THE BLOGGING JOURNALIST

Digits: Sun’s Bloggers Mostly Silent About Company’s Sale to Oracle

Don Clark at Digits, a Wall Street Journal blog,  asserts in an April 27, 2009, post that Sun Microsystems’ “leaders have not said anything to speak of since the transaction [that resulted in Oracle buying Sun] was announced last Monday [April 20, 2009]. See “Getting Used to the Silence from Sun Microsystems.”

“The company’s internal blogs–Sun lists some 4,385 employee bloggers–prattle on about techie topics with little mention of the proposed ownership change,” Clark contends. “CEO Jonathan Schwartz, an often-prolific blogger, hasn’t posted anything since March 18, the day the Wall Street Journal reported talks for IBM to buy Sun (Sun’s board wound up favoring the $7.4 billion Oracle offer).”

If wonder what the Securities and Exchange Commission would have thought if Schwartz and other Sun employees had started blogging about a possible sale of the company. Would it have affected stock prices? Just asking.

Technorati Tags: Don Clark,Digits,The Wall Street Journal,Sun Microsystems,Sun Bloggers,Oracle

Jens Alfke: Apple Doesn't Like Blogs

Jens Alfke, a former Apple, Inc employee who resigned over "creative differences" and is "now working on my own, from home, as an indie software developer," writes in a January 10, 2008 post headlined "Gone Indie":

And then there are blogs. Apple doesn’t like them, not when they talk about it. (Big surprise.) I’ve heard it said that there are hardly any bloggers working at Apple; there are actually a lot more than you’d think, but they mostly keep it a secret. (I could out a few people, including at least one director…) I think Apple’s policy on blogging is one of the least enlightened of major tech companies; Microsoft in particular is surprisingly open.

Alfke adds:"I believe in being individual, and open. It always got on my nerves that there were so many things I couldn’t write about (not confidential information, of course, just public stuff) without the very real chance of waking up to a testy email the next day."

To read the entire post, please see "Gone Indie."

Technorati Tags: Jens Alfke,Apple,Inc.,blogs,bloggers

Blogging for Business in Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte.Com, the online news presence of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based The Charlotte Observer, told its readers December 23, 2007, that  "local [Charlotte] business owners" are "writing blogs about their trade or particular stores, hoping to draw in customers with every keystroke."

If you want to read more, see "Blogging for business." The subhead is "More companies using online conversations to entice customers."

Technorati Tags: Business Blogging, Charlotte, North Carolina, The Charolotte Observer

Google's Lauren Turner Learns a Valuable Lesson

 Lauren Turner, Account Planner, Health, writing at Google's Google Health Advertising Blog, says she has learned something from her June 29, 2007, post headlined  Does negative press make you Sicko?":

"Well, I've learned a few things since I posted on Friday. For one thing, even though this is a new blog, we have readers! That's a good thing. Not so good is that some readers thought the opinion I expressed about the movie Sicko was actually Google's opinion. It's easy to understand why it might have seemed that way, because after all, this is a corporate blog. So that was my mistake -- I understand why it caused some confusion.

Lauren, your critics didn't get confused. You expressed an opinion about "Sicko" on Google's Health Advertising Blog, which offers "News and Notes from Google's Health Advertising Team."  Therefore, it's Google's opinion. If you didn't want people to view it that way, you shouldn't have criticized the movie on blog that's designed to woo healthcare advertising.  

To read Lauren's entire post, please see "My opinion and Google's. By the way, I hope the folks at Google see this as simply a mistake and leave it at that. It's not a firing offense in my opinion.  

And Lauren, put a date on your posts. It's more valuable to researchers than a time stamp.

Technorati tags: Lauren Turner, Google Health Advertising Blog, Sicko

Graeme Philipson: Australian 'Bosses Let Sleeping Blogs Lie'

Australian tech writer Graeme Philipson notes in the February 13, 2007, edition of theage.com.au that, "You'll look high and low for a web log penned by an Australian captain of industry."

To read why, see "Bosses let sleeping blogs lie."

Jeremy Wagstaff: 'What A CEO Would Really Write In His Blog'

Jeremy Wagstaff over at The Loose Wire blog told his readers on February 12, 2007, that his "fellow BBC World Service commentator, Lucy Kellaway, lays into Reuters CEO Tom Glocer as the worst case of vapid CEO blogging (via the BBC's Richard Sambrook)."

This is "harsh," Wagstaff wrote, "because Glocer seems to be a cut above the rest of the old media but she has a point: Blogs are about being honest and authentic, and I've seen few CEOs manage to do this."

To read more, please see "What a CEO Would Really Write in His Blog.

Company Blogs: Benefits And Pitfalls

"One blog entry at a time, General Motors Corp. is trying to reestablish itself as an innovator. It isn't alone," contends Christopher Scribner, a reporter at the Oakland (Michigan) Business Review.

