BizEd

JanFeb2005

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Technology "IF YOU'RE DEALING WITH IDEAS AT A FORMATIVE LEVEL, Blogs About Biz Do you blog? If so, you're part of a small but growing number of business educa- tors recording their thoughts on busi- ness issues in an online public forum. Short for "Web logs," blogs are on- line journals where writers post their thoughts to an audience of online readers. When blogs first appeared in the mid-1990s, they often were noth- ing more than glorified diaries. They evolved into a medium perfect for journalism, analysis, and political commentary. Today, blogs have also become a popular teaching and com- munication tool for academics, espe- cially those in law and medicine. Slowly, more business school professors are blogging as a way to communicate with students, post assignments and bibliographies, share favorite Web links, and present their thoughts on topics of the day. Martin Grace, professor of risk management and insurance at Georgia State Uni- versity's Robinson College of Busi- ness in Atlanta, has kept a blog on risk management since last March at riskprof.typepad.com/tort/. Grace admits that at first he was a bit wary of the practice for fear of posting something he might later re- gret. "I was wary of the publicness and permanency of it. If you wrote something idiotic, it would be there for the whole world to see," says Grace. "I also worried about spelling and grammatical errors. I know newspaper reporters do this all the time—but they have editors!" Such concerns may be one reason why blogging has been slow to catch on among business professors. In addi- tion, they may not believe their work to be as "exciting" as law or medi- cine, so they may think they have nothing to "blog" about, Grace says. 46 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 "I also have a law degree, so I started by reading blogs by lawyers and economists, who have a lot to say about the public policy issues of the day," says Grace. "Business pro- fessors, on the other hand, are talk- ing about whether it makes good sense for this firm to make that in- vestment. It may seem less exciting than a topic like civil unions." James Garven, professor of fi- nance and insurance at the Han- kamer School of Business at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, keeps a blog at www.finweb.com. Also an avid blog reader, Garven subscribes to the blogs of several law and eco- nomics professors and has discovered that bloggers generally run in three categories—those who want to teach and inform, those who want to stim- ulate discussion, and those who want to keep a record of their own thoughts and research. "If you're dealing with ideas at a formative level, writing about them regularly helps you put the pieces of the puz- zle together," Garven says. Starting a blog can be fairly pain- less, even for the technologically uninitiated. If you can type, you can blog, say these bloggers. Blogging software can often be downloaded online—inexpensively or even for free. Many academics use software such as Movable Type, a program available at www.movabletype.org. An older ver- sion of the software is available for free; the newest version, Movable Type 3.1, is available to educators for $39.95 and includes tech support. Users can download the program to create a blog on their universities' Web servers; or they can use the com- pany's TypePad service to place a blog on Movable Type's central server. Outblaze-EDU: E-mail Messaging for the Education Market TOOLS OF THE TRADE In only a decade, e-mail has gone from op- tional novelty to ubiquitous utility. With this ubiquity, however, compa- nies must manage the billions of e- mails sent globally each day, while stopping viruses; keeping their sys- tems safe from hackers; and thwart- ing spammers, who purportedly send more than 50 percent of all e-mail. Outblaze, a company headquar- tered in Hong Kong with a U.S. office in Stamford, Connecticut, and offices in China, Korea, India, and the Philippines, recently launched an e-mail platform designed for the edu- cation market. Outblaze-EDU pro- vides students and faculty with any- time-anywhere access to e-mail, online calendars, file sharing, and message board services. In addition, it provides security features such as anti-spam, anti-virus, anti-piracy, and content-filtering. Higher education has different needs than business, says Stef Bensi, managing director for Outblaze USA. "When employees leave a company, it just

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