Talk about instant feedback:
The post I made immediately preceding this one was a rant on a
commentary by someone named Ellis Booker that appeared in an e-mail
newsletter I receive from B-to-B online.
Little did I know that about five minutes after I posted it, I would be
walking into a dinner and almost immediately be meeting for the first
time, uh, Ellis, uh, Booker. We agreed it’s a rather neat thing when
one can write a commentary and have such instant feedback — online and
in person.

Wait! You’re supposed to achieve something by blogging? Ellis Booker in B-to-B online admits he doesn’t blog, but nevertheless is “thinking out loud about blogs.”
At the end of his commentary, he asks a question only someone who
doesn’t blog asks: “What were you trying to achieve with your blog in
the first place?”

Here, let me suggest a metaphorical way to consider the question, “What
should someone try to achieve with a blog in the first place?”

Let’s say the telephone was just invented and only 5% of business
people had phones. And, let’s say, it costs you only $5 a month to get
a telephone with lots of features — or you could get one free with
just dial tone and a few basic features.

Would you suggest business managers not get a phone until they know
exactly what they are trying to achieve with it? Would you say, for
example,  I don’t think you need a phone until you know what the
topic of every call you are going to make is?

No. You would say, “If it’s not going to cost you but $5 a month, or
it’s free, get a phone and call up a friend and see what it’s like and
who knows, someone may want to call you one day and you’ll have a phone
number and you’ll know how to pick up the receiver and answer the phone
by saying, “hello,” and then you can have a conversation.”

Okay. You catch my drift.

Until you set up a blog, you’ll never understand why you should blog.

 If you don’t set up a blog, you can’t join in the conversation.

Being able to join in the conversation one day is what you should be trying to achieve.

Great gimmick: Sync Magazine will give away one each of everything written about in its August issue. I’m tempted, but won’t add a punch line to this item…

American Business Media forms blog committee:
I don’t know much more than that, except that I’m the committee’s
chairman. As the committee was announced this morning to the CEOs and
senior management of most of the nation’s (and, thus, world’s) largest
business-to-business media companies, I thought I should, well, at
least blog it.

There are many bloggers employed by media companies that are members of
ABM. Some are blogging “officially,” others are blogging “on the side.”
Understanding where blogging fits within the context of business
publishing and tradeshows and events and seminars and data will be
something the committee explores.

However, what I also want to do, and why I enthusiastically accepted
the opportunity to help form and lead this committee, is to help those
who care to understand, the “participatory journalism” aspect of
blogging in the business-to-business arena.

Oh, by the way, next week ABM will launch a blog.

As always, more later.