Naked Conversations...
I have just finished reading Naked Conversations, a book about blogging, by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. I followed the creation of this book on their blog site: Naked Conversations.

It was just released this week, and I needed to get it read quickly to see if I want to use it for my class in the spring, which begins in about 10 days. The answer to that question is a resounding: YES ... just not sure how yet. I think I will use it in conjunction with The Search (John Battelle) and online resources which I am developing. Text books on the topic I teach are not yet up to par I think (and out of date anyway).

back to Naked Conversations. It does a good job of extending the thesis of the Cluetrain Manifesto, and shows how blogging is a medium that allows companies to apply the thesis (markets are conversations). The case studies are interesting, and while I have followed blogging, taught blogging and blogged for a few years, I certainly gained some new insights. All in all a good piece of work.

OK, so what did I disagree with ?

a. What is blogging ?
Clearly blogging is more than blogging and the blogosphere, which is the focus of this book. I have actually worked on designing sites that use a blogging template, which allow the site owners to update the site at will, but not participate in the wider blogosphere. I guess my point is a blogging application is also a great content management tool that makes it easy for anyone to create and, more importantly, maintain a web-site. This would not qualify as blogging or participation in the blogosphere, but is still a decent use of blogging tools I think. I guess not the focus of the book, but ...

Along these lines I have no problem with character blogs, if appropriate for the marketing program of the company in question (assuming full disclosure that the blogger in question is indeed a fictional character). I also think the criticism of Bloomberg and her use of blogging as part of an integrated marketing program was a little harsh. I would be an advocate of the integrated approach, in conjunction with a more free flowing effort. I think there is a nice balance to be had. Blogs are great for SEO, many companies will at least need to consider this aspect of their marketing program as they engage employees to blog etc.

b. Google ?
Blogging works very well if your company makes excellent products and has a transparent philosophy. This point is made very clear, and I could not agree more. The key to this is the belief in the product(s) of the company (You certainly don't want to be transparent if your products suck). I disagree however that if the company in question (Google in this case) chooses not to blog, it will doom the company to an inevitable demise. As long as it continues to focus its energies on making excellent products that users want, I think it will be fine. Blogging I think is a tool that helps companies become more 'human' (good cases on big companies doing this); it also helps companies reach out and get involved in dialogue that perhaps was unachievable before blogging was available (lots of great cases on small companies that have been able to do this) ... however if a company makes a great product, that is the key to its long term survival, not whether it has an effective blogging strategy. So google, I wish you did blog more effectively, but please make sure your search engine works!

OK, now I am rambling ... great book!

Quick wiki update: content continues to flow in, we have had more than 80 pieces of content added since the launch of just over three weeks ago. This is very exciting, but we have a long way to go to make it stick!