Over the River

Today’s Boston Globe ran a front page story on a blogging doctor unmasked during a malpractice trial. It appears that the doctor in question - Robert P. Lindeman - had been writing a running commentary under an assumed name of a case very much like his own. Once the plaintiff’s lawyer determined that Lindeman was Flea (the name he used for his blog), the case was quickly settled.

In his blog, Flea had ridiculed the plaintiff’s case and the plaintiff’s lawyer. He had revealed the defense strategy. He had accused members of the jury of dozing.

Blogger unmasked, court case upended - The Boston Globe

I’ve written before that social media and transparency don’t translate to stupid or sloppy and this case demonstrates what can happen when they do. There is a time and a place for everything and when you are being sued for your part in the death of a child (as was Lindeman) it is not the time to pen a humorous and irreverent blog on the situation . . .

Technorati Tags: Robert P. Lindeman, Flea, Boston Globe, blogging, malpractice, hubris

This morning, a colleague emailed me Brad Stone’s piece in the New York Times on civility online. I’ve been pushing for the idea of identity online for a while and think that, for the most part, anonymity and pseudonimity detract from our ability to engage in conversation. Whether a formal code of conduct is needed - or if individual bloggers simply need to exercise judgment as they see fit - is up for debate.

Sometimes, we accept the fallacy that all exchanges are somehow constructive or illuminating. That is clearly not the case. When a bias or an agenda is unacknowledged, or no context is provided, it makes it difficult to determine the reasoning or validity of a statement. Anonymity and pseudonimity are major culprits in allowing this to happen.

There are other times when a bias or agenda is obvious - and the identity is known - that raise other issues. The Daily Kos did something a few weeks ago on Fox’s coverage of the October 2003 Democratic Debate in Detroit sponsored by Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus. The point is made that many of the questions asked were problematic; but that that point was essentially ignored by the media:

All of the questions asked were not skewed, but this actually makes things worse. Instead of smearing all of the candidates equally, among the major candidates: Lieberman was favored, Kerry and Edwards each received two decent questions, Dean received one decent question, and Clark received no decent questions. Yet the talking heads took no notice of this, instead blaming the candidates, as Fox manipulated our primary.

When did you stop beating your wife? Fox debate questions

If this level of discourse is acceptable in the traditional media, it’s easy to understand why things can get even more out of hand online.

During the MIT Communications Forum event last week on evangelicals and the media, someone asked Gary Schneeberger of Focus on the Family about what they were doing to encourage dissenting opinions and debate. He made a pretty valid point that their channels are their soapbox and that they can use them to communicate as they see fit. One might not agree with the content that they choose to communicate but they are under no obligation to carry content that they find objectionable.

Back to the blog side of the fence though. No one cries foul when comment spam is blocked. Spammers could claim that their free speech rights are being denied. Where do we draw the line? Baiting, name-calling and threats are not a dialog. To argue that they are is to support the very lowest common denominator. To insist that people post under their own identity (or at least contact the blogger whose site they wish to post on anonymously to explain why they want or need to protect their identity) seems reasonable.

For bloggers to be able to choose to remove content that is either personally demeaning, offensive or not germane to the conversation likewise seems appropriate. Bloggers make decisions every day about the content that appears on their sites. If the communities that rely on them begin to feel that poor or inappropriate decisions are being made, they can call them on it - either on the site itself or elsewhere - or they can move on.

Tim O’Reilly, who is quoted throughout the Times article sums the issue up well:

Mr. O’Reilly said the guidelines were not about censorship. “That is one of the mistakes a lot of people make — believing that uncensored speech is the most free, when in fact, managed civil dialogue is actually the freer speech,” he said. “Free speech is enhanced by civility.”

It’s silly to think that we have to take an all or nothing approach and not exercise any discretion about what comments appear.

Technorati Tags: blogging, identity, censorship, agenda, New York Times, Brad Stone, Tim O’Reilly, code of conduct, Daily Kos, Fox News, Gary Schneeberger, Focus on the Family, anonymity, pseudonymity, spam, comments

Melvin Yuan, a PR blogger in Singapore, has been giving some good thought to the evolving nature of PR. He wrote an excellent post the other day in reaction to the Wired story, “The See-through CEO,” which ended with his summary of the role of PR in the emerging transparent environment:

PR, Clive Thompsons-of-the-world, is far higher up the rungs of leadership than you perceive it to be. It is more about relationships than publicity, and more about leadership than relationships.

