Scoble reports on accusations that the SAP TechEd bloggers are biased. Judy says SAP is confusing bloggers with journalists.
At its TechEd event today, SAP made a big point of inviting bloggers to its press and analyst conference . . . [which] were all from companies in SAP’s developer network and included Robert Scoble, now at Podtech.
She apparently made this inference because "the bloggers in the pack stuck to softball questions . . . and left the tougher questions to the journalist."
Charlie sets the record straight. It has nothing to do with being "part of SAP’s ecosystem and therefore not impartial." The irony, perhaps, is that the reason I haven't asked any "hard" questions is because I'm not part of the ecosystem. In fact, i was discussing this exact issue with Mike last night. Neither of us are really that entrenched in the enterprise software world and neither of us are particular familiar with SAP. Both of us appreciate the access and exposure we've gotten despite not being SAP groupies, and I guarantee after seeing the stuff that SAP is doing that it's definitely going to be on my radar in the future.
Judy also says that "the journalists perform an important role in asking the hard questions that force companies to substantiate claims and confront the facts." Wow. I thought it was the bloggers, not the journalists, that are more cynical and less accepting of bullshit. Then again, we all know the line between blogger and journalist is blurring. I know I'm a blogger, though, because SAP tells me so.
The other thing that is evident is that SAP is genuinely interested in engaging the blogging community. They've really gone out of their way to include the blogger's here in the conversation. They genuinely want to improve their transparency. They are doing a lot of things right, but people don't know it. They're also doing a lot wrong, but they're trying to remedy that. We spent time with Mark Finnern and Craig Cmehil specifically going over how they can do things better, both in opening up what they're already doing and better engaging thouse outside of the "SDN community".
The bloggers may not be asking the hard questions, but I didn't see the journalists mention stallgeruch either. (literally the "smell of the barn", which is actually a good thing even though it doesn't sound like it).