Who's Blogging Now?

You're not alone in reading blogs. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox reads the to get a sense of what people out in the real world are saying:

... he also uses technology to get an early peek at how the public will react to SEC action on issues.

"Blogs are a great way to infer passion and depth of feeling," he said at the summit. "They give you an early read on the ... response you might expect."

But Cox said he does not rely on blogs to find the way forward on tough issues. "Blogs in many cases are so irreverent," he said. "They don't wait for facts."

Well, some don't wait for facts. Anyway, the article makes a point of saying Cox has actually posted comments on a blog - that of Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz. On CFO.com, Marie Leone uses that tidbit as a jumping off point to say:

But now we see that the Chairman speaks from experience, albeit a little blogging does not make an XBRL expert. Nevertheless, when President Roosevelt named alleged bootlegger and business mogul Joseph Kennedy, Sr. as the first chairman of the SEC in 1934, reports at the time speculated that part of FDR's rationale was to appoint a former law breaker because he would recognize an illegal scheme better than anyone.

Maybe President Bush had a similar motivation. He appointed a blogger to champion the technology movement at the SEC. Or perhaps, Cox—a former California Congressman—has larger political aspirations and knows that a skillful grassroots blogger can win the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks, of the voting public.

I'm thinking all that might be a stretch - well, not the part about Cox having larger political aspirations (He's smart, articulate and he smiles like a Kennedy; I'd have larger political aspirations, too). But you know blogs are going mainstream when the head of the SEC uses them.

SEC's Cox uses blogs to gauge public sentiment [Reuters via Yahoo]
The Blogging Regulator [CFO.com]