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they necessarily spend the time to read a blog in order to get updated
about the evolution of a product.
However, Udell does have a point. Fundamentally, blogging is
user-driven. Because it is a low-cost and widely available medium, user

experts of all kinds can weigh in on a topic outside of the hierarchy of a
corporation and provide a depth of understanding that one might not
ordinarily get. Some have called blogging an “anti-intranet” because

intranets have so many layers of departmental and editorial control over
information posted on them. However, from a PR perspective, there are
few situations in which information is left uncontrolled. That is, the
practitioner evaluates all information for its usefulness in promoting a

company’s relationships with target audiences. An engineer making
cracks about the company “compromising” the vision of a forthcoming
product is not something a PR practitioner could or should let into an

organizational blog.
To Blog or Not Once PR practitioners understand that a blog is not
a free-form expression within an organizational context, there are

practical uses to which the tool can be put to use. Think of a blog as a
low-cost and fast publishing tool that can provide an important
dimension to an individual and/or organization in terms of getting news

out quickly. Because the diary is available to all at the same time, it is
faster to use than media like e-mail and because it requires no coding or
expertise to use, it can appear at the speed of thought. One need only
type the journal entry and push a button to get it published. In addition,

because it has a permanence that Instant Messaging does not have,
blogging leaves an accessible trail of ideas, facts and comments into
which one can reach to develop a history of an issue, question or

challenge without resorting to reconstructing e-mail threads from
different places and times.
Some organizations will have little use for this kind of low-cost
publishing speed. Others will find it invaluable in terms of keeping

executives and key employee groups informed about news, events and
other happenings. In the Wired World, speed is as important as accuracy
and blogs push speed limits. It would be exceptionally interesting to see

distributed blogs in use among communicators in charge of fast-moving
events, so the communicators can keep each other up to speed without
resorting to email, phone calls or face-to-face meetings.

However, the criterion for success in such an endeavor is getting
all parties to use a blog. That is not necessarily easy because old habits