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Weblogs, or blogs as they have become almost universally known, are undoubtedly one phenomenon for which the Noughties will be remembered. Numbers are hard to come by but there are at least 100 million live blogs and it seems that everyone from the Obama administration to the new owner of London newspaper Evening Standard, Alexander Lebedev, is at it.

Over the past few years, many CIOs have also taken to penning their own thoughts on emerging trends and technology. But, what is the true value of these blogs for the CIOs who write them and their readers? An immediate way of reaching people with a message? A reliable source of direct, instant information? Or just a soapbox for the blogger to exercise his or her ego?

Blogging evolved from the online diaries of the early 1990s. In 1993, The Forest Protection blog was set up by Glen Barry as a web-based commentary and campaign vehicle to save trees. It has been running regularly since 1995, making it the first and longest running continuous site in the blogosphere, according to Wikipedia. Since then, blogging has taken off in a big way as technological advances have made it easier for even resolutely non-technical people to maintain a regular web presence. As a result blogs can now be found on almost any subject under the sun, from fashion, food, music, entertainment sports and travel to technology, politics, business and finance - and a lot of other more obscure subjects too.

Although traditionally seen as gossip sites, as the decade draws to a close, blogs and their spin-off phenomena are becoming increasingly important as forums for breaking news around the world. It is claimed that so-called micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter, for example, was the first place to relay first-hand accounts of the Mumbai bombings.
Similarly, blogs written by CIOs seem to be providing an immediate environment for sharing not just news but new ideas and experiences - and that in turn is beneficial to both the bloggers themselves and their readers.

JP Rangaswami is managing director for Innovation and Strategy at BT Design, the part of British Telecom dedicated to designing, building and implementing IT and business processes. But he also authors a personal blog called Confused of Calcutta, and observes: "As the Cluetrain guys [the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business As Usual] said, markets are conversations. Blogs enable conversations to scale. They make the conversations persistent and searchable and shareable; they reduce misinterpretation and mistranslation; they encourage open questioning and debate, which leads to better trust and higher commitment."

Far from being a fad, the general view seems to be that CIO blogs, and blogs that are tuned to appeal to CIOs, will continue to flourish as more people pick up on their usefulness and bloggers build a platform that can lead to bigger profiles for themselves and their organisations.

Capgemini was an early example of a corporate blog. Its global CTO, Andy Mulholland, has contributed to it for the last three years and agrees that blogs will continue to blossom, but only in terms of quality, not quantity.

"There are too many to survive, and those that are still attracting more CIO readers are offering less of a quick personal comment but more of a structured online summary of what is happening across many blogs, websites and announcements," he says. "A real-time update complete with live URL links to the topics being quoted is very much a time-saver."

Steve Clayton, Software + Services lead at Microsoft and author of the Geek In Disguise blog, believes blogs will grow, but says that growth will be slower in the UK and Europe than the US where the demand for transparency is greater and louder. "I think they'll blossom as companies realise that, more and more, their brand and their products are being talked about by their customers and prospective customers on the web. They'll want and need to participate in that conversation and help shape it. Those customers will also want to know that the company is listening, engaging and reacting, or else they will deem that company to be out of touch with its customers."
But why do CIOs themselves blog? There are numerous benefits such as gaining useful feedback on comments, raising the blogger's personal profile and career opportunities, and maintaining an archive that acts as a CV or journal of record. However, one of the strongest incentives is the ability to communicate effectively with fellow CIOs and others in their industry or other communities - and maybe even with their own staff.