I stayed out of the recent fuss over Dell’s entry into the blogosphere, partly because I was tied up with other things and partly because it turned into kind of a pile-on, as my friend Rob Hyndman pointed out. Jeff Jarvis did kind of jump all over the company when it first appeared, and Steve Rubel also chimed in with some free advice — some of it (in fact most of it) well-deserved — and lots of others did as well.
There was a good point there, that Dell should have maybe surveyed the blogosphere before launching one, but it was overdone. And as it turned out, Dell has done all that and more: it started with links to Jarvis and Rubel and a commitment to learn as much as possible, and it has continued. The latest, as Steve points out, is a lengthy post that is honest almost to a fault about the company’s problems with customer support, and how much work needs to be done still.
I hope some of those who were so quick to criticize will take note of how open Dell is being (Steve Rubel has and so has Jeff Jarvis). The company deserves to be applauded for it.