Perhaps not since the invention of the Gutenberg press has there been as revolutionary an information tool as the Internet. Increasingly popular forms of expression on the Internet are web logs — or "blogs" — which are proliferating daily at a rapid pace.

According to Business Week (12/13/05, p.12), as of late 2005, seven percent of all CEOs had engaged in blogging, and 18 percent stated that they expected to host a company blog within two years. Some estimate that one out of every 20 adults in the United States is a blogger.

This prevalence has many risk-management implications, which both companies and individuals must ponder and manage. Some liken blogs to setting up a booth in the planet's largest trade show. Blogs provide corporations with needed feedback from external business and consumer environments. Many blogs provide forums for complaints about companies and their business practices, enabling irate customers or competitors to fulminate and write defamatory content that may or may not have merit. Some inaccurate content can receive wide currency and publicity on the Internet, which can threaten a company's products, services, reputation, and market share.