Mr. Popularity

Geeze I've been popular lately. At least with commercial interests who "think my readers would be interested in" their games, books, seminars, product release announcements, etc.

I appreciate the difficulty of getting the eyes and ears of potential customers today, but I've never felt comfortable in the role of recommending stuff. I happily share my opinions, good and bad, of products used personally or by my school, but I just don't have the time or interest to look at nonsolicited items sent my way.

I am reprinting my endorsement policy from a few years ago that is a permanent part of my blog - just in case people missed it the first time.

Warning - I am considering raising my rates for being bought off. Act now!

Product Endorsement Policy for the Blue Skunk and my presentations

• I will not endorse or mention a product (at least without a heavy-duty disclaimer) which I don't have experience using in our district. This is important. While the product itself might look very cool, it's only through experience that one learns about little things like support, compatibility, bug fixes, situational customizations, and unintended consequences of use.
• I will not accept any form of remuneration for reviewing or writing about a product. (Exception listed below.) This includes trips, gifts, cash, cars, call girls or dictatorships of small countries. Not that any of these things have actually been offered to me.
• I don't take paid advertising on my blog or website.
• I don't accept unsolicited guest blogs from commercial enterprises.
• I don't wear t-shirts, baseball caps, or underwear with corporate logos. (I do have a hip flask with the ALA logo on it, however.)
• I do write "blurbs" for books and/or products that I've actually read or used and liked.
• My recommendations are my personal recommendations - not the school district's.

I suppose there are other guidelines I should set for myself. That readers trust my objectivity is important to me.

Now there is one big caveat to all of this. If the price were right, I would probably say just about anything. I am thinking $100K would pay off the mortgage, allow me to fill up both family motor vehicles at the same time, and get the LWW that new garbage disposal she's been pining for. Cool.

There is an old joke about a man who approaches a woman in a bar and offers her a staggering amount of money if she will sleep with him. She accepts. Then the man offers her five dollars if she will sleep with him. The woman responds, "Just what kind of a woman do you think I am?" The man responds, "I think we both know that. We're just negotiating the price."

I suspect it's good for my professional reputation I work in education where the profit margin is so small that the temptations just aren't that tempting...

Doug Johnson, July 2008

Oh, if you are thinking about leaving a comment on my blog or website that is thinly disguised spam, think twice. Not only will I remove it, I'll leave a comment dissing your business for lack of ethics.

Comments

[Jamie Daniels]

Hi Doug Johnson,

As I was reading your post about your distaste in sponsoring products and services that you are not familiar with, I was encouraged to follow a similar philosophy in my school library. With the multitude of resources out there, I feel that is important to have a valuable opinion about a service before giving it the "teacher-librarian" stamp. This can help all who enter the library as it allows a validity to your suggestions, and also allows you to focus on resources that you trust and can help student and staff with. Although I would argue that the tools and resources should be consistently growing and adapting to new technology, I do believe this shortening of services can help students get familiar with a single tool instead of being thrown off by the multitude of resources the teacher-librarian is offering.

Thanks for the reminder,
Jamie Daniels

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Jamie,

Being a "selector" of books and materials has long been a part of the library media specialists job. Seems like "selecting" tools is a natural continuation.

Thanks for the comment,

Doug