Ralph Nader, Michael Moore and Bloggers

I was talking to Mike Prosceno at SAP this week.  Mike has been instrumental in getting SAP executives to be  much more conversational with external bloggers and also encouraging a stream of internal blogging initiatives. And Mike told me with a tinge of sadness about the negative reaction of bloggers to the recently announced Blog Council. SAP is a charter member (along with reps from several verticals and Microsoft, Dell, Cisco and Nokia from tech world).

My first reaction - call me naive, but I welcome the Council. May be 3 weeks ago I would have been more guarded. But Mike sat in the same room at the SAP Influencer Summit with us Enterprise Irregulars as we asked Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP and and other SAP executives pointed questions. Mike did not censor a single question. His executives did not wince during the session. I am known as one of SAP's toughest critics and after that session wrote a couple of tough blogs (and some generous ones).  I should be persona non grata, but Mike then had a couple of executives respond to my blogs.

The amazing thing is Mike recently told me he did not know much about my other New Florence blog where I am milk and honey - as I celebrate technology innovation. He has mostly seen my piss and vinegar, curmudgeon side on this blog and still encouraged the conversation. If Mike represents the quality of the executive being assigned to the Council, external bloggers should welcome it.

Of course, some bloggers will be more suspicious of corporate America than I am. I have few qualms there. Heck, the customers I represent on this blog are corporations - unhappy with their fellow corporate tech vendors. I know my client executives as living, breathing moms and dads - not evil corporate types. In fact, many are downright boring, spending way too much time in meetings.

I do have one concern with the Council. It could become like the groups of Analyst Relations Managers who gather to discuss how to deal with the Gartners and Forresters. A whole ecosystem of them (BTW - Mike used to run analyst relations for SAP) - focused on influencing the analysts, often with little insight into product or customer issues. If the blog council turns in to something similar it will be a waste. By all means involve bloggers like me in the conversation - but don't dance around the customer and product issues being raised in those blogs. And please don't turn your internal bloggers into contemporary PR engines.

General Motors is also a charter member of the Council. Made me think what if GM had engaged Ralph Nader in a conversation in 1965. Or given Michael Moore the interview he sought with Roger Smith in 1989. We have come a long way. One reason to be optimistic about the Council.