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July 23, 2004

The Transformation of Corporate Communication

Shel Israel serves as CEO of It Seems to Me. Greg Jarboe is president and cofounder of SEO-PR. Jamie O'Donnell cofounded SEO-PR. Buzz Bruggeman is cofounder and CEO of ActiveWords. At BlogOn, they discussed how social media can improve corporate communications with customers, as well as -- interestingly -- the mainstream media. What follows is a partial transcript of their panel:

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Posted by Heath Row at 3:03 PM | 1 Comment

Business Transparency

Chris Shipley is executive producer of BlogOn. Lenn Pryor is the director of platform evangelism for Microsoft Corp. Jeff Sandquist works as a technical evangelist for Microsoft. Robert Scoble is an evangelist for Microsoft. Mena Trott cofounded and serves as president of Six Apart. Barak Berkowitz is CEO of Six Apart. During their BlogOn panel discussion, they explored two solid case studies of how companies have successfully opened themselves to customers. What follows is a partial transcript of their panel:

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Posted by Heath Row at 2:39 PM | 2 Comments

The Dark Side of Social Media

Danah Boyd is a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. Lisa Poulson serves as president of Kirtland Enterprise Group Inc. Wendy Seltzer works as an intellectual property attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And Chris Kelly serves as chief privacy officer and general counsel for Spoke Software. During a panel discussion at BlogOn, they explored some of the challenges brought on by social media -- for users, as well as organizations. What follows is a partial transcript of their conversation:

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Posted by Heath Row at 1:17 PM | 3 Comments

Defining Social Media

Ross Mayfield is CEO of SocialText. James Currier is founder and president of Tickle Inc., as well as consumer SVP for Monster. Dan Gillmor works as a technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. Reid Hoffman serves as CEO of LinkedIn. Michael Sikillian works as a senior product marketing manager in the Lycos Network search and Web publishing division. And Jim Spohrer serves as director of Almaden Services Research at the IBM Almaden Research Center. During their panel discussion at BlogOn, they attempted to define social media but ended up taking a wide-ranging look at the opportunities and challenges for product developers and users. What follows is a partial transcript of their discussion:

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Posted by Heath Row at 1:01 PM | 1 Comment

July 22, 2004

Social Media Opportunities and Challenges: The Big Picture

Chris Shipley is the executive director of BlogOn, as well as the cofounder and editorial director of the Guidewire Group. Tony Perkins created and serves as editor in chief of AlwaysOn. Bill Schreiner is VP of community programming for AOL. John Roberts works as AVP of product development for CNET. And Scott Gatz works as senior director of personalization products for Yahoo. In their evening panel discussion, they touched on many of the same topics that most panels like this still address: the business case for blogging, the benefits of transparency, and the perceived challenge to big media. What follows is a partial transcript of the conversation:

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Posted by Heath Row at 11:10 PM | 2 Comments

BlogOn Boot Camp Highlights

This afternoon's Boot Camp at BlogOn 2004 is a basic introduction to the business of blogging, largely from a technical perspective. With sessions on why people blog, the tools you can use, RSS feeds, and other aspects, the Boot Camp also sports a class blog that participants have been contributing to.

Of today's presenters, Halley Suitt, who produces the blog Halley's Comment, was perhaps the most interesting. "Any time you have a way of having a strong, interesting voice talking about your product, go with it," she says. "The intimacy of this medium is remarkable."

She also commented on the value of using blogs as a prototyping tool: "You can throw ideas up there."

Similar to Robert Scoble's corporate blogging guidelines, Suitt offered the following "rules":

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Posted by Heath Row at 6:53 PM | 1 Comments

July 21, 2004

Re:Conference IX

In about 20 minutes, I head out to catch a plane to Berkeley, where I'll go to the Haas School of Business for BlogOn 2004, a conference exploring the business of social media. We've looked at the business case for blogs and social network software in the past, and the agenda promises to cover the business models behind the service providers -- as well as the business impact brought on by increased transparency and corporate communications.

I'll be covering the conference, posting frequent reports on the various sessions of the course of the next couple of days. I hope you'll join me!

Posted by Heath Row at 12:48 PM | Add Comment