One of my favorite things to see online these days is real blogging done by software and hardware developers/engineers. After being in technology long enough you come to appreciate the work that these folks often do and in a way I consider many to be artists, for me, I see parallels with musicians.
The way I see it, a musician can have a general sense and style with which you can relate. You find yourself enjoying particular tracks or an album and eagerly await the next. I often find the same thing with software--some things you eagerly await the next iteration to see what styles and rhythms are incorporated as form and features. For years you've been able to pick up biographies or at the least, liner notes, or Rolling Stone articles to learn more about the creative mind of the artist of choice.
Until recent times, you haven't really been able to see that with developers or engineers. Now, a few of them are exposing themselves via blogs. Cisco is making an attempt (gotta love the Baby Poop entry!) but my hat is off to the MacMojo blogs by the kids at Microsoft's Mac Business Unit. They've written about what their daily lives are like, including home-time, what inspires their designs, and reasons for things being a certain way. It's very approachable and might even cause you to respect their art even more. My second favorite is the Office 2007 (Windows) blog. What it has in common with the MacMojo blog is an honest, approachable, and grateful-for-your-business tone to it. I know many people think of Microsoft as the big evil monster but skimming through some of these blogs really makes you think differently about that. Apple, AT&T, and most other big companies could learn from this example.
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