What is your name and where are you from?

My name is Scott Smith, and I come from just about everywhere these days. I grew up in the southern US, but have lived up and down the east coast of the US and in the UK. I try not to let my Southern upbringing get in the way, and no, I don't have a cute accent. It's pretty flat actually.

Where are you blogging for CW? Since when?
I am currently managing blogger for the Mobile Weblog. I have been in that role since January of this year, but prior to that spent a couple of months editing the Soccer Weblog, since soccer/football is my biggest interest outside of work (family aside of course). I am enjoying Mobile Weblog as it allows me to add my few cents worth of opinion about the dramatic evolution the mobile technology world is currently undergoing, and connect with the bright minds out there that write about and otherwise document this important area and the changes in society it is driving.

What would you like to tell about yourself?
Most people would consider me an information vacuum (as in "vacuum it up" rather than "a total absence of information") and a think-aholic. And I write very long, complicated sentences. I think all of this points to being wired differently than most people, which presents unique social challenges all it own.

How did you discover the blogoshpere ? Why do you like to blog?
I saw the emergence of the "blogosphere" through my work researching consumer use of digital technologies throughout the 1990s and into this decade. Work that I was doing for large ISPs and software companies looking for new revenue sources pointed toward easy-to-use Web publishing software as an emerging opportunity beginning about 2000. People want to talk about themselves, show the linkages they cultivate in their own minds and in social connections, and share their lives and motivations with others. It's a natural instinct that has found a tool to catalyze it.

I enjoy blogging because of the ease with which I can say something, or get an interesting bit of data or a previously unmade connection out into the public sphere. It allows me to do something with patterns I recognize. I try not to think about it as part of a larger "sphere" of people doing it at all levels, but instead focus on how I want to do it. I think the "blogosphere" can have too much of a clique mentality if it involves constant name-checking. Citations are good and necessary, and credit should be given where it's due, but there should be a little added value there as well. This is where I try to focus my efforts.

How did you become a blogger for CW?
I came across the network and in particular the opening to write for the Soccer Weblog and contacted Torsten Jacobi to get involved. I thought it would be interesting to work as part of a supported network in addition to doing it on my own. So far, so good. And it gives me a needed source of mad money to feed my emerging hobbies and ongoing weaknesses.

What experiences did you have with CW? Do you like working with CW?
Working as part of a network is a big departure from being out on your own. The marketing and technical support is useful and takes that hassle of your plate. Traffic is rewarding as well, since we write to be read at the end of the day. Having the network effect drive additional traffic is important and valuable.

I enjoy working with CW and I think it has a promising future as the medium evolves. Blog networks are quite different than standalone blogs - the continuity of process and design, look-and-feel and hopefully tone makes a network more like media and less like a collection of individual voices. I don't think anyone knows the answer yet to "how many blogs in a network is too many?" but the market will point toward a good balance of topics, style and functionality. I look forward to seeing where it's going.

What are you occupied with when you are not blogging?
These days the slice of time that isn't work related of tied to finding, writing about and publishing interesting things is pretty small. I enjoy traveling and try to squeeze a little observation even out of work-related travel. My Flickr collection is a testament to that. I also enjoy spending time with my family, coaching my son's soccer team to marginal success, trying to improve our old house, and finding wine to go with the meals that I cook. As long as I am having a good time doing any of this, it's worthwhile. If I am not having a good time, somebody slap me.

What would you like to get or do ?
I'd like to do a couple of things: spend some time in an academic environment focusing on one or two research topics, maybe teaching as well or working on a book, and moving my family back overseas to continue the experience of living in new places and cultures and exposing my kids to new things. I'd also like to have back the partly refinished 1978 Land Rover Series III Country that I sold a couple of years ago. It represents unfinished business. I have phantom Land Rover pains every so often.

What opinion have other people about you? Give a quotation, please ...
The only direct adjective I have heard or overheard in the past year or two is being called "inscrutable" by a colleague. I am not sure if that was an insult, high praise, or something in between. From what I have heard, that seems an apt description.

My wife recently said to a friend that in 15 years of knowing me, she'd never met anyone else so good at finding the hidden linkage between two apparently unconnected things. I'd like to think that was a compliment. She also seems to like my cooking. That makes me happiest.

Are they right?
Invite me to lunch, buy me a drink, and decide for yourself.

Do you like to make a final remark?
Generally, yes. ;-)