Bob Wyman of PubSub has just written a killer post on the future of blogging (or one of them…). An excerpt:
“What Kedrosky is speaking of is what we at PubSub have been referring to as “Structured Blogging” and may be what Mark Fletcher of Bloglines/AskJeeves has listed as “Functional Blogging” in presentations he’s recently given. The basic idea is to go beyond “mere” text in blogs and include structured XML that describes job-openings, events, new prices, press releases, updates to phone numbers and contact info, requests for proposals, etc. i.e. Using the now almost ubiquitous content syndication network to broadcast useful business *data* — not just prose or text commentaries. Blogging, or the more general idea of “syndication”, will have its most important and profitable impact on business by providing a new and effective way for businesses to broadcast data. The result is that in the future, we’ll see “blogging” built into corporate systems (ERP, CRM, etc.) that process data — not text.”
I went looking for some info on Bloglines “functional blogging” and all I came up with was a hint from Mark Fletcher during a speech that Ross Mayfield blogged:
“Future developments: Convergence with web search, Mutimedia, functional RSS feeds for more than just news, Richer blogging tools, more sharing and social networking features. 3.6 repeat visits per day on average. Sticky vital part of their online experiences. Share your information and feeds with other people in your network.”
(emphasis mine)
This is an interesting subject. I myself have been noodling away on a business idea for ‘the future of blogging’, but more on that in good time.
