SearchDomino... probably not the most opportune timing for this article.
Category IBM/Lotus Microsoft
So strolling through Google Reader yesterday, I happen to come upon a story feed by SearchDomino titled Lotus Notes and Microsoft SharePoint Integration. And yes, I'm not linking to it.
My first thought was "I thought I turned all those feeds off from there!". Apparently not, but that's now corrected.
But what I found interesting is that they'd run this so soon after all the bad press they took in the Domino community over their advertising fiasco with Unify and migration from Domino to Microsoft platforms.
I'm currently reading a book (really? a book?) called Stop The Presses. It's about dealing with media crisis when you're under attack for bad news, accusations, etc. Reading the information here and comparing it to SearchDomino's handling of the offensive advertising has been interesting, to say the least. Needless to say, there was plenty of room for improvement on how to respond, where to respond, and how not to continue to badger and irritate your audience and readership.
One of the lines that was drawn by SearchDomino is that advertising and editorial copy are two entirely separate areas. Generally, that's the way it's supposed to be. But if I had been put in that position (and I was sitting on the editorial side), I would have tried VERY hard to not give the appearance of letting sponsors drive content. Instead, we get a co-existence article written by one of their main editors.
The argument will be that co-existence is different than migration, and information is different than provocative ad copy. I'm sure there'll also be the contention that Lotus/SharePoint integration is a fact of life, and that the readership has a need for that information. Separated from prior events, I would agree. Colored by those same prior events, it looks really bad.
If I were an editor, I think I would have shelved this type of content for at least six months...
So strolling through Google Reader yesterday, I happen to come upon a story feed by SearchDomino titled Lotus Notes and Microsoft SharePoint Integration. And yes, I'm not linking to it.
My first thought was "I thought I turned all those feeds off from there!". Apparently not, but that's now corrected.
But what I found interesting is that they'd run this so soon after all the bad press they took in the Domino community over their advertising fiasco with Unify and migration from Domino to Microsoft platforms.
I'm currently reading a book (really? a book?) called Stop The Presses. It's about dealing with media crisis when you're under attack for bad news, accusations, etc. Reading the information here and comparing it to SearchDomino's handling of the offensive advertising has been interesting, to say the least. Needless to say, there was plenty of room for improvement on how to respond, where to respond, and how not to continue to badger and irritate your audience and readership.
One of the lines that was drawn by SearchDomino is that advertising and editorial copy are two entirely separate areas. Generally, that's the way it's supposed to be. But if I had been put in that position (and I was sitting on the editorial side), I would have tried VERY hard to not give the appearance of letting sponsors drive content. Instead, we get a co-existence article written by one of their main editors.
The argument will be that co-existence is different than migration, and information is different than provocative ad copy. I'm sure there'll also be the contention that Lotus/SharePoint integration is a fact of life, and that the readership has a need for that information. Separated from prior events, I would agree. Colored by those same prior events, it looks really bad.
If I were an editor, I think I would have shelved this type of content for at least six months...




