No tweeting, live blogging, posting to Facebook or any other use of social media will be permitted when President Bill Clinton gives the keynote address at Dreamforce, the annual Salesforce.com event taking place Dec. 6-8 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
The unusual notice came to us today from The Outcast Agency, the public relations firm that represents Salesforce.com.
Here’s the full text of the message from Outcast:
Sponsor
“PLEASE NOTE: President Clinton’s representatives have mandated that there be absolutely no reporting during his session. That includes live blogging, Tweeting, Facebook posting or use of any other social media. We understand the inconvenience this may present, but greatly appreciate your compliance. Thank you.”
No word yet why Clinton’s handlers have mandated no reporting during the keynote.
Sameer Patel, an analyst in the enterprise space expressed the curiosity and wonder that many have had about the news. He tweeted: “Wow, Pres Clinton’s handlers have mandated NO live reporting blogging, tweeting during his #sfdc #dreamforce keynote. #really??”
We go to these user conferences quite a bit. The tweet stream is always thick with commentary about the keynote. Never have we been asked not to tweet, post to Facebook or live blog.
Neither General Colin Powell nor Vice President Al Gore prohibited reporting from their keynotes at user conferences we have attended. Powell spoke at Dreamforce last year.
It also seems counter to the message about the power of social technologies that Salesforce.com has been focusing on for the past year.
Salesforce.com launched Chatter, its microblogging tool, last year at Dreamforce. Since then, the company has repeatedly shown its commitment to embracing social technologies.
We know that this is not a Salesforce.com decision. It’s the Clinton team that is making the demand.
But regardless it seems odd and a bit chilling. What do you think? And how do you think they will try to stop it? Even if they cut off the wifi, people can use their mobile devices or connect with data cards.
On another note, Stevie Wonder and Neil Young are performing at Dreamforce. Now that will be worth tweeting about.
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