] Mark Broatch, Computerworld New Zealand
]
] Monday, March 31, 2003
]
] If you haven't noticed, Weblogs are escaping the world of
] the opinionated scribbler in the wilderness and being
] taken up as a means to extend corporate intelligence
] gathering.
]
] Blogs, as they're known, are no longer just an online
] epistolary sideline. They're joining traditional project
] collaboration tools like document management,
] whiteboards, e-mail, and other online meeting spaces,
] meaning team members within companies and outside can
] contribute regardless of location. Weblog software
] aggregates unstructured information in a Web-publishable
] form, by time and topic, and XML can be used to embed
] links from a variety of information sources.
]
] IM's Example
]
]
] Advertisement
]
]
]
]
]
] While most private bloggers use free or very cheap
] software to produce their Weblogs (like Blogging.com, run
] by the Google-owned Pyra Labs, motto: "Push-button
] publishing for the people"), software vendors sniff a new
] market in the making. Techdirt, Traction Software, and
] others--including the usual software heavyweights--are
] building in things like enterprise-level security and
] management, as they are to another technology that
] started off life as a cult tool, instant messaging.

Blogs Begin Getting Down to Business