This post is my hundredth entry and is, to me, a bit of a milestone. I started this blog not sure what I would write about or if I could write about anything at all. I remember writing in After a month, I discover my place in (Blogger) Society that I was surprised and amused at achieving a "C" list ranking after only a month online.
I decided I would see if my ranking has changed as a treat for my hundredth entry and yes, I'm now a 
B-List Blogger.
I was talking with some folks at Coremetrics and Yahoo today about the evolution of social software and my experiences played a part.
NextStage has been researching and publishing about blogs, wikis and related social software for several years now. What I shared with the folks at Yahoo and Coremetrics was that social software is good to excellent when you have a need for it. Companies starting blogs and wikis simply because the tools exist to do so are putting the cart before the horse.Wiki tools are worth their while when group editing of a document is required. Blogs are good for distributing information in small, sequential amounts (Yes, I use my blog for much more than that. I'm still figuring that one out). Can they do more, yes, but my point is to have a need for a tool before you spend the time or money getting one.
I'm not being a luddite (I am a luddite, but that's not the point here). People and companies who invest in tools without a recognized need for them usually end up not using them or forcing their use to justify their cost (in either time or money). Either is an undesirable situation, don't you think?
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