Appreciate the comments, all. Shel, I'd like to hear Steve elaborate further on his "blogging peaking" comment. I wasn't sure whether he meant the cumulative amount of blogger-created content or the number of actual bloggers. Either way, I was surprised. I have noticed that Technorati has been mired in the 55 million range for a few months. Perhaps its the term blogging, itself, which, to me, has had a much longer-than-expected life in our vernacular.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the event. I'd be interested to hear more about Steve's thoughts on the bloggers who claim that Edelman used too much of Defren's social news release in their StoryCrafter template. There seems to be alot of that sentiment going around the pr blogosphere.
Secondly, I disagree in regard to the books mentioned. I think they're important introductions in the new social mediums, now matter what stage of the game you're in. Naked Conversations still has a huge impact on PR. The case studies presented in NC showcase how, if done right, blogging can work for organizations. To me, that matters just as much today than when it was published.
Re: Edelman/Wal-Mart -- I think in a case like this you win points for candor. I haven't seen much of that from them. Campaigns like this fuel the astroturfing campaigns launched by Paull Young and others. As a young PR Pro myself, I like to think our generation has zero tolerance for those sort of tactics.
Sounds like a great event Peter, with
a great mix of experience and backgrounds on the panel.
I wish I'd been able to attend - but I'll do everything I can to come to the next one!
I think Steve may be right about these books aging a bit in terms of statistics and and anecdotes, but each of them still makes fundamental points that most of the world still do not understand. Where I think Steve is drop dead wrong is that blogging has begun to peak. perhaps it has in the niche where Steve and I hung out, but to believe this transformative explosion is about to end would be the same as arguing that electricity had peaked when New York and Chcago got lit up, or the telephone had peaked once a party line had been installed. The crazy excitement may be settling down. As I have written before, the real growth and significance will happen once blogging has normalized, as happened with web pages and for that matter, the PC.
Commenting by HaloScan
