The term public relations has been in use for a century. But for all of this time, people have in reality been conducting private relations. Not in the sense of illicit, but rather as discreet relations. Even today, the media can make a big story out of the normal conduct of these discreet relations. Newspapers should beware: public relationships will mean an end of the privileged access to information granted by most organisations to the media.
We are now entering a new era of public relationships. There are public networks such as LinkedIn championed by Simon and Alex, who have both used blogging to build personal-professional networks and advance their careers. And there’s the example of Paull, who is turning his global blogging network into a world tour and then into a new life.
PR Studies 
Good thought. You are right and perhaps this is the real sea change for Public Relations.
I’m using LinkedIn as a bit of an experiment. I’m not sure it has value for me yet… but that’s not to say it won’t.
Came across (can’t remember who from!) this good article on the pros and cons of social networks in BizWeek:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2006/tc20060911_414136.htm?chan=technology_ceo+guide+to+technology_social+networks
Hi Richard
As a totally unrelated comment to your post, I’m just saying hi, glad you’re back. Was missing your often interesting posts.
Hi Richard –
Thought you might like this post about LinkedIn…
http://snipurl.com/xh1k