Frank, I know that you "get it" becuase you do it. I've read your posts and I know we speak and understand the same language. There is something that happens when you become involved in blogging that cannot be communicated unless you are in it.
Also, I think that ideas and concepts take time to reach places. It takes at least six months, maybe a year  for West Coast ideas to be understood by the East Coast, and similar amount of time to be understood in London/Europe.
What interests me is how you guys handle such a cultural disconnect within a company that offers clients a global, consistent reach?

I really wish Americans wouldnt use the word nonce. In the UK it means pedophile and it grates whenever i see it. just a language tip.

James, thanks for the tip! I guess I'll count myself fortunate that when I spend time in the UK or talk to teams and clients there that the word doesn't come up! Consider it striken from my vocab.

Tom, there is both a short and a long answer to your question -- your general point is good -- it takes a lot of work to make sure there is a consistent POV and voice among global offices, while also making sure there is local content and context. We do this by investing heavily in training, by communicating regularly, by sharing success and failure across all our offices and teams. For example, we have annual "Wexxy" awards to recognize great work by the teams, and last month we had teams from all our offices in Seattle for the dinner - it was a great reminder of the global nature of communications and our role in it.

I was in the UK for several weeks in August (lucky me, London set heat records while I was there), and I can say with some confidence that the team there understands the changing influence model and the role blogs play in it. I'm sure Paul will have more to add when he returns from holiday.

Frank, in this new media world, there is no such thing as "when he returns from holiday." You jumped right on top of this, even though you are in the middle of moving house and family! That's because you "get it."

I wonder what Paul Abrahams has to say about this blogging business now. Once he "gets" it, I'm sure he will become hooked.  

I didn't realise that it took so long for concepts to reach West-East coast and vice versa, we don't have that problem in the UK, though some people differentiate between northerners and southerners.

Elee, ideas can be read almost as soon as they are created, but often they cannot be understood until their time is right, or at least until the social/cultural environment neccessary to support those ideas is in place, and that does take time...

Interesting , very interesting. Some good points raised, but at the end of the day, Paul really should know better, and to REALLY know better when speaking in public!

To foster the debate, it would be helpful to invoke the doctrine of Fair Use and cite more specific content and context from Paul Abraham's PR Week article. Saying "he can speak for himself" is a dagger in the back if you haven't picked up the phone and called your colleague or emailed him advising him to respond. If you have, and he's chosen not to respond until his holiday is over, say so.

The "blogosphere" -- or by my count about five bloggers/critics/posters/commenters -- is in full attack mode and no one has posted significant content pulled from Paul's article.

Frank, that you "get it" and -- perhaps, in the blogosphere opinion -- Paul doesn't, is hardly a solid defense for your firm or its leadership. I may be wrong, but your intranet blog where employees must censor their comments or risk career suicide is hardly evidence of getting the blogosphere.

As a former direct report of Paul's, Tom Foremski apparently has an axe to grind, one that is currently lodged between Paul's shoulder blades. Referring to himself as a (lowly?) "journalist blogger" and Paul as a leader of the "PR Elite" smacks of the green-eyed monster.

Tom, tell us more about your professional relationship with Paul and you'll gain credibility for your attack. As it stands, it doesn't quite seem cricket the way you've gone about it. In addition to broadcasting Paul's courtesy phone call, Tom's post above states clearly that anyone in PR needs to be available 24/7/365. And I thought it was only Death that didn't take a holiday.

In the interest of full disclosure, I read Silicon Valley Watcher and respect Tom's abilities as a journalist and blogger. I admire Scoble and agree with Tom about what he accomplished for Microsoft in quantifiable PR value. I know nothing about WE's strategic counsel to Microsoft, or its advice on blogs or MSN Live Spaces.

You're in a difficult position because no one will ever know what WE advised MS or whether they executed on strategy.

Of course, so am I, because I'm commenting on a blog as part of a "blog community" and according to Tom, cannot possibly "get it" since I'm not posting on my own blog.

I for one welcome an industry leader challenging the prevailing online consensus and igniting debate. I also like the fact that a former employee can challenge his former boss publicly to a duel. Perhaps it can be settled on FT.com or even better, on the ink-stained pages of the widely-read Financial Times.

Cheers.

Kevin: I don't say that you have to have your own blog to "get it." Being involved in blogging by posting and reading comments will get you to the same place :-)

Frank: You are dead right about the always on world we live in. I don't like it but it is there. Paul starts a conversation/debate and then absents himself. Clearly, no debate was intended. And that's a shame because this is an opportunity to educate, and an opportunity to show WE's prowess in such matters.