IBM plans to add blogging capabilities to the next version of its Workplace collaboration and development software, the company said on Wednesday.
The company offered the details of its blog-related plans as part of a preview into the upgrades that will arrive sometime in August, when the company is expected to release its Workplace 2.5 and Workplace Designer 2.5 offerings. IBM said the addition of the blogs to the collaboration and software development tools is a concession to the growing popularity of the Web pages among its corporate clients.
Blogs are most frequently used by corporate workers to share information regarding projects they're working on, according to the company. By adding blogs to Workplace, IBM is simply adding another communication format for workers to use, in particular when developing collaborative applications using IBM's Workplace Designer software, company officials said.
IBM promised that the blogging software in its Workplace products, a test version of which has made available on the company's Web site, would also feature a number of tools for archiving and searching for the pages. The blogs themselves will offer functions for adding links to other Web pages, posting comments and forwarding specific documents to other people.
The software will also offer a central point of management for multiple blogs, custom security functions and a tool known as "blogroll" designed to let people share their favourite posts with others. In addition, the products will give customers the ability to create RSS feeds through which they can subscribe to the blogs they follow, IBM said.
In the Workplace Designer package, IBM's blogging tools were built specifically with IT professionals in mind, and they include features aimed at promoting software development issues such as bug tracking and project workflow. The Designer 2.5 system will also provide templates for common types of blogs used in the development process.
IBM has previously added blogging tools to its Lotus Notes and Domino products.
