Quoting Matt Haughey (A Whole Lotta Nothing: Don’t just read the news, make it):
A few months ago, I was thinking about all the questions I wished I could ask someone that helped develop the TiVo user interface, and then I realized there was nothing stopping me from just emailing and asking. After a bit of friend-of-a-friend networking, I got in touch with the Director of TiVo User Experience, and got ten questions I’ve always wanted to ask answered. I posted the full interview here on PVRblog.
If you remember the old six degrees phenomena, anyone is 6 hops or less away from you. In the age of email and social software, I bet it’s more like 4 hops or less (Margret was 2 hops away). If there’s a lesson for other webloggers here, it’s this: if there’s something you’ve always wanted to ask one of your idols or you have an idea for an interview you’d like to see, there’s nothing stopping you from tracking the right person down and getting the answers you wanted. I urge you to give it a try someday.