Great comments, guys. Regarding Mother Theresa, sure she left a mark -- it's just that as a writer I'm more likely to be remembered as something like Hitchens (since I'm certainly no Mother Theresa). As for the prose, I would say that erudite and articulate does not contradict uneven. Other writers are a much smoother, more elegant read. Hitchens is provocative, it's never easy to read his prose -- but that's the point. As a reader, you have to engage with it. I am teaching young writers now. In general they need to learn to be more provocative and more interesting. Should they aspire to Gladwell or Hitchens? Depends on your objectives.

Steve, ironically, we are quite close to the same spot -- we're right next to Alewife again.

@Daniel: An executive at our publisher pushed hard for an iconic, one-word title. I deferred to his judgment.

@Dino: HMS Host generates $2.5 billion per year and revenue and has 34,000 employees. A company this size needs a strategy.

Ed: If I thought this would actually drive any traffic, I'd agree with you. But the customers need to be able to find the page and do something useful there, first.

@Brother Trevor, that's exactly the right advice. The receipt could work great, if there was a good reason and a good Facebook page on the other end of it.

@Dave: Brands go where the people are. People use Facebook and Twitter, the brands will go there -- even if these worlds are controlled by the people who own the platform.

Sandra, I recognize that people record and talk about comments as a matter of course -- and I accept that. But that's very different from the conference organizer making an official recording -- which has to be part of the agreement ahead of time.

Satguru, I'm very interested in your idea. Amazingly, you didn't include your email address in your comment (the complete inverse of what usually happens). Contact me at jbernoff at forrester dotcom.

Jeff: to answer your ironic comment seriously . . . We got a bunch of questions about Cluetrain and Empowered so I wanted to get this out there to help people understand the relationship. Cluetrain is not as quasi-obscure as you think ;-)

Damn right.

Anastasia: it starts with a HERO. And those mysterious Managers are the people with authority to help get stuff done.

@feyzi We're not distributing the book in PDF form.

Wow, friendraiser, I'm embarrassed. First time anyone has pointed out that error in 2+ years. Sorry to insult a whole city full of people!

The variety in responses here is fascinating. Pat: wasn't exchanging our IP for the cost of a ticket. Just was hoping that the conference would treat me nicer after what they chose to do. Nope. I guess this is where I come down. Next time, I hope the company asks for our collaboration rather than just plowing ahead heedless.

Bruce, thanks for the comments. It's an interesting example you use, because in fact, the academy awards people DO police use of the word "Oscar" in this context. P.S. This blog post is my version of "treading lightly"

jgraziani: Hey, we're not trying to claim we invented the word. It's just people who are explicitly referring to the book that get my attention.

I don't edit Augie's blog posts, or anybody else's.

Actually, Peter, I did make the call -- that advertisers should participate. See http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2010/04/twitter-adds-ads-dont-panic-clutter-is-not-about-to-follow.html These ads will presumably be relevant to the searches they are connected with. (I think the ads on Twitter searches will be a better opportunity than ads in the tweetstream.)

The difference is the widgets now run on your phone so they're there when you need them. Same idea, much better platform.

Liveblogging always sucked because the collection of little insights never seemed to capture things. A blog post usually is more thoughtful because the person collects her thoughts and that makes it more coherent. The in-the-moment impressions get captured better by Twitter. Seth Godin captures how I feel about this perfectly. See http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/05/im_liveblogging.html The exception is the live blogs on major sites of big events like the Apple iPad announcement -- those are cool and worth following. They update with new material every few minutes. Very few people can make that work, frankly.

Thanks for a balance perspective amid the screaming.

The best reason to write a book is that you have something important and new of book-length significance to say. The best reason not to write a book is that you don't. This doesn't mean you don't have new ideas. But if your ideas are a bunch of valuable but varied insights vs a coherent new idea, that's not a good book. There are so many books out there. The second best reason not to write a book is that you aren't willing to put your whole life into it. Because it does frustrate clients, family, other people you care about. It's not just writing, it's promotional effort. Those who plow ahead despite the last two reasons create books that aren't that good, and don't sell. Not worth it.

Somewhere between the hype and the status quo is goodness. Finding the goodness is hard. That is a good thing for the Dachises and the Forresters of the world, I think. Just remember Sturgeon's law. Reporter: 90% of science fiction is crap. Theodore Sturgeon (famous science fiction writer): yes, but 90% of *everything* is crap. 90% of social media is crap, too. Doesn't make it not worth doing.

Will follow you anywhere. /josh