Ten Years of Business Intelligence Blogging

Ten years ago today, on October 29, 2007, I wrote my first blog post. I didn’t have lofty goals back then. At the time, I read an article (that I wish I had bookmarked) that advised that a blog was a good resume booster. I started a free blog with Google Blogger. Some of the articles I wrote were pretty lame. But I started documenting issues that I struggled with, assuming that others in the field were having the same struggles. And as I kept writing, I discovered my own voice.

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends
We’re so glad you could attend
Come inside, come inside!

Karn Evil 9, Emerson, Lake and Palmer

A few months later, I started receiving comments. The second comment on my blog was from somebody in Australia. Through the power of Google search, somebody blogging quietly in the midwest United States had connected with the other side of the planet.

Hi Dallas,

Great to see a blog about Business Objects, there isn’t too many around. I watch the feed from your site and a few others, but I stumbled across it again today trying to figure out where to get my Migration training done in Australia.

I’ve just started a BO blog too if you’re interested (igeek2live.blogspot.com).

Kind regards,
Josh Fletcher

Josh became a good friend- one I still haven’t met in person. I kept writing. Over time, the blog would move from Google Blogger to WordPress and from dallasmarks.org to dallasmarks.com.

We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown
Were exclusively our own, all our own, all our own.

Karn Evil 9, Emerson, Lake and Palmer

But the most important thing isn’t that this blog has a writer- it’s that it has readers. I’m grateful to each and every one of you. I’ve been able to meet many of you at a conference. Some of you I consider dear friends even though we’ve only met through social media. And many of you I have yet to meet.

I hope this blog inspires each of you. Being qualified to write a blog isn’t about knowing everything. It is instead about being willing to share everything that you know. There’s a big difference between the two. We’re all better off when knowledge is shared, not hoarded — whether that’s with our immediate coworkers or a global audience.

This blog has opened many doors over a decade, for which I am grateful. I’m looking forward to seeing which doors will open during the next decade.

Kind Regards,
Dallas Marks