If you aren't blogging, you aren't with it

It's easy to get behind the curve in technology. The field is moving so fast, and there are so many new tools to try out that no one blames you if you don't have the latest gadget to make your job easier. But one that has really taken off is blogging. And if you don't have it at your company, you are definitely not with it. Blogging is an easy way to communicate, easier than email and instant messaging. It allows many more people to look at your ideas at one time and to respond to them. If your company is not using blogs in the search for new ideas, you are behind the times.

Toni Schneider, who started Automattic, a company that is working on the open-source blogging software WordPress, knows the power of the blog and how to make it better. He told CIO Magazine that enterprise blogging has been slow in getting started, with blogging used most frequently as a media tool. But he says: "We do hear that companies desire to have the simplicity of the blogging we see on the consumer side within the enterprise. My guess is people will use blogging more and more for things like project management and as an internal productivity tool." He says there are plenty of enterprise tools available, but if you just want an open-source blogging one, it can be difficult to find without investing lots of time and effort in one of the newest technological devices in the industry. For example, if your employees want to use their Blackberrys or iPhones to interact with their blogs, that functionality is already available as a WordPress plugin. But if you have a more monolithic tool that's not open, you will have to wait for the next software release, and that will cost you plenty of money, he says.

For more on how to blog:
- See this CIO Magazine article