Sun CEO uses blog to challenge IBM CEO

Sun Microsystems’ President Jonathan Schwartz, publisher of a leading corporate blog, is using a new tactic in his company’s long-standing feud with IBM. The San Francisco Chronicle reports he posted a letter on his personal blog last week addressed to IBM’s Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano, in which he challenged the computer giant to work harder at making the two firms’ product lines compatible.

Assuming what Schwartz is proposing makes sense for developers and end users of the software developed by the two companies, he can expect his message to spread across the blogosphere and put pressure on IBM that would not have been otherwise possible via traditional PR.

Makes all the sense in the world for law firm PR and communications people to develop a channel by which they can communicate like this on the Internet. Web sites are not enough. Only by creating a blog with a regular audience that has the power of spreading a message across the Internet, can a law firm expect they and their clients can bring power to bear like Schwartz.