Global PR Blog Week is underway. A great stream of posts, including Steve Rubel interviewing Jay Rosen on participatory journalism and the need for transparency in PR.
Dan Forbush of Profnet is discussing Blogs, Wikis & Expert Networks:
A technology like Socialtext intrigues us at ProfNet because it offers a new and powerful way to aggregate expert content. It enables us to easily envision the day, for example, when we use a collaborative environment to develop ProfNet Round-ups -- enabling reporters, PR officers and experts to meet in Web "rooms" where they can interact more powerfully than by email, phone or video alone.
Personally, I'm watching how PR people handle a conversation on transparency. For every PR Wiki fostered by professionals there is a Disinfopedia with amateurs scrutinizing practices.
As a CEO, I have grown to distrust outsourcing PR beyond coordination, especially when we can extend our reach by ourselves authentically and the strategy is core. Oursource your PR and you may find they jump ship to share your ideas with competitors the very next day. A discussion on transparency needs to be complimented by one on ethics. If both are not addressed, sunshine is the best disinfectant and disintermediation is inevitable.
