How Not To Blog ?

An RSS-enabled chat client could allow your blog post to be sent as an IM to subscribers (feedback), and IM conversations to automatically post to blogs (feedforward).

Feedback

In feedback, your blog post is sent as an instant message (IM) to others. Others, receiving the IM, could easily respond to the message and have their response post automatically to the blog post. If you're interested in participating in the conversation, you click "Participate" and you will automatically be able to see the responses of other and participate in a flash chat session (think flash mobs, for chat rooms). If you're not interested, simply close the message window.

It could be made so that only those subscribing to a particular topic, category, or tag would see messages linked to that topic, category, or tag.

An RSS blog feedback system could have explosive consequences for blogs- as- collaborative- communities, or simply nice places to hang out.

Feedforward

In feedforward, every message you send to another would post automatically to a blog. This would be topic-driven, so that if you IM someone you first select the topic category and give the conversation a name. Your respondees' messages are automatically tied to the topic. When you want to discuss a new topic you simply 'change topic'. (This method would also serve as a constant reminder that others will see their conversations).

Anyone seeing the corresponding blog would see all conversations properly organized into the appropriate categories.

I think feedforward would benefit businesses most as more of them migrate some of their conversations to instant messaging systems.

Such a system could not just augment pointless meetings, for example, but replace them entirely if properly used. Colleagues could participate in "meetings" without actually being in them (just looking at the blog or blog feed at their convenience). Meetings could take place intermittently over days instead of crammed into 1 hour sessions. If they see something of interest or something to which they could contribute, they could easily pop into the conversation.

Really, the two systems could easily be one system. However, for ease of understanding I have illustrated them as separate concepts.

(See my previous article, RSS & the Evolution of Online Chat, for more crap.)