Hello I'm a blogger

Niel Robertson at SAPPHIRE says:

“Hello, my name is Niel Robertson, Newmerix Corp, and I am a blogger”. Heads turned and frankly it probably sounded more like my first Bloggers Anonymous meeting than something you’d hear at an SAP press conference. Thanks to Vinnie for backing me up with another question from the blogger “brotherhood” making our presence undeniably known by all.

Neil makes the point that blogging is having a direct influence on the attitudes of enterprise vendors. This is the first concrete evidence I’ve seen outside of what I know indirectly in the UK. He also talks about it with the kind of humour that’s guaranteed to make you smile. I wonder the extent to which their efforts are having an impact on customers? That’s people who have to make buying decisions. Is this ‘Brotherhood‘ more likely to influence your thinking?

You’ll need to hover over the question to see the full text

Neil goes on to talk about the way the bloggers collaborated. That is becoming an increasing feature of this medium. David Tebbutt and I consulted with each other while we were at Innovate!Europe (of which more later.) We’ve got different but overlapping agendas. David was part of the mentoring team. I wonder whether the PR readers are looking at this and wondering what lessons there are to be learned.

While in Zaragoza, I followed the SAPPHIRE06 gig virtually and with the aid of GoogleCalendar. Tom Raftery has since used that idea for his upcoming min-Web 2.0 conference.

It excites me to see the way these lightweight applications, all delivered as services and often at minimal or no cost are coming together to change the way the tech industry is interacting with people of influence. The friction that used to exist in the process of bringing people together is dissolving. It is a two-way street. It is something from which everyone learns something fresh.

We as a profession would benefit form taking the same, open approach to our clients and the people we want to influence.

Finally, Niel mentions a revealing conversation with Henning Kagermann. (see the end of Niels’ post for my comments.) Remember this. Neil – who is positively glowing with enthusiasm ISN’T A SAP CUSTOMER. He bats for ORACLE - usually. What will Oracle’s response be? What about Microsoft?

Endnote: one tiny nit about the SAPPHIRE bloggers coverage. Could have done with captions on the Flickr pics. I can recognise Vinnie but then I know him personally. I’m guessing the others’ site mugshots might be ‘generous?’

Technorati Tags: blog infliuence, innovate europe, SAPPHIRE06