Home | TrendTracker | PowerBlog Reviews | The Experts | Newsletter
ABOUT
SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS brings you daily updates on trends that influence the global small business market.
Anita Campbell, Editor
Past life: CEO, corporate executive, tech entrepreneur, retailer, general counsel, marketer, HR ... (more)
email me
free business magazines
FREE BUSINESS MAGAZINES
Trade publications FREE to qualified professionals. No hidden offers and no purchase necessary.
On Wall Street
The Deal
Computing Canada
CIO
Employee Benefit
Oracle Magazine
100+ additional titles. Click to browse.
ARCHIVES & SEARCH
Previous Small Business Trends articles can be found at the links below:
October 2003
November 2003
December 2003
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
June 2004
July 2004
August 2004
September 2004
October 2004
November 2004
December 2004
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
Or, use the search box below to find a
specific post:


NEWSLETTER
Sign up for our FREE Small Business Trends newsletter. (View Current)

We publish regularly and promise we won't share your email address with anyone. (Privacy Policy)
SMALL BIZ INFO & RESOURCES
BLOGS TO READ DAILY*
* Don’t have time to read several dozen blogs a day? Pick two or three. Your brain will thank you for it.
ONLINE COMMUNITIES
BLOG DIRECTORIES
THE BUZZ

SPECIAL RESOURCES
Small Business Trends Radio
Tuesdays, 1:00 PM Eastern U.S. time
on Voice America network
Click to listen

November 1st: Torsten Jacobi, CEO of Creative Weblogging, joins host Anita Campbell. Sponsored by Six Disciplines. Show details.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Live Blogging from Blog University - Blogs vs. Discussion Boards
Today and tomorrow I will be live-blogging from the New Communications Forum "Blog University" in Napa, California. I am out in beautiful California -- quite a nice break from cold gray Cleveland where we have a foot of snow.

Today I will have a series of posts, relating key insights raised by the many talented speakers.

At the moment I am listening to Neville Hobson, who blogs at NevOn, giving an introduction to corporate blogging. He's doing a nice job leading an extremely interactive session, encouraging questions and input from the group -- and getting it! (By the way, I asked and received his enthusiastic permission to "live blog." Otherwise, I wouldn't dream of banging the keyboard while a speaker is talking.)

One of the questions raised by a participant is "My company has had a discussion forum for several years now. What is the difference between a blog and a discussion forum?"

Neville takes the question on, and with input from participants notes:
  • The person who owns the blog can choose the topics that are discussed and direct the discussion, more so than on a message board.


  • You'll find it easier to link to an individual topic or post on a blog, because each post has a "permalink." Whereas, depending on the particular forum technology being used, it can be hard to link to a particular thread.


  • Forums tend to be heavily moderated by the owners, leading to a lack of perceived trust. Blogs on the other hand, tend to be high-trust animals.


  • Blogs can be more user-friendly for the reader, because they are written as conversations with the items appearing front and center on the site. Forums tend to require more drilling down to read them.
Interestingly, the Tinbasher blog was raised as a notable example of a company blog. That's the second time this morning -- Elizabeth Albrycht -- one of the event organizers -- also noted it in her opening remarks. Please let Paul Woodhouse know he's famous! (See our PowerBlog Review of the Tinbasher.)

UPDATE JANUARY 31, 2005: From the Comments section comes a link to this paper about discussion boards and weblogs by James Farmer. Thank you, James!
More news... more trends... more insight...

Home | Privacy | Terms | SmallBizTrends
(c) Copyright 2003 - 2005, Small Business Trends LLC. All rights reserved.