17 March 2007

After blogging for a while I began to realize the power that exists behind not only blog technology, but the RSS technology that blogs harness.

At granger many of the staff blog. For some its a creative outlet, for others its giving back to the community and for still others it is a way to communicate with numerous people without emailing each one individually. (I think I fall into each of the three categories).

We have used blog technology a number of times at the church when nothing else made sense. We are quickly able to obtain a site, modify it to look the way we want it and then allow the technology to take over. Here are just a few reasons a simple blog might outweigh full-blown web development:

• Simple to set up and modify (look/feel)
• Allows for simple addition of content (administration panel)
• Allows interactivity (commenting)
• Automatically tracks content by date, time and categories/labels
• Automatically archives content
• Is RSS compliant which allows people to "subscribe" to it

I don't advocate that your entire website be a blog as this can be very distracting. But I have seen websites that employ blog technology on certain pages (for news, articles, stories, etc.) where some of the features become very useful.

Some blog sites are self contained where other ones allow you to take the code apart or actually publish the pages to your website. Its definitely a technology to get acquainted with and use when it makes sense.