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IBM Wants to Help Bloggers Overcome Writer's Block

by Terrence O'Brien on March 8, 2010 at 03:40 PM

IBM Wants to Help Bloggers Overcome Writer's Block
Everyone out there has endured writer's block at some point. You don't have to be a novelist, or even a pro-blogger to have smacked up against the wall at some point. Sadly, if you're struggling with a school paper we can't help you, but IBM thinks it has a solution for those bloggers that might be stuck for topics.

Blog Muse is a social tool that allows users to suggest and vote on topics they think a blog should address. Issues are then presented to participating bloggers, who have the option to write about them if they so choose. If a blog covers a topic that a user suggested or approved, the user is notified and sent a link to the post by Blog Muse.

The system isn't yet open the public, but the initial test with IBM's internal BlogCentral has been characterized as a success. In a study of 1,000 participants, the posts harvested from Blog Muse's suggestions received more views and twice as many comments. Bloggers who view writing as a personal activity were largely resistant to taking suggestions from a database of ideas, but others who were more strapped for topics appreciated the tool.

Now that IBM has released its study (Warning: PDF), it'll have to move quickly if it plans to offer Blog Muse to all. We imagine it won't be long before someone copies it and starts offering it to users of Wordpress and Blogger that are just... stuck. [From: GigaOM, via: Download Squad]

Tags: blog muse, blogger, blogging, BlogMuse, ibm, top, writers block, WritersBlock, writing

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