Lots of activity online post-Global PR Blog Week. Some very thoughtful and insightful. Some quite the contrary. Guess it depends upon what side you’re on – your own, or the side of the industry. The following examples are from people that are bettering the industry and adding to the body of knowledge.

Tom Murphy’s back. That’s good news. If there are any posts you read, check out The PR Hype Cycle and Pragmatic Public Relations. Both relate directly to our conversation here.

Another positive article comes from Richard Edelman. He posted The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends, on September 12th. Seems that Edelman and Technorati are seeking to understand and improve relationships between PR practitioners and bloggers. When I first saw the article, my thought was, “Great, finally someone is going to put some rational, quantifiable and qualitative work behind the idea of how to deal with bloggers.” OK, I don’t exactly speak to myself like that, but – I hope you get my drift.

After all, there are plenty of posts citing anecdotal examples of blogs and PR, but all of them (as good as some of the points may be), are still lacking in any structure. It is codified, structured research that leads to a “body of knkowledge” and will guide the future of PR and its relationship with blogs. So, Edelman and Technorati are doing the profession – and bloggers – a service.

Edelman opined that, “PR folks worth their salt are also keenly interested in the honest communication of ideas and information on behalf of their clients.” Then, like all wise PR practitioners, he proposed a survey – jointly with Technorati – aimed at learning more about these relationships. The survey went live yesterday. I welcome this as a promising starting point from a large respected PR firm and a respected blog centric seach engine – both with the credibility to take the lead.

I applaud their efforts.

Some people just didn’t get it. They criticized the effort.

Thankfully, Kevin Dugan took up the issue. So will I. That will be my next post. We’ll discuss PR practitioners that engage in Whining, Podcasting, Sarcasm and overall blog Op-Ed Fiascos.