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This is blogging as a form of small group discussion, and it might
have potential for large corporate communications departments. For
example, a department might maintain a blog of media contacts, events
and other happenings that keeps department members up to date on what

is going on and also allows department members to express ideas and
opinions on upcoming activities or challenges. The same could be done
with divisional and corporate PR departments all making entries into the

same blog as a community. There have several applications of blogging
in support of this goal used both internally and externally. In one case,
cited by Wired news, Macromedia, the software company that makes the
Flash and Shockwave software, adopted a “blog strategy.” Macromedia

had five of its customer relations managers, called “community
managers,” start their own blogs as a forum to discuss new products,
explain features and answer questions from the field. Customers

immediately praised the idea because it provides them with a heads-up
on issues and ideas that they would not otherwise get except through
formal – and perhaps, slow -- communications from the company, phone

calls to customer service or other developers who have had a similar
experience
One longtime, high-tech journalist, John Udell, believes blogging

can change the way high-tech PR is handled by providing the
background for products and innovations before introducing them
formally. Udell says a blog would help him because “I’ll know where
you’re coming from, and why, and how you got where you are, and we

can jump straight to the really interesting bit: where you’re going (and
why). Our conversation will inform and improve the quality of what
ends up in the print version of InfoWorld.”

He is also frank to say that he could avoid the avalanche of calls
from PR practitioners inviting him to press conferences, reminding him
of press conferences, asking him whether he read a release, etc. Udell, of
course, is interested in talking with developers themselves. He has little

interest in dealing with PR practitioners, and he might be right as long as
a company can trust its engineers to deliver their opinions without
overstepping company boundaries. (However, that would seem hardly

the case.)
Udell is a journalist used to frequenting labs and talking bits and
bytes with developers. He is unusual in his depth of understanding of the

field. Most journalists would not have his depth of knowledge nor would