We PR folks get our priorities mixed up sometimes; but some of us are changing things.And CEOs, this is not the time to “fire your publicists, go off message and let your employees blab and blog”. Even more than ever, you need the counsel of true PR professionals who understand that our chief mandate should not be “to create publicity”. We build the vital, trusted relationships that your companies depend on, and not the illusion of it.

“PR” is not a job title or “marketing strategy”. It is organisational leadership made public and personal. And today, we have the tools to do this better than ever.

The PR 2.0 Universe.com » Being transparent doesn’t mean being stupid or sloppy

I think Melvin has hit the nail on the head. It’s up to everyone involved in communications to make sure that the role and value of what we do is understood and appreciated. Now more than ever there is a need and an opportunity for good work to be done.

Technorati Tags: Melvin Yuan, PR, social media, transparency, leadership, relationships

Blogged with Flock

Wow.

Wired’s story on the see-through CEO is just great. It lays out exactly what everyone ought to be thinking about - not just in the world of PR but in a general sense. I’ve been writing about the merging of the personal and the professional and the roles of identity, reputation and transparency - but Clive Thompson has laid it out with great examples that show what the future.

One can imagine how the twin engines of reputation and transparency will warp every corner of life in years to come, for good and ill.

Wired 15.04: The See-Through CEO

People can try to ignore this reality - and they’ll be able to for a while; but over time, as access to more and more information becomes commonplace, the willingness to contextually (and by this I mean providing context rather than in certain contexts) share information is going to become critical.

Describing what you’ve done, why you did it, how it worked, what you learned and what you’ll do differently in the future makes sense in a world awash in information. People will uncover what you’ve done and how it worked - the opportunity lies in explaining the rationale, the results and the lessons. Being able to do those things well are what will set people and organizations apart.

In the PR community there have been questions (and it is alluded to in this article as well) as to the role of PR in the world of social media and transparency. Helping clients consider and communicate the rationale, results and lessons effectively will become increasingly important. These are also not things that many organizations (including most PR firms) are not especially comfortable with. Helping clients navigate this evolution is a key service that communications professionals need to be prepared to provide.

Technorati Tags: Transparency, Identity, reputation, Wired, Clive Thompson, PR, rationale, results, lessons, social media

Blogged with Flock

John Cass posted an interesting story on Friday about the firing of Drew Townson by Mercenary Audio. The post includes a lengthy email from CN Fletcher, the company’s CEO. In it, Townson’s personal blog was cited as the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Here is an excerpt from Fletcher’s email that addresses the blogging issue:

Any blog that references “professional audio” in any manner, by any employee of Mercenary Audio will have that “blogger” viewed as a representative of Mercenary Audio. Mr Townson was somewhat active on the Internet as a representative of Mercenary Audio. The general public would have had a difficult time distinguishing a “personal blog” from a sanctioned Mercenary Audio “blog” or website. Mr. Townson’s blog does not have to directly mention our company name to still have it associated with Mercenary. By referencing “professional audio” in his blog site he drew the credibility of Mercenary Audio into question. The owners and management of Mercenary Audio do not necessarily agree with his personal opinion concerning “chili”, “recordings” or any other subject. By calling his blog site “Mics, Drums, and Rock & Roll: A Music Recording Blog!” he entered Mercenary Audio into a place the company ownership and management did not necessarily want to go. Talking about such subjects on a professional audio related “bulletin” board is one thing, creating an unsanctioned web presence that referenced “professional audio” and these subjects was a direct violation of company policy, and he was told that was a violation of the wishes of both ownership and management.

PR Communications: Mercenary Blogger Is Fired: Mercenary’s Side Of The Story

So the way I read this is that Townson - who has spent more than 20 years in the music industry - is not (according to Mercenary) permitted to talk about something he clearly cares about, is knowledgeable on and has opinions of. Wow. So even though he never mentions the company’s name name, they jump ugly on him for sharing his ideas and opinions. Talk about stifling conversation.

