At SES, Amanda Watlington [apparently] said that "a blog without comments is just a website as there is not social interaction." I suspect this is a paraphrase, so I reserve the right to be corrected on the exact wording. It would be equally absurd to say that a web site that provides social interaction, is a blog. Her comment (if true), and the philosophical ramblings of dozens of other bloggers (that I know debate the definition of a blog regularly), are serving an injustice to the business value of blogging. If people really wanted to promote the benefits of blogging in businesses, they would open their minds just a wee bit and consider that there are use cases where business communications should not have open feedback loops, and the lack of such doesn't invalidate the value of a blog-like processes. Debating the definition of a blog is silly, especially so if based on the social interaction argument. There are dozens of blogs that have caused me to interact socially with the authors (and business leaders) without the benefit of open commenting. And really - a blog without comments is just a web site? This is absurd. Business applications have many types of feedback loops that are available in a variety of contextual settings - one is called "delete". But you don't grant permissions to delete information to everyone. The definition debate should be replaced with a laser-like focus that is aimed squarely at business requirements. Ironically, we came to recognize the great value of business blogging because we were open-minded enough to envision it useful in a use-case besides writing a personal journal. If you can't envision scenarios where blogs are beneficial to businesses (without commenting), then your mind is back in the vice. | 
