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Microsoft FrontPage 2003, SharePoint, Blogs and Blogorlowski

What do you call someone that says one thing, but does another? How about a Timocrite. So I said I pretty bored about blogging about blogs, well I don't control the hands in this post, you have been warned.

I was making my rounds and bumped into this post at Blogroots which informed me that Microsoft is kinda-sorta-possibly-maybe getting into the blog publishing arena:

FrontPage 2003 to include blogging tools. According to the article, Microsoft plans to include blog publishing tools in its newest version of FrontPage. It is interesting that they include this feature along with more advanced web edting tools in a bid for more "professional" users.

That internal link goes to a story which mentions several features like XSLT and XML support, and states:

With such capabilities Microsoft hopes to attract developers of dynamic, data-driven sites. FrontPage was previously intended for novice Web-site designers.

The new package will also include prebuilt functionality to ease creation of Web logs or blogs, Microsoft said.

And that story doesn't stop there. If you read the comments to that Blogroots story you'll see that 'hackworth' linked to Dave Weiner's blog who posted on this shadow story several months ago, stating among other things:

On Wednesday last week at a meeting unrelated to weblogs, a Microsoft exec let it slip casually (heh) that the next version of FrontPage does blogging. I have my doubts, it's probably the same way word processors in the 80s did outlining, but the hype is already beginning.

Mr. Weiner then continues by shamelessly plugging several features (like RSS 2.0) that he hopes MS will provide support for in their finished product due out later this year.

I don't really have any original thoughts on this matter, so I'll just tell you what the men in suits tell me to tell you: Soylent Green is people!

Actually, a couple of months ago I bumped into an article Anil Dash wrote called: Microsoft's Weblog Software. In it, he discusses software that Microsoft already has developed, tested and is readily consumable by the market. However, Microsoft, for one reason or another, isn?t really pushing this (though, feel free to correct me, if you have seen an ad by MS promoting SharePoint, please let me know). Be sure to read Mr. Dash?s analysis of it and try the live demo (like the band) on the MS servers.

Anyways, I mentioned that just to prove that MS has had the capability to strike into the fledging blog software community already, but really hasn?t made much of a impact as of yet (if you know of any high profile sites or numbers on how many sites use SharePoint as their CMS, let me know). Maybe MS is not sold on the mania and hype behind blogs?

Which leads me to the British Blogorlowski (by the way, he?s operating out of San Francisco currently, maybe Ms. Cheyenne can deliver all of my love letters to him personally). In his latest ad nauseam attack on blogs, he states several things:

The nutty blog hype, such as it is, has been inflated by a handful of weblog tools vendors and exhibitionists who desperately see this as their big moment. By promoting the humble blog as a social tool that heralds an "Emergent Democracy", or a fabulous network that can overthrow Big Brother, they're crowning themselves with the mantle of populist heroes.

Damn those evangelists! I mean Orville and Wilbur Wright should rot in the Tower of London for their heinous crimes of self-promotion. And don?t get me started with Steve Jobs.

Continuing,

But the populism isn't borne out by the statistics, which tell us that the number of webloggers remains extremely small. Pew Research recently pegged the number of blog readers as "statistically insignificant" and our own logs back up their findings. A story, such as this one, with 'blog' in the headline will almost certainly be the least-read item of the day. Our discussion of the consequences of removing of blogs from Google led the bloggers hit parade at Daypop and Blogdex for three days, but the story refused to budge higher 16th in our logs, despite its headline position over that weekend. In reality, a thousand or so links scarcely makes a dent in the million+plus page imps read by tech-savvy Register readers each day.

? and 73% of the populace knows that 26% of all statistics are created out of thin air. Actually, other than the little pompous skull-drudgery at the end, he has a point: not many people currently use blogs to find information. Of course, 8 years ago I could probably take the same survey that Pew Research used and conclude the same kind of ?statistically insignificant? numbers with regards to Joe Blow using the web to retrieve information. Of course, that is somewhat misleading too, because each blog post becomes in a sense, a web page which can be scanned and categorized by databases and search engines, just like a "normal" web site. And as far as why that particular story was the least read could be interpreted several different ways, including: no one wants to hear him talk about blogs. I mean, when you?re the new Jon Katz of cyber-zines you?ve got to realize that your name and your meme (?I hate blogs because X?) is your own worst enemy.

But if faux populism worked well enough in the dotcom bubble, when the empowering potential of private capital ownership (stock options) and new technology cloaked a huge transfer of wealth to the rich, why shouldn't it work now?

Among other things, that is just one big Straw Man. He uses the ?blame the rich? cliché for problems that the Federal Reserve caused. The Fed?s monetary policies produced a bubble, which discouraged savings by the appearance that savers are suckers and that you can get rich quick through financial speculation. That obviously didn?t work, so why would it work for blogs? Furthermore, blogging software itself is just an extension to many of the technologies that were developed prior to and throughout the Bubble (I don?t see Mr. Orlowski singling out Alexander Bell or Thomas Watson for their ?conniving? and ?sinister? assistance in this technological-based conspiracy).

Well, primarily because blogging is a solitary activity that requires the blogger to spend less time reading a book, taking the dog for the walk, meeting friends in the pub, seeing a movie, or reading to the kids. The reason that 99.93 per cent of the world doesn't blog, and never will, is because people make simple information choices in what they choose to ingest and produce, and most of this will be either personal and private, or truly social. Blog-evangelists can fulminate at the injustice of this all they like, but people are pretty smart and make fairly rational choices on the information they process.

Talk about sweeping generalizations. Look, these same people that Mr. Orlowski considers ?pretty smart? and ?fairly rational? in their decision making were also snookered into the dotbomb. Additionally, what Mr. Orlowski just described were ?opportunity costs? ? yes you do have less time to spend doing other activities, but some of those can be replaced or compensated for with what you do gain online, especially in terms of new virtual friends (oh, I know, the horror of virtual relationships, it?s going to destroy humanity).

Conclusion: The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner, now I am the blogmaster. Err, something like that. I?m still not convinced by Mr. Orlowski?s arguments and am puzzled as to why he spends so much time trying to discredit this medium. If it was such a terrible and audacious ?thing? and otherwise ?intelligent? individuals would ignore it, then shouldn?t the market collapse onto itself or remain stagnant?

Sure, I do not think everyone or even a majority of earth?s population will blog, but the same can be said for so many other hobbies and professions as not everyone will: write a book, teach a class, fly a kite, play the violin or become a ventriloquist. Here, Mr. Orlowski sounds like one of those old cranks that would complain about that new fangled radio or television contraption? no one is ever going to use those to find information because intelligent people use established newspapers and magazines.

Rather than viewing blogs as a blending and mixture of mediums that allow Joe Blow to become an instantly recognized and syndicated pundit on any and all topics, Mr. Orlowski continues to clamor for its imminent downfall and certain demise. And along with having large quantities of Tenacity?, he uses the time honored ad hominem and guilt-by-association tricks to sully the word ?blog.? Too bad his contentions only work if the barrier to entry truly required the stamp of approval by a grizzled kaniggate.

Posted by Tim at June 11, 2003 08:21 PM | TrackBack