Blogging Software
Free: Blosxom plugs into Apache and ISS, but also requires Perl. It's preinstalled on Mac OS X Server. Roller, a Java-based OSS blog server, is part of the Apache Software Foundation incubator project. This software powers Sun's and IBM's blog servers and is designed to handle a large number of blogs. You'll need an SQL database installed. MySQL is supported.
Commercial: If you want seamless integration of a blog and your site, you'll need to turn to SixApart and its Movable Type blog server, which supports enterprise databases, LDAP and integration with your content-management system. A hosted version is available for small businesses through a Yahoo partnership.
Podcasting
Although the technology gets its name from Apple, that's about the extent of Apple's ownership. A podcast is an audio file, downloadable by HTTP, that is also encapsulated in an RSS feed. Some content-filtering engines will block MP3 and audio downloads. Desktop management and security products also have a tendency to report and alert on the detection of any audio file, a throwback to the download craze of the Napster days.
Listening to podcasts: The MP3 format is widely support but AAC (Advanced Audio Coder)-formatted podcasts require users to install Apple's QuickTime or iTunes software. We've seen little interest in the Ogg format for podcasts.
Creating podcasts: We like the open-source Audacity for recording and editing audio.
WikiS
Our last wiki review examined hosted and appliance models. Atlassian, our Editor's Choice, provides a software-based wiki, while CustomerVision has both hosted and software offerings. JotSpot and Socialtext offer appliance and hosted models. All offer WYSIWYG editing, audit trails encryption and access control. We were disappointed the vendors' LDAP support, and see room for improvement and maturation.
