Tom,

As one of your "more junior or younger staff" involved in "imagination and experimentation" it gives me massive inspiration, enthusiasm and drive to know that you talk the same language as us - that to pitch for something, we don't need to sell a new concept, just the business case.

-Robin.

Well said Tom. I get tired of people suggesting I'm somehow wasting time by indulging in some hands-on blogging or facebook-ing. But I too firmly believe you can't understand how technology is changing the world unless you get your hands dirty.

Talking about what you should do with your time, I see that, as of tomorrow, you will be a member of Merck & Co's board of directors.

How would you respond to those who may think the head of one of the world's biggest media firms becoming so intimately involved with a company under intense scrutiny from journalists creates a potential conflict of interest?

Thanks

In response to the comment from PharmaJourno, I don't see a conflict for me to serve on the Board of Merck even if Reuters journalists are writing about the company.  First, it is the Editor-in-Chief and never I as ceo who decides what to cover and what to say about it.  Second, Reuters Editorial even covers Reuters the company with its same values of accuracy, freedom from bias, and objectivity.

tom

Nothing makes me laugh more than when execs or politicians talk about [insert your Web 2.0 technology or social media service here] and when asked what they don't like about it they confess that they've never actually used it...doh!

The same way as the music industry found itself in the precarious situation they're in because the CEOs of those companies did not have the sort of "hands on" attitude to you raise here.  Sure, their biz has a lot of promise, but more because of the next generation of leaders there than because of the incumbent chiefs.

It's critical that as Reuters continues to establish it's on-going role in the next generation of social media, that its top brass be as engaged as you in using these platforms not simply being buzzword compliant.  Even this blog is a great way to share your thoughts and get feedback in a supportive way.  The social networks offer different angles at that that can only be understood through experience.

Don't listen to any one that tells you otherwise, as you're already doing, as it's not their butts on the line when world zigs while they zag ;)

Tom,

Social software will have a profound impact on all firms internally.  On information companies, like Reuters, it is fundamental to its wider economic environment.  So how could time spent examining that domain be a distraction?  Too many journalists see toys and not tools -- a criticism which probably emanates from fear of the changes that these disruptive technologies imply for the profession.  

A senior academic friend of mine recently described journalism as the last bastion of the lone scholar.  I found that a rather disturbing observation, if true.  Although my own experience does indeed mostly bear that out, I have been involved with a few notable experiments which showed some promise, provided that the journalism model is altered slightly.

I hope it's not too unfair to suggest that Reuters' celebrated decision to offshore corporate news coverage to India could have been taken some five years earlier, with the appropriate pioneering use of social software.

Tim