By Tom Foremski for SiliconValleyWatcher

I've been doing a lot of talking about blogging, freely sharing what I have learned so far at conferences and while visiting companies and associations. It's fun and educational for me and, I hope, for the people I meet. It's interesting to see how people view blogging, hear their questions, and learn about the cultural obstacles within all organizations.

With interest in blogging exploding within the business world, we at SiliconValleyWatcher are being asked to consult on various projects. We hope to follow a long line of high-profile bloggers such as Doc Searls, John Battelle and Jeremy Wright, that share their expertise this way.

Because of my commitments to our main product, SiliconValleyWatcher, I will be more selectively engaged in consulting than some other members of our team. A large part of our consulting work will be through our tech team, led by Nick Aster, who is our CTO and a master in creating media technology architectures for organizations.

The blogging platform is a very powerful two-way communications technology. Used in the right way, it can make a bigger difference than probably any other technology investment, IMHO :-)

Sharing our work with our communities and a focus on schools

We hope that our work will also enable nonprofits and community-facing websites to make better use of these technologies. Nick Aster, for example, recently launched Triple Pundit—an eco site that is quickly gaining readers and is very compatible with his Green MBA project. BTW, Nick is looking for editors and writers on that venture.

We also have a project in the works that seeks to bring these technologies to schools, enabling community collaboration around one of the most important issues of our times - our children's education.

Upcoming speaking events

Next week I'll be speaking about blogging with some of the world's largest chipmakers, who are in town for the biannual Semiconductor Industry Association meeting. Many of these companies are showing great interest in media technologies such as blogging. One of our sponsors, Infineon Technologies, is one of the world's largest chipmakers.

The SIA event is a closed-door meeting, but on June 22 I'll be at a public venue in Palo Alto, on a panel discussing "How technology is revolutionizing news distribution and corporate reputation," organized by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and The News Market.

Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth, will give the keynote address. My fellow panelists are Joel Dreyfuss, editor in chief of Red Herring, Charlene Li, Forrester's superstar analyst, Wade Roush, senior editor at MIT's Technology Review, and moderator Rafe Needleman, editor for business buying advice at Cnet.

Here is a link to the event (if you can't get in, drop me a note!)

Also, drop me a note if you'd like to find out more about our New Rules Media consulting services. We initially plan to work only with a small number of organizations, teaching best practices, how organizations can tell their stories without the need for spin, and issues around Sarbanes Oxley compliance. And, of course, how to set up a media technology infrastructure that supports the enterprise.