Blogging For Business
Law enforcement agencies are turning to blogging [BLOG IS SHORT FOR WEB LOG] software to facilitate communication among departments. For example, the federally sponsored Western States Information Network (WSIN), a regional hub linking the U.S. government and local police departments in several Western U.S. states, has launched Traction Software’s TeamPage Enterprise Weblog solution.
The software allows personnel at WSIN and about 1,100 affiliated police departments to post messages to a single Web-based repository.
Users can now access such searchable data as drug arrest information or new Drug Enforcement Agency news at a single site, says WSIN’s assistant director Karen Aumond.
WSIN is also considering adapting the system to include PDAs and forming a searchable database for written reports.
Aumond notes that in the past, email recipients had to be mailed separate messages, which were often redundant and could be eliminated if not saved, and WSIN’s intranet system would save messages across seven disparate systems.
Aumond says the current blogging system allows only authorized employees to contribute data to the repository, and supervisors are sent abstracts of new data for monitoring purposes. Traction’s Instant Publisher product also allows users to post Internet-derived data such as such as text, links, and pictures, as well as Microsoft Office documents and emails.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the PC Magazine (12/30/03); Cohen, Alan.