Future of Work consortium

Heather Green, at Blogspotting.com, called our attention to a constructive use of blogging by Randy Baseler, vice president of marketing for Commercial Airplanes at Boeing ("Boeing Blog and Engaging Criticism").

As Heather points out, Randy responds directly to critics of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner with a nondefensive defense and extended discussion of the Dreamliner's evolving design.

Here's the beginning of Randy's Journal for July 28:

Recently, Boeing finalized the exterior look of the 787 Dreamliner. And we sure heard about it after we released the new images.

I'm so glad the 787 success is going to put Boeing back on top with recent key wins in the market. However I'm disappointed with the final exterior look compared to what the original renditions were. Gone is the shark-like fin of the horizontal stabilizer. Gone is the sleek, elongated "bullet train like" nose. Gone are the swept back, curved wings. Now it looks just a like the old plane it replaces. Is it just me, or are others just as disappointed?

Todd H.
Everett, Washington

Randy goes on to comment:

I can understand what people are saying. But actually, the airplane's look hasn't changed as much as you might think. Take a look at the banner at the top of this page. It's a new image of the Dreamliner. Can you tell a difference?

Boeing's use of the blog for interactive conversation with its customers strikes me as useful (there's a ton of comments back from customers, engineers, and other airplane fanatics). It's a wonderful example of something I think we're going to see a lot more of in the future - use of all kinds of collaborative technologies (blogging is only one) to bring companies, customers, and suppliers into meaningful conversation with each other - to everyone's benefit.

Posted by Jim Ware