You should contribute more to our industry.

Sharing knowledge in the online medium does not weaken your business, give your "competitors" an unfair advantage or loose you clients. I'd argue that participating in the information share online does the exact opposite of those thing.

The building blocks of morality, empathy and sharing predate humanity and are explicitly observable in other species beyond ourselves and the great apes. Even Adam Smith, the father of modern economic self interest theory, recognized that empathy and sharing do not conflict with the invisible hand of the free market.

Sharing is not just caring, sharing is mutually beneficial. Your silence on blogs, forums and social networks doesn't improve your business but leaves a whole that only you can fill. So, think beyond yourself and recognize that your knowledge greed does you and your business more harm than good.

Shawn Collins coined the phrase "info tithing" (as far as I know) last week with his post on the subject. He includes:

There is a relatively small circle of folks in the industry that have a voice on blogs, podcasts, forums, Tweets, videos, etc.

I'd imagine that silent majority among networks, affiliates, and merchants has some great feedback and advice, but they're all "too busy."

Well listen here - if you care about the industry, invest in it with your insight. It doesn't take so much time to contribute.

Sad, but true. Even worse are those who use the excuse that they are too busy to interact and participate in the conversation because they are "too busy." If you don't have time to improve your business, perhaps you need to re-adjust your schedule.

What is most interesting is that this post is not directed towards just old pro's in this industry (such as the ones who have a space and opportunity to write here and get their thoughts out to thousands of RSS subscribers and a growing readership basis but are "too busy" to contribute), but also to newbie's and intermediates. There is no barrier to entry. We all have a unique viewpoint on the industry, and you should let that be heard.

I would include network representatives in the addressee list, but I've done that time and time with no response (with the exception of Brian Littleton) at places like CostPerNews. I'm not giving up on you network people, but I'm not expecting much from you in the way of participating in the conversation, either. For shame.

So, you want to participate but don't feel as if you have the time to put together a coherent blog post every week or so? There's countless options for you:

Twitter

Blog Comments

Bookmarking services with public RSS(del.icio.us, ma.gnolia)

Social networks (BUMPzee comes to mind)

Forums

Tumblr

Start or join and email list

Participate in conferences either in person or virtually

... and the list goes on.

So thank you Shawn for your post and for bringing up the issue. There will always be more lurkers than participants in any system, but your voice is requested in order to improve this industry.