You have my attention.
Examples?

This post is spot on. Most of the examples I would try to give would be hard to show because thye usually happen in the meetings and conversations with clients before you get to the blogging.

Usually we go thru several meetings with a client trying to educate them on the fact that if they open their site up to comments they're not going to get a million bad comments and people trying to slam them. Ya ... you might get a few ... but those conversations are already going on about you. And what's better then getting a chance to resolve that online. In front of all your visitors.

I think most agencies/consultants trying to sell blogging and new media to larger companies have to deal with this scenario 75% of the time they pitch the concept. Once you've made it past that stage it takes about three months before they really start to "get it" and start to embrace the community concept.

Nice observation.

I agree.

Based on similar conversations, I think there is a fundamental shift needed on the part of company culture to see customers (aka users) as trust worthy and inherently being able to add to the discussion.

There is also an added amount of accountability that comes with listening to customers/users--they will notice if you are really listening or just pretending to. I think both of these are much scarier propositions than they should be. But then, that makes it even more powerful when companies are willing to try social media--in the face of it representing a whole new direction for working with customers.