Duncan Wilcox ruminates on how blogs can help implement the communication strategies outlined in the Cluetrain manifesto :
Of course it's not as if starting a weblog automatically opens a corporation up to conversations, but it's a good start. For example reading Ray Ozzie's weblog has made me very interested in Groove (the product) and generally makes me feel good about Groove (the company) — in long term that would make me trust both. [ Duncan Wilcox's weblog ]
Absolutely. On Friday night after the InfoWorld conference, Tom Yager and I went to dinner with John Montgomery, a former BYTE colleague who's now a Microsoft group product manager deeply involved with the .NET platform. According to John, it is a daily requirement in his division that everyone -- himself included -- spend an hour a day helping customers, for example by answering questions on newsgroups.
Cool! But nobody seems to know this, which understandably frustrates John. Well, now there's an easy and direct way to handle these kinds of strategic communications . As Duncan indicates, a few more well-placed Microsoft blogs won't automatically humanize the company or guarantee trust, but it'd be a great way to start depolarizing the conversation.
Some numbers:
"apple blogs" : 107
"linux blogs" : 522
Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2002/09/23.html#a421