I’ve been thinking a bit about the blogging community and the IBM Lotus announcement of social software for business, in particular Lotus Connections. (edit: I had originally only mentioned Lotus Quickr which, as Alan L. points out, ‘ is much more about sharing content’. Thanks for the correction!)

I will admit to a bit of nievete right out of the gate so please be kind (but clear) with your commentary.

What does a collaborative technology such as a blog service require to be considered “ready for business” ? What types of features differentiate Lotus Connections (Quickr) from a a Blogger.com blog, from a WordPress blog, from a BlogSphere blog, from … you get the point.

My blog used WorPress and is hosted by a traditional Internet hosting provider.There is nothing special about my configuration. I have tried to keep it as open as possible but with some level of controls to prevent comment spamming (although I won’t know if it works until something bad happens - ugh).

Do I consider this “ready for business” ? My answer is “yes” and “no”. As a small business owner, I would say “yes”. It has all of the features I need and until I need something it does not have, I will be very happy. Also, the price is very reasonable for the level of service and functionality I receive. However, if I look at it through the lens of a large corporation, I would say “no”. I don’t have any evidence to support my dissenting vote - I am just guessing the strict corporate guidelines would find holes in it. I fully admit, those holes could be how I have kept my blog open; but they may just as easily be limitations in the implementation - security, scalability, performance, etc.

I would very much like to hear your comments, what blogging software you use, and what you have done or would like to see done to make it more business ready.

Related tangests ...   David Pogue Says it better than me ...   ... another blog time waister (but fun all the same)   Twitter is dead - at least for now for me

Posted in Blogs, Business, Collaboration, Lotus Connections, Social Software |

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