I’m just back from a fabulous party at Krause-Taylor Associates one of my favorite PR firms. They represent Six Apart, Alif and many other companies I know and respect. Fabulous time. Saw many old friends, but I had a first-in-a-lifetime thrill when a VC rushed up to me and said, “You’re writing a book!” I love the feel of it. I couldn’t quite bring myself say, “no, I’m only writing a book proposal and I’m only on the first draft of the first of three parts wanted by publishers. “ I found myself in the middle of a small circle all of whom wanted to hear more about it. They all had varied thoughts about this project, but just about all their comments were really valuable.
Then I got back home to read the mountain of comments and I am blown away. They are constructive, thoughtful, encouraging. This project is only in its 5th day, and already it’s life-changing for me. I had originally planned to answer every comment we receive on at least my site—but that is starting to become impossible if I keep up with my consulting obligations and actually draft a book.
So, I’d like to address a few comments all in this posting. Forgive me for being a shade terse, but I’ve been up for a long time and the wine was exceptional at the Krause-Taylor party:
• Jeremy thanks so much for sending these proposals. They are more than a little helpful. We owe you.
• To Jim McGee, I responded to what you said earlier, but I assure you the book will be analytical and in places highly critical. While Robert and I agree on the unstoppable impact of blogging on enterprise, I stand apart from him in believing that most of today’s wonderful pioneer companies will be gone or small departments of larger, less exciting companies. I also believe that some f the most popular sites are primitive by the standards of anyone not considered a tech enthusiast. I also believe that many members of the A-List will be no more than difficult answers to trivia questions five years from today
• To Evan Erwin, the OrangeMan, I think I’ll let you and Robert duke it out for a while. Watch out. His followers tend to leap to his defense in public debate.
• To Tom Ehrenfeld. Thanks for wandering in. I feel rather strongly that you can change the world with a lowered voice. People have grown tired and resistant of media messages that shout, make stupid claims, treat audiences as if they were idiots or get sanitized by committees of marketing technicians. I think part of the magic of the Blogosphere is the power of credible, quiet voices. And, as this project proves, the speed at which you get corrected when you make a factual error.
• Which brings me to Roland. You are absolutely right. Wikipedia is indeed a larger project than this is. But this is a book collaboration, as is the Oxford International. So, the statement as I intended it is true, and I will strengthen the language for clarity.
• To Bill Riski. The Red Couch is intended primarily to use recent and real cases to show why nearly all businesses will benefit immensely through blogging—and in a great variety of ways. We will give only a brief history. Personally, I think it’s still too soon to do that, but it sounds like a great idea for someone else to do. However, we are going to focus on Winer, because he is the fountainhead. This was his idea. I happen to disagree on Dave adamant resistance to commercial encroachment on his idea. And I think commercialism of some form is inevitable, just like the freeware just like ad-free web content sites proved difficult for the most part.
• To Kim Garretson. I think most communications are most interesting when the speakers have a story to tell, so our style will be to tell stories. But The Red Coach is not an investigation. It is the presentation of the case for blogging in business. I only hope we can articulate it well. This experience has already taught Robert and me that we need to be very careful with our words.
• Kathy Sierra. You’re right we need to do that. But the truth is that we think our approach is unique and we can write a book of high quality. We are not prone to discount other authors emerging at this time. They are undergoing the same lives we are, working through their visions, articulations and organization. We all hope our book is best, and I’m not certain I want a publisher who is not aware that there are many voices in rapidly emerging markets, and it’s only in retrospect that we’ll know whose were the most interesting, valuable or articulate. We hope we are among the winners.
• Shannon, as always you ask among the most thoughtful questions and make consistently valid points. I cannot answer most of your questions. Not now. But our focus is on a single issue: Blogging will change business for the better and there are bloggers at big and small companies already proving it.
Thanks to everyone. This may read more like a note than a blog, but this experience shows me that Dan Gillmor was right. You are collectively much smarter than we are. And you make us smarter every day. Thanks.
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