not as deep or intense – it’s emotionally revealing and pretty brave stuff.  However, when you step back and think about it – and then think about the DC life that Jessica is describing – you can’t help but feel down about a subset of the human condition in our nation’s capital.
  • Useful: As an active blogger, I spend plenty of time thinking about what is “appropriate” to write about.  Companies are now coming out with blogging policies .  There have been plenty of high profile firings of bloggers, along with some celebrity work bloggers.  While Jessica’s story is an edge-case, it’s a useful one.

Jessica’s being a great American and turning her story into her 15 minutes of fame.  If you are into blogging, privacy, or sex, there’s enough here to keep you interested for a couple of hours.