Feedback to the Press causes article to be pulled

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10118571.post-13166207100652638312008-04-05T22:34:00.000-07:002008-04-05T22:51:09.768-07:00Feedback to the Press causes article to be pulledI have been preaching for the past several months to my audience about the new power that exists in small passionate groups on the Internet willing to take the time to speak up and do something. I blogged about its influence with the Ron Paul campaign. I've asked the Novell GroupWise community to show their support and solidarity by speaking up whenever something is mentioned in the press. This week that passion paid off. Media pulls inaccurate article on GroupWise I saw an article this week about a scandal in Newfoundland and Labrador. The reporter was told by the government that emails couldn't be found because GroupWise was the problem. Within a few hours, dozens of people from all over the world responded to the article, pointing out the inaccuracies of the report. That GroupWise wouldn't be the problem and that it appeared excuses were being given by the sources to the paper and not legitimate issues. Within the same day the article was complete removed without any reference to it whatsoever. But thanks to Google Cache it is still out there. If you would like to read it, you can do so here at this link: http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.thewesternstar.com%2Findex.cfm%3Fsid%3D123270%26sc%3D506 Why this is important The editor of the Western Star quickly discovered that their small regional paper is no longer limited to just the few readers in their small corner of the world. The Internet makes anything printed immediately accessible from anywhere in the world...AND...Google Cache insures that once posted it lives on forever. It is also important to realize that a small focused, passionate group of people can make a difference. You don't need thousands or millions of people to be able to influence the world. A small number, tightly focused on one spot have the ability to create change. In this case, an inaccurate article was removed, but even bigger, now pressure is being put on the government and the newspaper to come up with the true answer. Long term goal and the new GroupWise marketing focus The long term goal of this is to galvanize the GroupWise community. To use their passion to begin to fight back against the millions of dollars Microsoft has spent on their marketing campaign and also to push back against uninformed decision making that has hurt Novell so much in the past. I have urged Novell to change their marketing tactics. To loudly proclaim each time a company moves off of GroupWise. To shine the light on the decision and show how fiscal irresponsibility is often at the root of the decision. To cause anyone considering deploying Microsoft to be forced to defend their decision in the face of the "Fiscal Irresponsible" label being attached to their decision. Small win today Having the Western Star pull their story was a small win today. The hope is that these type of stories will begin to be changed from a negative against Novell and form a strong wind of change for good. Richard BlissRichard Blisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06711443052326619281noreply@blogger.com