What is the purpose of blogging? What service do blogs provide? As a matter of fact, what is a blog? Wikepedia defines a blog as: a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. The article goes on to describe various types of blog. The section on types of blogs is not very helpful if you happen to be in charge of deciding who gets press credentials at a conference such as DAC. I have found that in our industry we can define four types of bloggers.

Personalities

The EDA industry does not have a significant amount of bloggers that write for the sake of seeing themselves on the web. This type of blogger might have taken roots in our industry, were it not for Facebook and Twitter, places where one can find some of the most blatant platitudes one needs to fill a meaningless stretch of one's day.

Consultants

Blogging has become a common self-promotion tool for consultants. This type of blogger, either a one-person organization or a member of a relatively small consulting company, blogs about issues in his or her area of specialization. The intent is to prove to the readers that the blogger has the necessary expertise to solve their problems and thus should be hired.

Of course the activity does provide some amount of information free of charge, and thus it performs a service, but this is not the original intent of the web site.

Promoters

Corporations have discovered blogging as a form of promotion for both their image and their products. Some use it directly from their web site, while others try to be more discreet. I have talked to most of the corporate bloggers and heard their disclaimers about their content not being under the control of the corporation. Either they do not understand corporate law, or they think I do not. If one works for a company, he or she represents the company, and thus the blogs represent the company.

Just because a corporate officer, or a member of the legal department, does not have to approve the contents of a blog before it is published, does not mean that the author is independent. The purpose of the blog is to divulge a corporate message, even when the subject is about the industry at large.

In general corporate bloggers either work in a marketing department, whether corporate or products related, or are field application engineers who have had their responsibilities widened to include writing an occasional blog.

Examples of corporate blogging can be found on Cadence, Mentor, and Synopsys websites. Cadence has by far achieved the highest professional level of all three by hiring Richard Goering, an expert and respected EDA journalist, as its primary blogger.

Techguri, on the other hand, is an example of stealth corporate marketing, created and promoted by Cayenne Communication, a Public Relations company.

Editors and Journalists

Two things happened in 2008: the recession and the shift to web based publishing. Together they generated a disproportionate amount of unemployed or under employed journalists and editors with a knowledge of the industry and the desire to continue their profession. Some have tried to develop new business models, mostly with negative results, while others have decided that blogging could be a way to financial independence. A few have successfully organized electronic publications, but many remain for hire and are finding that money is scarce.

Yet, if we exclude the few organizations with web based publications that actually charge a company in order to publish something about or by them, this group of writers is actually the only independent source of information left in the industry aside for the few still surviving historical publications (now found mostly in electronic versions).

Companies, blinded by the sparkle of "social media", are thinking that promotion is a free activity, although most of them use employees to actually perform the duties of being on Facebook or Twitter as corporate representatives. And these employees are paid a salary, benefits, and in some cases even bonuses. Thus they are certainly not free.

We are on the cusp of a communication shift, there is no denying this. Only time will help separate fads from useful methods. Unfortunately time also kills those less prepared to survive the shift. In polite circles this is called "competition."

What Should A Conference Do About Bloggers?

The fundamental question behind the decision of how to handle bloggers is funding. How is the blog funded? If the answer is that the author receives a paycheck from a non publishing entity, then the blogger is not a member of the press.

This then allows conferences to consider only the fourth type of blogger as a member of the press. This gorup main purpose is to publish news about the industry, and as such they are professional journalists, even when they act as publisher, sales person, and writer all at once. For them, multitasking is not a choice, it is the only way to keep overhead at a minimum.

In recognition of the indirect service provided by consultants, whether individuals or associated with a consulting company, they should be classified separately from regular attendees. I am thinking of how DVCon handles consultants in its exhibit area. These individuals get a special, highly discounted, rate to promote their services in the exhibit area. The same approach should be used for "communication credentials." The purpose is not to increase the income of the conference, it is to recognize the different nature of the job performed.

Marketing bloggers, that is writers who are full time employees of a company and write a blog as part of their job description, should not receive any special recognition with respect to press credentials. They of course can receive an "exhibitor badge" at the discretion of their company, or can register as regular attendees.