Shel, great work on getting this Q & A with Michael Dell.

Shel prefaces the interview by asking, smartly: "Are Dell's increasing stockpile of blogs just the work of middle management or are the people steering the company committed to social media as well. Is blogging a smart play or a strategic initiative?"

Michael Dell's answers are predictably pretty safe but interesting nonetheless. He poo-poos the term "social media programs"

Shel, great work on getting this Q & A with Michael Dell.

Shel prefaces the interview by asking, smartly: "Are Dell's increasing stockpile of blogs just the work of middle management or are the people steering the company committed to social media as well. Is blogging a smart play or a strategic initiative?"

Michael Dell's answers are predictably pretty safe but interesting nonetheless. He poo-poos the term "social media programs" and calls it "conversations with customers."

He mentions Dell's other social media initiatives and emphasizes the use of video clips (posted to Dell's blog) to announce new products. He mentions two other Dells blogs: Dell IdeaStorm (where customers can debate and offer ideas) and Dell Shares (for investors…

Google's blogging gaffe happened over a week ago and there's still a flap about it in the blogosphere and in MSM (mainstream media).

A quick recap, Google employee Lauren Turner, a sales rep for Google ads, gave Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, a thumbs down in a sort-of-review on Google's new Health Advertising blog.

She then invited "health insurers, health providers, and pharmaceutical companies" (her words) - the targets of

Google's blogging gaffe happened over a week ago and there's still a flap about it in the blogosphere and in MSM (mainstream media).

A quick recap, Google employee Lauren Turner, a sales rep for Google ads, gave Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, a thumbs down in a sort-of-review on Google's new Health Advertising blog.

She then invited "health insurers, health providers, and pharmaceutical companies" (her words) - the targets of Moore's criticism of limited access to costly healthcare - to get their own version of the story across by placing ads on Google.

Oops, she crossed a line there.

Partisan politics are dicey on a corporate blog

It's not so much that this Google blogger said something politically incorrect: "Do No Evil"…

Melcrum's Social Media Forum started off with a bang here in London with an excellent presentation on social media by IBM's Philippe Borremans (my co-conspsirator in the China Blogging Tour).

Why is IBM using blogs, wikis and RSS, he asked? Because the company really believes in "the wisdom of crowds" -- not because blogging is "cool" or because IBM is a tech company.

From one of his slides: "Innovation is not possible without

Melcrum's Social Media Forum started off with a bang here in London with an excellent presentation on social media by IBM's Philippe Borremans (my co-conspsirator in the China Blogging Tour).

Why is IBM using blogs, wikis and RSS, he asked? Because the company really believes in "the wisdom of crowds" -- not because blogging is "cool" or because IBM is a tech company.

From one of his slides: "Innovation is not possible without collaboration."

The audience of 80-plus internal communications executives listened raptly as he described IBM's recent video contest.

IBM video contest: 'Innovation That Matters' in 60 seconds or less

Employees were invited to explain in 60 seconds or…

Just got off a pre-recorded interview with Pete Blackshaw for my new Internet radio show on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business: The Corporate Blogging Show. This edition airs next Tuesday (Dec. 5, 2006) at 12 noon Pacific in the regular timeslot.

Pete is CMO of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a former brand manager for Procter & Gamble, and a genius when it comes to parsing the woolly world of consumer generated media (a phrase he coined).

Pete gave

Just got off a pre-recorded interview with Pete Blackshaw for my new Internet radio show on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business: The Corporate Blogging Show. This edition airs next Tuesday (Dec. 5, 2006) at 12 noon Pacific in the regular timeslot.

Pete is CMO of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a former brand manager for Procter & Gamble, and a genius when it comes to parsing the woolly world of consumer generated media (a phrase he coined).

Pete gave me one of my favorite quotes in The Corporate Blogging Book.

From page 95:

"Blogs are proof positive that there really is a digital trail to word-of-mouth marketing."
- Pete Blackshaw

I want to share a few highlights of our conversation before I, er, forget them. Pete is the fastest talking and probably the…

WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz is up to more of his tricks (jeesh, does this guy know how to create buzz) but this time* I think he's got it spot on.

"Smart companies like Dell know that ethics isn't optional - it's the first priority in the consumer-generated environment," said Andy Sernovitz.
- from a Dell press release (Nov. 9, 2006)

Andy has gotten two top execs at Dell to publicly announce that the company - a relatively new player

WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz is up to more of his tricks (jeesh, does this guy know how to create buzz) but this time* I think he's got it spot on.

"Smart companies like Dell know that ethics isn't optional - it's the first priority in the consumer-generated environment," said Andy Sernovitz.
- from a Dell press release (Nov. 9, 2006)

Andy has gotten two top execs at Dell to publicly announce that the company - a relatively new player in the Fortune 500 corner of the blogosphere - is incorporating WOMMA's Ethics Adoption Toolkit into its blog policy. The principal ingredients of the Ethics Toolkit are:

- transparency of origin

- accuracy

- ethical conduct

- protection of confidential information

-…

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has spoken. While he doesn’t explicitly use the word "blog," he suggests in his comment on Sun Microsystems’ CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog that corporate Web sites, or blogs, are a very good thing.

SEC chief makes blogging history

Cox created blogging history by leaping into the blogosphere and posting his letter as a comment to Jonathan’s blog. The pair have been involved in a rather esoteric