Case 2: Sun’s CEO takes it to the masses
Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz uses his blog to illuminate some of the cool things going on at Sun. The blog tends to speak to developers, but there are plenty of general posts about Schwartz' point of view on concepts familiar to the layman public. Schwartz is reportedly seeking SEC approval to begin discussing Sun’s financial performance, which if approved should break down the walls of the ivory tower even further.
Judging from the many comments posted to each thread, Schwartz seems to have a rather loyal following reading his missives. But after reading for a bit, one gets the feeling that Schwartz is talking at his enthusiasts rather than with them. A random sampling of topics posted in the past month revealed plenty of unanswered questions asked in comments, and while Schwartz and Sun ought to be commended for allowing free discourse, really the reason why bloggers enable comments in the first place is to allow the dialogue to continue. Jonathan-- please check your incoming comments and address some of the intriguing questions coming in from your fans and detractors, including this gem of a question from a self-described former employee and shareholder:
"Can you provide some insight into what are the best practices in managing innovation?"
Furthermore, the blog seems to disallow comments after a post has been live for some time. Perhaps that’s an anti-spam countermeasure, but the expectations from customers is that a discussion thread is a discussion thread, and typically people don’t like discussion being choked off.
I think Schwartz is heading in the right direction. His blog is only one in a thriving Sun blogging community, and he clearly understands the benefits of direct communication with the market. But his blog could be so much more if it treated posts as conversation starters.