To read more about General Motor's blog, please see "Company blogs hold benefits, pitfalls."

Google Publishes 'Nearly 40 Corporate Blogs'

The Google Blog team's Karen Wickre says in a December 30, 2006, post at the official Google Blog that, Google "didn't just hope that readers would come to us" in 2006."

"We also launched company blogs in China, Japan, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, and Russia (and more are coming in 2007)," she wrote. "We also launched AdSense-specific blogs for publishers who speak Dutch, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Product teams also started up quite a roster of new blogs covering everything from Custom Search Engines to Google Book Search to our Mac and Enterprise endeavors."

Wickre said, "If you want to keep current with nearly 40 corporate blogs we now publish, here's the Atom feed, the Google Reader share option, and the OPML file (English language blogs only)."

Who was Google's top referrer in 2006? According to Wickre, "The top non-Google referrers this year are the influential Digg.com and Slashdot."

To read the entire post, please see "A year in Google blogging."

What Google Myths?

On December 27, 2006, Ionut Alex.Chitu over at the unofficial Google Operating System blog addressed what he calls "Google Myths."

"I've heard many inaccurate things about Google this year, and most of them are spread by word of mouth," he wrote. "Maybe Google should do a better job at explaining things that may seem trivial to computer experts, but difficult understand for other people."

It's as simple as that, sir. You can't take anything for granted when it comes to how information is disseminated and digested. Forget the A-listers, it's the common people you want to understand what you are doing.

The New York Post: 'Building Cred In The Fog Of Blogs'

"If you can't build online buzz for your brand, then just buy it," writes Holly M. Sanders in the December 26, 2006, New York Post .

Sanders said, "That's the pitch from a handful of dubious Internet services offering to turn people into paid shills for advertisers. Their tactics have sparked a controversy similar to the one over fake blogs, or "flogs," launched by Wal-Mart and Sony," she wrote, adding:

"Some of these services offer money to bloggers to endorse a company or product, while others pay people to manipulate popularity rankings on sites such as Digg, Delicious (sic) and Reddit."

To read more, please see "Building Cred in the Fog of Blogs."

Will Google Bloggers Step To The Forefront In 2007?

"Will 2007 bring more Googler bloggers to the Google blogging fore?" ZDNet's Donna Bogatin, who blogs at Digital Markets, asked that question in a December 22, 2006, post headlined "Google 2007: More Googlers blogging?

Bogatin said, "If Techmeme is the blogosphere’s barometer, December reflected an uptake in high-profile Googlers putting forth the Google case, at their own personal blogs." She highlights three of them.

Blogger Mike Sansone Mentioned in Des Moines Register.com

Iowa blogger and business consultant Mike Sansone is mentioned in a December 24, 2006, Des Moines Register.com article headlined "Blogging: An important business tool."

The publication describes Mike as the "owner of Bizolution, a Clive [Iowa] company that specializes in advice on business blogs." Mike, according to The Register, "estimates that about 80 Iowa companies use blogs." I suspect he had a lot to do with them blogging in the first place.

Meanwhile, Register business writer William Ryberg did a great job describing some of the blogging Iowa companies. I highly recommend his piece.

Mark Cuban's Message To 'Trump The Chump'

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has a provocative post today over at blog maverick headlined "Trump the Chump." Of course he's talking about The Donald. Writes Cuban:

Every couple weeks I get emails from people asking me if I heard what Donald Trump said about me on some radio or TV show. From Howard Stern to Donnie Deutch to just this week while promoting The Apprentice. I have to be honest, I LOVE IT when he rips me. Its been 3 seasons since The Benefactor tanked, but Donald still couldn't find something else to rip on. It always gives me a good chuckle knowing that he thinks of me so often.

Cuban doesn't bite his tongue in his opinion of Trump and isn't afraid to mix it up. I hope Trump responds himself and not through an apprentice. Cuban writes his own stuff and I like that. It makes him seem approachable and less corporate.

Technorati tags: Mark Cuban, blog maverick, Trump the Chump, Howard Stern, Donnie Deutch, The Apprentice, The Benefactor

Sun's Mike Dillon On 'A New Standard For Transparency'

Mike Dillon, Sun Microsystems, Inc's general counsel and corporate secretary, has a post in the December 18, 2006, edition of BusinessWeek (BW) online headlined "A New Standard for Transparency.

Dillon's post "is the second of two perspectives" BW has presented "on the risks and rewards of corporate blogging." The first post, published December 14, 2006, was written by Jacqueline Klosek, described by BW as "a Certified Information Privacy Professional and an attorney with Goodwin Procter, where she practices in intellectual property and privacy." It's headlined "Corporate Blogs: Handle with Care").