The past few weeks in the blogosphere have been even more complicated than usual. In short, some hurtful things were posted about prominent female bloggers on a couple of group blogs that were owned or maintained by other prominent bloggers. In some cases, those hurtful postings crossed the line from poor taste to blatant misogyny and sexually loaded death threats. Leading blogger Robert Scoble even took the week off from blogging in solidarity with his female colleagues who had been attacked. The flurry of debate, recrimination and anger that followed these postings was so intense that it made a splash in the mainstream media, culminating in a feature on CNN.
The whole mess probably turned some businesses off from getting involved with the blogosphere. After all, who wants to engage with a community that periodically goes through firestorms like this? It’s all too hard to control! There’s too much risk! There’s too much immaturity out there for this to be a viable medium for business!
But cooler heads eventually prevailed, leading to these coordinated statements from Kathy Sierra and Chris Locke — the two major players in the uproar.
It’s this spirit of forgiveness, discourse and agreement to disagree that businesses should pay attention to. Sure, there will always be immaturity in the blogosphere. But that’s just as true of the business world. What’s interesting to note is that like all blogosphere firestorms, the whole imbroglio settled down fairly quickly once the two sides were able to engage with one another and find common ground.
That’s the takeaway for businesses. In the blogosphere, it’s best to engage quickly and maturely with all stakeholders in a debate. If you’re capable of having a mature discussion with people who don’t agree with you, then the blogosphere is for you. It might seem very scary sometimes, but there’s an overwhelming likelihood that you and your colleagues will be able to overcome any obstacles you encounter.
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