Personal blogging and Public Relations

This blog [The Wisdom of the Crowd] has been around since May 2006. I started it as my most personal blog. It's one of my newest blogs.

Public Relations has been around for 100 years. I'm not sure if my blog is about PR, it's more about things I feel for personally.

Below is a story I found from "India PR" blog with a creative commons license making it possible to share and republish the information.

As I'm writing this, I'm not yet all to familiar with the details of creative commons. The rule of thumb is however that such material isn't copyright protected.

My own idea about everything that is published on my blogs can bee freely used by others. That includes pictures and graphic material.

• Internet is an open media
• I use Internet to spread and share information
• This isn't a good place to hide information
• This is a free public service platform
• SOA = service oriented architecture

On 30th October 2006, we have possibly passed a milestone in public relations. The press release turned the century. It is believed that Ivy Lee, who is also considered to be the father of modern public relations, created the first press release for his client, the Pennsylvania Railroad.

This was following an accident on October 28, 1906, in which 50 people lost their lives when a three-car train met with an accident at Atlantic City. Lee convinced his clients to distribute a public statement on the accident and even take the "journos" on the accident site through a special train.

The New York Times is believed to have commended this approach of openness and published this press release, verbatim, in their 30th October 1906 issue with the header, 'Statement from the Road'.

Trust and honesty indeed is the hallmark of public relations; as someone has rightly said that truth is not a substitute for public relations. And that is the truth that all of us in the profession must appreciate and practice.

My idea is to extend the Internet model to mobile tools. More about that some other time...