An Exploratory Study on the Progress of Social Computing and Its Potential Impact on Organizational Computing

Originally created as personal publishing tools for individuals, weblogs (blogs) have metamorphosed into communication devices for social networks. This article reviews weblogs, and their transition from publishing tool to social networking device and probably evolve as organizational computing. It describes the technology features which have facilitated this transition. It then reports on the motivation of young webloggers, based on an analysis of interviews, and evaluates the fit between technology features and the needs of these weblog users. Four types of webloggers (habitual, active, personal, and dormant) are identified and each types of webloggers required different features provided by blog sites. Understanding the needs of different types of webloggers can allow organizations to prepare for the blogging wave that is rapidly approaching