Euroblog Conference Papers Available - the best in European new media research.

Here they are, the papers from the Euroblog Conference 2006, organised by EUPRERA, the European PR Education and Research Association.

Among the huge amount of information available are the results (opens PDF) of the first European survey on weblogs in Public Relations and Communication Management I mentioned in my previous post.

There was also a roundtable discussion on "What’s next? The impact of weblogs and social software for public relations theory and practice". The discussion was with Prof Dr. Helmut Krcmar, Technical University of Munich, Germany, Trine-Maria Kristensen, Social Square, Copenhagen, Denmark and Prof Dr Betteke van Ruler, President Euprera, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Swaran Sandhu, University of Hohenheim, Germany (Moderator).

I do hope there will be a transcript available or even better, a podcast. If not, well, I'll have to interview them won't I ?

Comments

[Peter King]

Philippe

Hi; ' got here thru SoFlow (my response to your survey is: I don't!)

BUT... what I cannot help wondering is "why?" - a few blogs is a manageable environment but we have an ever-increasing number; who has time to read them - let alone keep up with the new ones?

It strikes me that a good many blogs are posted just to fill space - these are the My Diary type that no one else in their right mind is interested in (unless apparently the author is HRH).

Admittedly there are some excellent weblogs - but the guy from Baghdad would still be in the My Diary category if it were not for Mssrs, Bush and Blair.

Is this an industry of its own making or am I missing the point?

Regards
Peter

[Serge Cornelus]

I didn't see any taping going on, so I do not see the podcast happening. A transcript? Maybe - you'll have to ask Swaran. But my bet would be you'd better start sharpening your interview techniques...

[Philip Young]

Thanks for the mention of EuroBlog, Philippe. Unfortunately we didn't record the proceedings but Prof Betteke van Ruler has promised me a version of her very challenging comments and I will post to Mediations in due course.

[Anne-Marie Cotton]

Although there was no 'official record', these are the 7 questions raised by Betteke (sorry: I can't help it... taking notes ;-):

1. Interactivity? Or "Ego's" writing about themselves?

2. Conversation? Or just posting comments? Where is the dialogue? Isn't it limited because new means are not created? (this activated some bloggers to react and to link blogging to "letters" as they were written in the 17th and 18th century: synchronism versus asynchronism)

3. Social Action? Or one-Liners?

4. Which kind of public sphere will be created? Is there a "global village" out there?

5. Consequences & effects on traditional media?

6. New community building? This was ever the dream of TV too...

7. Strategic use of CEO blogs: pseudo authentic (hidden agenda?) but image building

These 7 questions really launched an interesting discussion and started an animated debate! A final note to summarize what's requested for corporate blogs was:

1. openess
2. courage and self-confidence
3. confidence & trust in own company

To be continued in Brussels in June?

[Philip Young]

Betteke has kindly added a summary of herthoughts to Mediations, http://publicsphere.typepad.com/mediations/.

[Philippe Borremans]

Anne Marie and Philip,

Thanks for giving me the insights on the conference (I should have been there :-(

Great stuff here and some much needed realism in the whole blogosphere story.

Prof. Betteke van Ruler should be on our panel at the IAOC Conference in Brussels !

I am posting about this Philip, thanks.