David Kline explains why corporate blogging - outside of a few technology companies - is still rare:

That's because, first of all, there really are dangers involved in tearing down the traditional barriers to direct customer interaction with the firm. There are a lot of angry consumers out there -- their anger fed by decades of having to deal with shoddy products, indifferent service, and the lack of corporate transparency and accountability -- and now, thanks to blogging, for the first time in history they can finally hit back. Just ask Dell, Sony, Kryptonite, Circuit City, and others whose brands, if not also their revenues, have taken a beating from the blog-fueled revolts of angry customers.

But just as important, blogging will ultimately force companies to abandon many of the traditional ways they have always managed not only their public affairs but their marketing and product development functions as well -- not least by giving customers a far more powerful and direct voice in enterprise decision-making than has ever been the case before.

In short, blogging requires firms to turn many of their operations inside out -- or, more accurately, to reverse the polarity of corporate thinking and practice from inside out to outside in.

I think he's right about the control issues. Even companies that aren't actually top down often have management that believe that they are running things top down. Whether real or imagined, full control is important - and having "loose cannons" on the decks dealing directly with customers and prospects is just scary. After all, that's what sales and marketing are for - to insulate the rough insides of the company from those people.

It's going to take awhile for marketing to realize that an awful lot of what they do is being disintermediated - and they aren't going to like it any better than media outlets or the RIAA.