Collaborating via Web-Logs (Blogs)

With the advent of Web 2.0, one of the most widely used communication tools has become the web log, or blog. Blogs allow virtually anyone, with little or no web-development experience, to easily publish content on the web. Blogs can provide one-way or two-way communication—meaning, some users post read-only content to blogs, while others allow readers to comment on the content. Over the past few years, blogs have become so successful that many newspapers have replaced printed content with digital blogs.

The primary advantages of blogs include the following:

• Blogs provide a device-independent way for content consumers to access digital content using only a web browser.

• Users can create and publish content to a blog with little or no web-development experience.

• Within an organization, intranet-based blogs provide a convenient way to disseminate information.

• Blogs provide an effective way to collect feedback from readers.

Blogs can also have disadvantages:

• Maintaining a blog takes time.

• Blogs can become “opinion posts” as opposed to “fact posts.”

• User feedback may not always be positive and may require moderation.