The One Crucial Idea…
Down at SXSW they are chatting about (MP3) the Wisdom of Crowds – a book I really enjoyed. There is a key point in the book that gets drawn out over at Bokardo – it’s as much about those who draw out the wisdom of the crowd as it is about the crowds wisdom. Take Google and their Pagerank algorithm as an example.
This notion has special significance for communicators. In a Web 2.0 world you should be monitoring and measuring those that are drawing out the dialogue as much as you and the media. For instance, what appears on Google News or Digg.
Next generation communications measurement systems will give you insight into – and weight accordingly – the “aggregators” of content. They will also start to give consideration to the conversations taking place on those sites. Take Digg as an example. Here it isn’t just about aggregation, it is about the communities assigned weighting of that content and the associated commentary.
The new dimension in communications measurement will be relevance. Not as measured by abstract algorithms or as determined by communicators. But as measured by the wisdom of the crowd.
Good thinking on blog policies…
Trevor Cook has some good comments from an Aussie lawyer at Baker & MacKenzie on developing a blog policy. He also points to a piece in one of the big rags in Australia. Thanks Trevor!
Pay Attention
InformationWeek on paying attention. This really resonates for me. I feel that large chunks of my career have been spent in a state of “continuous partial attention”. Lately I’ve been consciously “disarming”.
The era of continuous partial attention has left us overwhelmed, overstimulated, and unfulfilled, said Stone, who’s now working as a consultant and writer.
This era, she says, is coming to a close. “CEOs ask people to disarm at the door when they come to a meeting,” she said, asking attendees to drop off their laptops, cell phones, pagers, and BlackBerrys before the meeting started.
Do Bloggers Have An Ethical Responsibility To Disclose?
The answer is yes. If you are going to represent others PR spin at minimum disclose that you are doing so. This is pretty basic stuff and I am amazed that so many bloggers are willing to pass others words off as their own – even if they simply agree with those words at the most basic level.
The NY Times flagged this today:
Brian Pickrell, a blogger, recently posted a note on his Web site attacking state legislation that would force Wal-Mart Stores to spend more on employee health insurance. “All across the country, newspaper editorial boards — no great friends of business — are ripping the bills,” he wrote.
It was the kind of pro-Wal-Mart comment the giant retailer might write itself. And, in fact, it did.
Several sentences in Mr. Pickrell’s Jan. 20 posting — and others from different days — are identical to those written by an employee at one of Wal-Mart’s public relations firms and distributed by e-mail to bloggers.
I don’t think the onus is on Edelman here – although Edelman might have posted a blog on this thereby providing full transparency to their actions. (the counterpoint to this is why should a PR agency reveal their tactics in a competitive communications environment – to which the answer is, transparency matters).
The onus is on the bloggers ultimately. Reveal if you are repackaging spin and other content, be transparent.
Thanks to Brett at Sun for flagging this to me.
Oragami Ugly
Looking at the new Wintel Origami device – one I was looking forward to looking at… I can’t help but get straight to “butt ugly” as a description. It looks like one of those remotes I needed to operate my home audio jalopy. If this is somehow meant to resemble origami, somebody in Redmond is doing origami with concrete.
