With the launch of its GMNext blog, GM executives, engineers, and communications people appear to have gotten a bit more than they bargained for in their discussion of how GM cars may look and perform in the future.

The site was initially wide open to outside comment and one of the results was a bombardment of criticism from environmental activists groups — of the “corporations are evil” variety, according to Scot Keller, GM’s director of corporate brand communications. The company’s reaction since then could be an interesting case study in how businesses address corporate social responsibility issues through such a volatile medium.

In the main, the company says it aims with the site not to censor but rather address criticism head on.

“We tried to have Beth Lowry, our environmental VP, address their questions,” says Christopher Barger, GM’s director of global communications technology. “They started shouting her down, including with personal attacks. We sort of recognized, ‘OK, we’re being campaigned.’ It’s perfectly legitimate to take control back of your site. So we shut down the public commentary.”

Commentary was blocked in some areas of the blog dealing with environmental issues, though transcripts have been posted of past postings so that visitors can see for themselves what was said. In general, says Barger and Keller, GM has sought to directly tackle the question of whether GMNext and GM environmental initiatives, such as its emphasis on the use of biofuels, are legitimate or merely “greenwashing.”

Going forward, the site – which also includes a wiki devoted to GM’s history and its 100th anniversary – is looking to address a number of the concerns raised in those initial comments through a series of online chats open to discussion by all and featuring GM executives as well as environmental advocacy groups. A discussion planned tomorrow will feature a Hummer designer, for example, while one next week will focus on biofuels.

Barger and Keller and say the company obviously recognizes that it cannot control what people say about what it makes or how it impacts the environment, therefore GM can only engage with the people who care about such issues either on the GM site or other blogs or Web sites as much as possible.”Frankly, there are a lot of uninformed or under-informed people out there,” Keller says. But the fact of the matter is, if we never made an effort to educate them, if we haven’t done that kind of outreach, we can’t blame them for getting it wrong.”