Rise of the blog [journal-based Website]

This paper reports on the growing popularity of blogging not just among Web obsessive users but also in research institutions and corporations. Companies are increasingly harnessing Weblogs and related technologies as platforms where data, information, knowledge and opinion can be shared and traded among customers, prospects, employees, partners and the media in a two-way, open-exchange. The attractions of corporate blogging are varied, but include improving market status, personalizing customer relationships, boosting public relations and improving recruitment. On the downside, however, managers may worry about the ease and speed with which company secrets, personal abuse, libel or invasions of privacy can be blogged. Unfortunately, monitoring this sort of potentially damaging material is far from easy. Despite this, blogging has become an important tool to the academia. In particular, blogging can be used to introduce, test and share research ideas, while using registration and secure access approaches to address concerns over intellectual property.