Today, Automattic announced that they are going to provide enterprise level support for WordPress.

If you go by searches on Google Trends, WordPress is the most popular blogging platform in the world. Now, Toni Schneider, Matt Mullenweg and crew are going to be setting up the Automattic Support Network.

Automattic’s business model is based upon the successful business models of Red Hat Linux (RHAT, mktcap $4.9B) and SendMail Inc. SendMail powers the email at Credit Suisse, Fidelity Investments, Morgan Stanley, and Wachovia.

WordPress has some very nice features that enterprise users will like.

• IThe input screen for writing an article could hardly be simpler.


• WordPress also makes is very easy to upload files.


• WordPress MU has a cool community tagging tool, which uses AJAX to show you similar tags. For example, if you want to tag an article with “Policies”, WordPress will show you a drop down that displays similar tags, such as “Policies and Procedures”. This makes is easier for community of users to standardize folksonomy tags, without being forced to impose a top down taxonomy.


• You do not have to log in again to enter a comment. Participating in the conversation around a blog post then becomes very easy.

A Cottage Industry Defining Worksite Types

In pervious articles, I have talked about setting up People Pages and Project Pages, as the beginning of a collection of types of internal blogs. The import thing here is NOT to specifically use these particular types, but instead, to ask yourself “What do we talk about within our organization”. A consulting firm might have People Pages, Client Pages and Project Pages. A law firm might have Counsel Pages, Client Pages and Case Pages.

The point is to get your end users to help define the last mile of customization.

WordPress has done a phenomenal job setting up the basis for this with the WordPress Themes.

Not all end users are going to be capable of coding PHP plug-ins. However, many end users are going to be capable of customizing a few HTML templates and building a nice CSS.

With Themes, WordPress.org has expanded the range of people who can participate in developing an enhancing this open source tool from just coders to coders and super users. That increases that number of contributors at least 10 fold.

As Automattic’s enterprise offerings get bigger, I bet you will see Enterprise Worksite directories just as you see WordPress Theme directories today.

A Worksite is a Theme + a list of Categories + some default access control settings + some specific plug-ins.

What you get with an Automattic support contract

You get consultative help, bug support, and most importantly, you get a 6-hour response time directly from the guys who built the tool.

Alternatives

MovableType, iUpload and Blogtronix also offer enterprise blogging solutions.

SocialText, JotSpot and Traction all sell Wiki based tools that could be used to address similar communication objectives.

In my personal opinion, there is a difference between a Wiki and a Blog, if for no other reason than people use them differently. Thus, most companies will want to make use of both blogs and Wikis.