DISQUS

Great idea, Tim. My daughter's school coudl use it. Title 1 School in Deer Valley, AZ. They don't even have enough money to buy paper for the rest of the year, and plan on mass layoffs come May to meet reduced budgets. And I'm sure they're far from alone. Good luck!

Great choice, Dave.

Dude, this is the best thing you've written in a long time. It's incredibly smart and the passion shines through. Good stuff. RWM

Hey Max,

This is a great debate, and the one point on which you both agree -- that PR agencies need to change, and fast -- is the ultimate inconvenient truth. (So too must those in advertising, consumer affairs, internal comms, etc., but that's a topic for another day.) You and I both know that it won't happen overnight (oh, were it that easy), but I promise you this: while there may be some steadfastly holding on to practicing PR "the old-fashioned way" in three years time, they won't be working at Edelman.

RWM

Jim,

Thanks for the thoughtful post.

As Jonny wrote, our (the round table's) intent was always to open this dialogue up to the community. We're well aware that we don't have all the answers; we're not even sure there is "one." What we all agreed on was this: the current tools and approaches to measuring the impact of social media are incredibly flawed.

We all think a wiki would be a great way to capture the dialogue and move this effort ahead. I presume you'd be moe than willing to contribute your thinking. We'll build it / launch it next month (as in February). With any luck, we can generate the kind of momentum Chris Brogan got with TwitterPacks earlier this week. .

Finally, irony noted. I read plenty, but have have been doing all my talking on facebook and twitter. Feel free to follow teitter.com/rickmurray. And FWIW, a new blog is being launched within the week.

Cheers,

Rick
At any rate, hoose to believe it or not, we actually hoped for this kind of dialogue.

Perhaps the most troubling thing re this group's anouncement -- here we are talking about it, and implicitly about its members, and no one that's on the bloody thing is weighing in with their POV.

Looking forward to catching up tonight.

Hi Robert,

My daughter just left for a semester in France.

The last thing she did before leaving was to start up a "Face Book is Now Retarded" group. (Happy to send you the screen grab!)

These guys have just put square wheels on a car that was crusing along at 120mph in first gear. Sadly, they're about to find out just how fast that car can come to a screeching halt.

Your thoughts are bang on. The key question is this: with such a fickle audience, is it already too late?

Cheers,

Rick