Tim Bray's Qualified Recommendation

Sun's highly regarded Tim Bray has posted a well-qualified recommendation of Naked Conversations at his Ongoing blog. Tim thinks regular readers of Ongoing will find little new in our book, except some case studies from France that he had not previously heard. he wishes the book had been written more in Robert's style and less my "cool, neutral tone with lots of commas and subordinate clauses." He wishes we had dealt less with business issues and more with blogging's social implications." And for added measure he argues that we screwed up a bit on Google's technical advantages.

Still, he says, Naked Conversations is  "Good Stuff · The best thing is that there’s little abstraction or theorizing; it’s all real stories about real people and their ventures into the blogosphere. They do draw some lessons, but never at too-great length, and it never reads like they’re lecturing."

Funny about the voice thing.  I was talking this morning with Textura Design's DL Byron, father of Clip 'N Seal, whose co-authoring a How-to blogging book with his Blog Business Summit partner Steve Broback. We were feeling each other's pain over the issue of two collaborating writers finding a common voice.  Like Robert and me, Steve and DL seem to find that impossible. In the end, there has to be one voice.  There just has to. In the case of Robert and me, I had time and inclination and Robert had a day job.

Comments

[steven streight aka vaspers the grate]

I don't care what anyone says, this book is the Manifesto for Blogosphere 4.0, the RSS-charged, mulit-media, blog as portal, New Super Blog for the New Multiphonic Communications Network, wherein almost all sales and deals will eventually be conducted.

The blogosphere will reign as the self-corrective, aggressive, raw and rebellious red haired stepchild of the internet, and that DNA will not go away, ever.

This book captures that wild wild west atmosphere, with so many adventures and accumulated insight, this has to be seen for what it claims to be: a comprehensive and authoritative guide to business blogging.

Like a blog, its embryonic form, it is written from a deep perspective: a company that needed to improve public perceptions and tech realm mantras.

Hate for a big corporate "bully", often based on sour grapes and mediocre whining from underachiever losers, is worn like a badge of inclusion, to join an internet tribe of like-minded geekazoids.

"We all hate the same thing? Marvel at our unity and the security we derive from it."

An inside look at blogs, from inside a big business trying to understand how a blog can really be of verifiable value, this is what the business world needed. And now, it has it.

Thanks for the long and bumpy ride. It was worth it when I see the great end result.

Buy this book for your colleagues so they can wise up. Now, before it's too late.