Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) is a U.S. chain of stores selling specialty outdoor gear and clothing. And, according to two articles recently published by the Puget Sound Business Journal from Seattle and in Internet Retailer, REI has decided that its store managers will use blogs to better communicate with its customers. I waited several weeks before looking at the REI blogs and there is still not a single reference to a blog on REI’s web site. REI managers are using a blogging tool to announce promotions or special events, but not as blogs.

Here is what wrote the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Managers at Recreational Equipment Inc. stores will soon use Web logs, or blogs, to connect with local customers, marking an early move into the blogosphere by a major local retailer.

The move will allow managers of the growing chain of outdoor gear to send customers e-mail from their stores tailored to local consumers’ interests.

In fact, REI blogs will be completely closed, at least for a while.

Unlike many blogs, which are often freewheeling exchanges among a number of posters, only managers at REI will be able to post items on REI blogs. Customers who would like to rap with managers online about their experiences at REI will have to wait, as the company is still deciding whether to open REI’s blogs to outside posts.

Internet Retailer gave more explanations.

REI Inc. is putting a different spin on a web log scheduled for a limited rollout in July. REI was looking for technology that would make it easier for local REI stores, which already have their own pages on REI.com, to post content about store news and events and to distribute that content to local e-mail lists. It also wanted to bring a standardized look to the grassroots efforts some stores already had undertaken on their own. It found the solution in blogging technology.

Blogging software developed for the program by Seattle e-mail technology developer What Counts will, in effect, make bloggers out of store personnel who use the tool to post local events and schedules. But while that content reflects the personality of REI as a company to the extent that it supports company values and mission, it’s not, at this point, intended as an extended platform for the personal attitudes of the individual blogger.

Even REI admits its managers are not writing blogs. REI is only interested by the underlying technology which allows an easy way to post fresh content.

So, what do you think of the REI’s approach?

Jean-Michel Billaut was a major contributor behind the adoption of new technologies — including Internet — in the French banking industry. Here are some details about the man who founded L’Atelier twenty years ago. Jean-Michel is now promoting the usage of broadband technologies for communication. For example, he’s actively counseling the Pau Pyrénées community. Besides that, he has a very live blog. I met him at the beginning of August to ask him about his projects. Read below some excerpts of the conversation I had with him (in French).

If you’re an AdSense user, here is an address to keep: adsense.blogspot.com/. This is the location of a blog opened by Google on August 15, Inside AdSense. Google says it will post 2 or 3 notes per week. These posts will be written by Google employees involved in the operation of AdSense. So you’ll find notes from engineers, product managers, product marketing managers, and operations staff.

For example, here are the subjects of the two first posts — excluding the welcome note:

• Fewer Ads, More Money?
• Put your pages on the map

– by using Google Sitemaps

And if you’re also using the AdWords program from Google, please also note the address of Inside AdWords, adwords.blogspot.com.

I haven’t covered this subject for a while. The Yahoo! Personal Blog Guidelines (PDF format, 3 pages, 24 KB) are based on common sense and are not particularly innovative. Except on one point: the Yahoo! policy is not only applicable to employees writing on their own blogs, but also when they write on other blogs. In other words, a Yahoo! employee who wants to post a comment about his company on any other blog must follow Yahoo!’s guidelines.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction.

The Yahoo! Personal Blog Guidelines have been developed for Yahoos who maintain personal blogs that contain postings about Yahoo!’s business, products, or fellow Yahoos and the work they do. They are also applicable to Yahoos who post about the company on the blogs of others. The guidelines outline the legal implications of blogging about the company and also include recommended best practices to consider when posting about Yahoo!.

There is another interesting point in these guidelines. A Yahoo! employee can freely write about his company — providing he follows the rules. But, like at Microsoft, if he’s contacted by the press, he’s not allowed to answer and must pass the request to Yahoo!’s PR agency.

Finally, as you all know, Google and Yahoo! are two big names fighting to get as more money as they can from advertising. But they’re also rivals in the world of semantics. Google is now a common verb (Have you googled XXXX to know more about him before next week’s meeting?”). But at Yahoo!, as you were able to see above, the word Yahoo has become a noun used to designate an employee. Here is another example, picked from the rule which asks employees to get their facts straight before publication.

As a Yahoo! employee with intranet access, you have the opportunity to contact the Yahoos who are responsible for the products, services, or other initiatives that you may want to write about. To ensure you are not misrepresenting your fellow Yahoos or their work, consider reaching out to a member of the relevant team before posting. This courtesy will help you provide your readers with accurate insights, especially when you are blogging outside your area of expertise.

