Blog tools tackle content management

Deploying a full-blown ECM (enterprise content management) system to address basic corporate content publishing and workflow needs has been likened to trying to kill a fly with a rocket launcher. A more suitable solution may lie in souped-up blogging tools, which by design simplify content publishing.

Speaking at the Blog Business Summit earlier this month, DL Byron, principal at TexturaDesign, a blog design and consulting company, said blogging tools are very effective ECM systems in certain environments.

"What is happening on corporate sites is companies are looking at blogging tools as an alternative to [Microsoft’s (Profile, Products, Articles)] SharePoint, especially when they combine a blog engine with a wiki," Byron said.

New business blog tools include Version 3.2 of Six Apart’s Movable Type, rolled out earlier this week, and SurgeBlog 1.0, an enterprise-class blog server being released next week by newcomer NetWin.

Other tools making waves in the space include open source content management and blog software offerings Drupal and WordPress, and a blog and wiki publishing platform from Five Across.

According to Stephen O’Grady, analyst and co-founder at RedMonk, many blog tools are essentially stripped-down content management systems and some have begun adding features for more complex content-control needs.

Blog tools "have basic [content management] capabilities and those are slowly becoming more sophisticated in terms of features like granular permission management and workflow," O’Grady said. Furthermore, many enterprise buyers are questioning their need for expensive and monolithic ECM applications, he added.

By Cathleen Moore

Full Story: http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/26/35NNblogcm_1.html