Thursday, February 10, 2005

Living the Media Guerilla's Transparency Nightmare In a previous entry, I point to Mike Manuel's Media Guerilla blog where he describes how transparent journalism can reveal some awkward moments. Although my example doesn't involve that moment that many journalists have experienced -- the one where they ask a question and the PR person pipes in like an attorney exclaiming "objection!" -- it involves an equaly awkward moment that gets caught on tape.  One  where the interviewees have no idea what the answer is an obvious question is. I mean, like REALLY obvious. Who's to blame for such an embarrassing moment? Of course, the interviewees should be well-versed in their subject matter before meeting with the press. But the PR folks are the safety net. Their job is to anticipate questions -- especially the obvious ones -- and make sure that their clients are good and ready before taking that interview. Understandably, you can't be prepared for every question. But let's say the client is an organization looking to get press and the main message is that the organization is focused on five critical issues. Shouldn't the client be prepared to discuss each of them in detail? In this "case study" of how transparency can reveal some awkward moments, I'm meeting with Oracle's Tony DiCenzo and Sun's Peter ffoulkes to get introduced to the Enterprise Grid Alliance -- an organization that they were representing at a recent grid event in Boston. I didn't ask for this meeting. I was pitched on it and accepted, given that my primary beat is enterprise computing. During the meeting, which I recorded, ffoulkes and DiCenzo explained to me that the EGA is focused on five primary objectives and even has working groups assigned to each one. The five working groups (and initiatives) are even listed on the organization's Web site. As explained to me, they are: Terminology (Reference Model) Accounting Grid Security Component Provisioning Data Provisioning After being told of the objectives, one by one, I asked for an explanation of each. After all, if I'm going to explain what the EGA does to ZDNet's audience of enterprise technologists, they deserve to have each of its major initiatives explained. Only, there was one problem. When I asked what "data provisioning" was, neither interviewee had the answer. Neither did either of the two PR counselors who were accompanying them. For me, it was as strange moment. It seemed like an obvious question. Perhaps for them, it wasn't. I was told they'd get back to me. Unfortunately, given how frequently I write, I have to get the stories out while they're fresh in my mind. There's really no time to get back to me. And so, the story goes out with text like this: Unfortunately, when it came time to discuss what data provisioning was, neither ffoulkes nor DiCenzo could answer. Want to be a fly on the wall for the awkward moment? You can download the MP3. 9:55:10 PM    comment []