In reply to John Earnhardt.

John, you know that I have admired your collective team's multimedia storytelling accomplishments over the years -- you've won awards for your work, and rightfully so. The quality of the content has never been an issue. That's not why I asked the questions about forward-looking Brand Journalism impact assessment.

It's understood, by definition, quality engagement may never extend beyond a small group of people who take the time and effort to share their thoughtful insights, as I'm doing now. While I can appreciate Brian's (and the other experts) point of view, and I do believe we need to move beyond merely reporting the metrics that are based upon the easiest data to capture, the question remains -- how do we evolve.

The only way that I know to assess Sentiment effectively is a comprehensive survey that captures quantitative and qualitative data via primary market research, with a large enough sample of readership to be statistically relevant. It's a time consuming and expensive exercise.

Believe me, I understand the degree of the challenge. I've written on my own blog (daily) since 2004, I know that I have a small and loyal group of return readers. But most people never share meaningful and substantive comments, and I have no reason to believe that will change. So, my questions were not rhetorical, and I don't have all the answers.

That being said, if you haven't already checked out DemographicsPro (the Twitter analysis tool), then do consider trying the trial version -- it provides some interesting info that may help you uncover new insights.

I have one more suggestion. You also said, "And, whether you are a customer or partner…or are just interested in technology, we invite you and encourage you to take our content for your own site and re-use it or share it."

I believe that you'll achieve increased syndication if the Cisco blogs were changed to a "Creative Commons" license. I have no doubt that there's a forward-thinking attorney in Cisco's legal department who can help you make this happen for the next fiscal year.

I am well, thank you for asking. I trust that this message finds you well. Always a pleasure to exchange thoughts.