One of the most well-known real estate developers in the world, Donald Trump, started a blog in May 2005, aptly named The Trump Blog. Its motto is “Ideas and opinions from Donald Trump and his circle of experts.” You’ll find more details in this article from InformationWeek. Donald Trump recently started a crusade about corporate corruption, writing “My career is a model of tough, fair dealing and fantastic success — without shortcuts, without breaking the law.” Read more and tell me what you think.

Here are the two first paragraphs from his last note named “Corporate Corruption: If You Have to Lie, Cheat, and Steal, You’re Just Not Doing it Right.”

Recently former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski was convicted for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company. It was his second go-round in court — the first one ended in a mistrial. You may remember Mr. Kozlowski from the original trial. A video of his lavish party on an Italian island, allegedly paid for with company funds, was last year’s scandal du jour. The retrial was a more low-key affair, but it served to remind us of how much business corruption there has been over the past few years.

The people at the forefront of these squalid affairs give business a bad name. Maybe they’re greedy, maybe they’re “ethically challenged,” but ultimately they’re incompetent. If you have to lie, cheat, and steal, you’re just not doing it right. My career is a model of tough, fair dealing and fantastic success — without shortcuts, without breaking the law.

Interesting statement, isn’t?

And because a ‘real’ blog allows for comments, what do you think about this one — about the note mentioned above?

Mr. Trump, I’d just like to express my thanks for your incredibly insightful blog. It has answered many questions of mine relating to both business practice and running a successful university using non-traditional means. You are an inspiration to all of us.

Please post your comments on Donald Trump’s blog if you disagree with him: they might be unfiltered…

I told you a while ago that the U.S. Army had defined its policy about blogging from Iraq. It started to apply it to a soldier, who was dropped from the rank of specialist to private first class. And CNET News.com adds that the blogger will have to pay a fine of $1,640 dollars to the Army. In a very different context, the Associated Press reports that the Automobile Club of Southern California has fired 27 employees for posting messages on a popular social networking Web site even if they were written on their own time at home.

Here are some details about the U.S. soldier punished because of his blog.

Leonard Clark, a 40-year-old Arizona National Guardsman who is currently on active duty in Baghdad, was charged with violating two articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibit soldiers from releasing or “encouraging widespread publication” of classified or specific information about troop movement and location, soldiers who have been attacked or hit, and military strategy, the statement said.

The military has not specified which portions of Clark’s blog broke the rules and did not respond to requests for clarification Tuesday about its policy on blogs maintained by personnel.

And you’ll never know what Leonard Clark wrote because his blog is closed…

Now let’s look at the 27 workers fired in San Diego for their online comments.

The Automobile Club of Southern California fired the employees in one of its San Diego offices after at least one worker complained to management about feeling harassed by the comments, which were written by employees on the MySpace.com Web site on their own time at home.

Club spokeswoman Carol Thorp said comments were made about other workers’ weight and sexual orientation. Thorp said employees were also dismissed because they discussed online how they planned to slow down roadside assistance at work.

This might have not happened if the Automobile Club had clearly defined rules about blogging.

The club has no official policy concerning employee blogging. “We may develop one now,” Thorp added.

Christophe is a well-known French consultant and expert in communication and in new technologies. He was one of the founders of initiatives such as elanceur or Crao Wiki. He also has a blog named Encore un nouveau WikiBlog! Here are some selected excerpts of a conversation I had with Christophe this week and which was particularly focused on wikis. Read more (in French).

Not many bloggers will reach this level of income from ads, but Jason Calacanis, who has built the mini-empire of blogs Weblogs Inc., is about to attain it. Of course, Jason’s group has more than one hundred blogs today, which is not very common. Still, his group broke a new daily record in July with $2,335 coming from the Google AdSense program. Jason’s short term goal is to reach a sustained minimum daily revenue of $2,740, or a million bucks a year, without any sales efforts from his bloggers.

In this note, Jason describes the rapid increase of his daily revenues coming from AdSense: $580 reached in January 2005, 737 in March, $1 585 in May and $2,335 in July.

This additional income was obviously not forecasted in the original business plan. And now Weblogs Inc. is about to make one million dollars a year, without having invested a single cent.

These numbers also mean that the average blog in Jason’s group is making about $25 in AdSense revenues every day. This is pretty impressive, especially when you know that some star blogs, such as Engadget, cannot display Google ads in the best spots because of exclusive sponsorships.

Now Jason has another goal. His next target is to reach a daily income of $5,000 before the end of the year…