IBM Unveils Single-Point Tool For Monitoring Blogs, WikisIBM Unveils Single-Point Tool For Monitoring Blogs, Wikis

IBM has demonstrated a group of software products and services called the Public Image Monitoring Solution (PIMS) cobbled together to corral the explosion of Web data generated by e-mails, blogs, wikis, jams, news feeds, consumer review sites and articles published daily. PIMS was designed with Nstein Technologies and Factiva.

"I think of this as the rise of collaborative knowledge," said IBM vice president Irving Wladawsky-Berger on Monday at a demo held in Cambridge, Mass.

Mike Rhodin, general manager, IBM Software Group, said PIMS used in the workplace can constitute a "hub of information, a root element of collaboration" that can be extended in different ways throughout an organization. He said he views wikis as a real-time publishing paradigm in corporations, for instance. Key people in different organizational units can be kept up to date virtually in real time through these collaborative solutions.

IBM said PIMS can be used to track the success of product introductions and marketing campaigns, as well as to focus on product improvements.

The collaborative knowledge solution can be utilized across a wide spectrum ranging from blogs and wikis to jams and dogears. IBM observed that it already supports internal blogging and wiki-ing for its employees. Jams are gaining interest and IBM points to its planned Habitat JAM scheduled to take place next month. Dogears, a social bookmarking service that enables users to share bookmarks, can also be accessed through PIMS.

The new solution draws on IBM’s long background in text analytics and semantic search carried out at IBM Research and IBM Business Consulting Services practices. Based on IBM’s WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition, the Public Image Monitoring Solution is built on the open framework Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA).

Wladawsky-Berger said IBM will deliver PIMS through its Alphaworks advanced technology Web site and through future IBM Lotus offerings as well as via IBM server-based products in the future.