This policy - if their reactionary attitude qualifies as such - demonstrates an abject failure to understand the idea behind blogging and social media. The company worries that Townson’s personal blog “entered Mercenary Audio into a place that they company ownership and management did not necessarily want to go.” Maybe no one told them that they don’t have the right to sanction an employee’s ideas? In either event, I wonder if the various posts and comments that are springing up about this do represent a place the company wanted to go. I certainly hope so, because they’re there now. . .

Technorati Tags: Mercenary Audio, Drew Townson, Drewcifer, John Cass, blogging, social media

There is so much great stuff going on out there that I’m falling behind in my posting.  Just from yesterday I have three things I need to write about.

The first was a really good meeting with Shawn Broderick of TrustPlus.  We met in Natick yesterday morning and had a good conversation about trust, reputation, identity and eBay.  I have to get my thoughts together on that one.

The second is Justin Kirkby’s survey on connected marketing.  John Cass mentioned it in a post the other day and I went to check it out.  Basically Justin wrote the book on connected marketing and he wanted people to provide feedback on the predictions he made on the topic way back in 2005.  Some of them were on target while others either haven’t come to pass.  One of his predictions was that marketers would hyper-localize (not his term) their search for - and targeting of - influencers geographically.  I think that what’s happening in virtual communities - and understanding and reaching the influencers there - has become much more important.

The last this is last night’s MIT Communication Forum on Remixing Shakespeare.  This was a really interesting event on the ways the Bard has been used, abused, modified and repurposed from his own day through today and beyond.  Summarizing it will be no small task as much of the content was video-based.

Of course on top of all of this there is that little thing called work . . .

It will take me a few days, but thankfully I am on vacation next week and should be able to give these topics some attention.

Technorati Tags: TrustPlus, Justin Kirkby, Connected Marketing, John Cass, MIT Communications Forum, Remixing Shakespeare

Today I came across an interesting post on transparency in Social News at the Blog Herald. Derek van Vliet writes about transparency in a different way than I’d thought about it. He focuses on the role of transparency in accountability for comments and ratings.

The principle of transparency is regarded by many to be necessary in a successful democracy. Every day, people are demanding more transparency out of the media, business and government. Socially driven news sites are a step in that direction. They offer a level playing field where users come to edit news democratically. What role does transparency play in the users’ actions on these sites?

Transparency in Social News at The Blog Herald

He suggests that knowing who rates a story up or down would be helpful in creating greater accountability. Being able to see who responds in which ways to a given story could certainly decrease the amount of collusions on sites like Digg. More than seeing the names of people providing rating-like feedback, I want to see who they are and get a sense of what their agendas might be. This is why identity and transparency need to be closely linked.

Technorati Tags: transparency, identity, social news

Last night I was up thinking at three something in the morning.  It probably sounds really dumb, but what I was thinking about was online identity again.  I was thinking about what the ideal solution to identity and reputation would look like; I was thinking about OpenID; I was thinking about profile-based communities and I was thinking about those annoying Web page previews that pop up if you hover over links.

I was thinking that there is probably a way to bring all of these things together to create something useful.  Let me spell this out – but understand that I am writing this with half-formed thoughts and a quickly disappearing glass of whiskey (or three).

I can imagine a centralized service that preserves all of my identity data – like MyOpenID or the other OpenID sites.  That’s all well and good – but it would be better if that site could also capture all of the reputation information associate with my identity, links to recent postings, the names used on different sites, data on the services I use most frequently, etc.  In addition to this centralized data, it would be cool to have a hover-over thumbnail of the identity data that could be seen wherever I was writing or posting.

For example, on Digg, where I use “gregpc”, hovering over my user name would bring up a synopsis of the data and a link to the full identity profile.  What would make this interesting is that it would be a combination of what I want to say about myself, what I have said publicly in various postings or forums and what others have to say about me.  Such a site would serve to aggregate all of the various information associated with my identity (or identities) in one place to make gaining an understanding of me easier.

I’ve started talking to people about how this might be accomplished and am excited about the possibility of linking and making available and accessible all of the various data in context-appropriate ways.  More on this soon.

Technorati Tags: identity, OpenID, persistence, reputation, identity-aggregation