I started blogging a couple of days ago. My goal was to understand the value of online conversation in the business context.

Back in August I was intrigued how Mark Shuttleworth joined a raging and somewhat angry debate within the Ubuntu community. The latest release was crashing. Lots of emotion. Mark stood up, said to the community you're right, we messed up, and here's what we are going to do about it. Almost immediately the collective focus moved to how to fix the issue. I've seen this skill in the very best customer service reps. Listening, acknowledge the problem, non-condesending empathy and action to solve. One to one it's powerful. One to many it's gold.

Jonathan Schwartz has moved the needle of my impression of Sun. Prior to reading Jonathan's blog I thought Sun was a large, previously successful company that failed to change. Perhaps it still is. What I know now is how Sun is changing. Standards based products, open source and some strong innovation. Lower power consumption systems (a biggie going forward), technologies like zFS and products like Thumper.

Can this power of conversation translate to my interests? It's been a very rewarding 48-hours. Two things resonate with me. Online conversations are powerful. And the collective wisdom of a crowd adds value. Let me highlight a couple of things I've found of value:

- a good number of you are having issues with your MacBook Pros and more importantly, unsatisfactory service experiences. There are lots of suggestions on areas for improvement.
- a good number of you are really pleased with your MacBook Pros and your service experiences have been excellent.
- there may be a difference in traditional Mac enthusiasts and "switchers" in their service expectations.
- transparency is regarded as important and good, countered somewhat by AntiBorg sharing an interesting perspective on the "Collective Consumer Market Mind". Very interesting.
- other vendors struggle with the similar issues (thanks Michael et al)
- Apple ranked highly compared to major vendors in a recent user satisfaction survey (which doesn't mean there's not more to do)
- Dell is participating in the conversations (thanks Richard)
- I've learnt that self-scan groceries is a con and only of benefit to supermarket productivity (thanks Francis )
- I'm guessing Shel Israel privately still lusts after a shiny new MacBook Pro

There has also been a lot of hype about an Apple employee blogging. My goal for joining the conversation is primarily to understand the medium. Working for Apple is only part of my "identity". Let me be very clear. I'm not going to divulge any Apple secrets or dirty laundry. I have a vested interest in Apple's success and certainly won't be leaving my ethics at the door as I enter the conversation. What's important here is the conversations and I'm sure Apple is listening. Wouldn't it be great though, if collectively we created value. Value for Apple customers. Value for Apple. Perhaps this may be a way of bringing Apple into the conversation on a long-term basis. So for some of you, time for an expectation reset.

Finally, thanks to everyone for the input, all the comments and emails. Particularly those that have taken the time to contribute thoughtful and valuable insight. This is what it's about!