Maybe you should update your software?
http://www.movabletype.org/images/screenshots/Screenshot_1.jpg

Or look at the top tier blog platforms?

http://en.wordpress.com/features/
http://help.blogger.com/

:)

But seriously, if you compare against the leaders and you may see their point. Does it really have tagging? Integrated with a community? Rating, Sharing, Stats, Video integration? That's what makes it 2.0.

A nice statement, however I think that sharepoint can be used for blogging and not necessarilly is really suitable for blogging. It is fine that it is possible, however between possible, desirable and usable are some gaps.

Each tool with a free format HTML area can be (mis) used for everything. That doesn't make it the right tool. You can use a hammer to put a screw in a wall, however it is more likely that when you use a screwdriver the result we be somehow more elegant (and probably durable)

Your article was interesting to me and timely. I'd just posted an article on my (WordPress) blog about moving blogs away from SharePoint, to a hosted WordPress platform. I'm a SharePoint guy, tried and true. I've self-hosted my company's web site and my blog for years on MOSS 2007, and until I started using WordPress, I would have completely agreed with the viewpoint you expressed.

But after using WordPress for a couple months, I can see why it's the leading blogging platform and SharePoint's not. In my opinion, if what you want to do is have a blog or a bunch of blogs, WordPress is better. If I'm an enterprise IT manager, that doesn't mean anything to me though, since SharePoint's better for most of the things I'd care about: collaboration, ECM, search, portals...and even Web 2.0 for my internal enterprise audience!

I'm currently working on big SharePoint 2007 rollout at Kraft, and they're huge into blogs, wikis and discussion groups -- all on their SharePoint intranet. But they didn't choose SharePoint because it's the best blogging/wiki/ platform. They chose it because it's the best enterprise portal/cms/collaboration/publishing/search platform. The fact that it also has web 2.0 features is a nice bonus, but not why they went with it.

Maybe in the next release SharePoint will compete favorably with the leaders in web 2.0 categories like blogging. Maybe someday SharePoint will have the best blogging platform around. How many times have we seen Microsoft enter a niche with a baseline implementation, and keep investing and improving until their product is better? But even if somebody has a better blog or wiki platform than SharePoint, it will still dominate the enterprise space, and that's a pretty big beechhead from which to attack web 2.0.

MT does however allow you to select from an unlimited number of templates right? that gives you some control over the appearence of content at least.

We do work with both Confluence and SharePoint - todays enterprise has room for both styles of tool - and they are just that, tools. We're one of Atlassian's biggest partners worldwide as well as being gold certified in Microsoft.

Many projects fail because of poor implementation methodology, poor alignment of key stakeholders and poor understanding of the goals that they are trying to achieve, or programmers just wanting to build a resume rather than focus on delighting the customer and improving the customers business!

We've implemented systems that could be built on either and we work with the customer to see what is right for them - that is consulting 2.0, rather than forcefeeding an agenda on the customer.

SharePoint is always an easy target for people to bash - the incumbent always is. They're a smart bunch and you'll be pretty silly to ignore what they are doing - it is like ignoring windows and office.

I think it's pretty clear that the next version of Sharepoint will be pretty important and include features that haven't had a public hearing. That said, I think it's a phony war. Going forward, the key will be bringing the conversation and document closer together .........