More on Boeing Blogger Blast

Doc Searls takes up the Boeing cudgels again in Is Boeing Being Boering? And points for comparison in the business to the other plane makers as being totally AWOL. Then he points to Todd Sattersten at Business Blog Consulting who serves some cold entree and then dishes the the main course

I think they are missing a bit though. Your enthusiasts want to have an open conversation with you by having open comments. Sure it can get out of hand, but that is part of opening yourself to your customers --LISTENING to what your fans have to say.

What Todd says.

Lets look at Randy's blog for a moment shall we? Not only is it very slick and shiny like a new plane, it treats its readers with a certain lofty disdain. eg, he has comment Guidelines

Randy welcomes your comments. Keep in mind that your name, and all or part of your email may be cited in a future journal entry.

Mhmm. But then lets look at the comments themselves, or as Randy says "View Comments". Notice anything?

• They are all in a single file. Whatever they are responding to has been decontextualised completely. Any poster has to re-establish the context for the comment, or leave anodyne stuff like "Really like your blog"
• No conversation here. Randy never responds to the comments. In part of course because he has not given himself the tools to do so, but mostly I suspect because he is above all that stuff.
• Comments are grist, not grit. As he advises us in his guidelines, he "may" use our stuff in a posting and we appear on his journal entirely at his pleasure.
• Aaaarrrggghhh!

But all this raises the question again about who is Randy talking to? define the conversational partners.

As a broadcaster for umpty quoth years I tried to keep one rule even as all the rest were regularly deep-sixed. That rule is; you are talking to one person. Know who that is, be able to picture them and describe them and behave with them as you would if they were in the room with you and there was no microphone.

Blogs are the same. We know, courtesy of the Cluetrain that we should be using an authentic voice. Most of the time I'm probably the noisy sod at the barbecue with an opinion on everything and likely to harangue at a moment's notice. Plus I make good, usually improper, jokes about the gathered mothers-in-law and get on well with the kids. Sound about right? If not, feel free to update me.

Now, read Randy. Tell me what he's doing at the barbecue. Who is he talking with? What is he talking about? Does he ever dish the dirt?