Posted by: Jack Santos
A recent journal article came across my desk on Blogging. In one of those rare moments where I can get to be Hofstatderian (author of one of my all time favorites ), and be totally self reflexive and in danger of getting caught in a programming loop…
So Bloggers (like yours truly) are less like journalists or individuals with a right to express opinions (even wrong ones), and more like corporations, held accountable (financially and reputation wise) for being wrong, or off the mark. Wow. this should be interesting.
It does happen (although not with regular frequency) that my colleagues at Burton Group occasionally get targeted by vendors for blog comments, Those specific disagreements have been significant, but we have been proven right in our assessments, and vendors have threatened to disengage (to which we have responded, “So? We work for the client and call them like we see them”).
Unlike many other research, and quasi research, firms, we ascribe to a mantra of "vendor independence". A minor portion of our revenue is vendor subscriptions, and we don't accept payment by vendors for research (that propensity by others for vendor funded research is, in fact, anti-research).
But these rulings may have a chilling effect on the blogsphere…we shall see. Another aspect of our litigious society, and the gray area between the web and the real world.
Even more importantly, last year I did some research on executive (CxO)bloggers. Although an excellent communication medium, executive bloggers are still rare...and with trends like these they may be even rarer.
Very interesting post Jack, but you can't intimidate me. I'm ocnfident that if the economy keeps declining I won't be worth suing.
Posted by: George McQuilken | May 29, 2009 at 02:54 PM