Loic Le Meur has been doing some interesting research on the extent of the European blogosphere.

In the past year the use of blogging platforms as a light-weight content management system for managing web sites has been getting increased attention from web developers. The use of blogging tools is even capturing the attention of venture capitalists such as this entry by Fred Wilson on Typepad as Website Platform.

I’ve been developing web sites since 1993 but I much prefer to edit my web pages through a blogging tool rather than Dreamweaver. Yes, I know Dreamweaver extensively, have taught many others how to use it, have supervised staff who used it extensively. But I long ago realized that I didn’t need to be a web page designer, my interests were more on content. And blogging tools allow people to focus on content rather than design.

I do believe that design is very important. Admittedly, the design for my own blog is not that great. I’m using a slightly modified template that someone else designed but that’s okay for now. (I’m in the process of working with a real graphic designer who will develop an original template for my site).

I think that organizations and people who are serious about their web sites will want to employ the services of a professional graphic designer to develop a customized template. Having a high-quality customized design to one’s site says something about the quality of a site. But most people shouldn’t have to worry about learning Dreamweaver, which is a waste of time for most people who just want to focus on content.

Blogging tools will evolve significantly over the next few years. While I was never fond of high-end content management systems such as Vignette, I think that MovableType and WordPress (among others) offer excellent light-weight content management systems. With the capabilities of easily developed plugins to these architectures, these tools will eventually evolve into heavy-weight content management systems that can run complex web sites. Indeed, I think that they can already under the guidance of an experienced webmaster.

So, let’s leave tools such as Dreamweaver to the designers and coders and tools such as WordPress and MovableType to the writers.

An entry in my PublishersLunch Deluxe email this morning stressed a point that I’ve been thinking for some time: “All a blog is in today’s world is an easy-to-update web site that requires no technical knowledge (but comes with all kinds of great technical options: comments, permalinks, RSS feeds, etc.). ”

Whether something is called a blog or a web site is irrelevant. Blog critics continue to demonstrate how out-of-touch they are with technology when they so obviously fail to see this distinction. Of course there’s a lot of rubbish on the net but there also is a lot of trash in print and on TV. That’s irrelevant. What remains relevant and transforming about the Internet is that it allows people to express their ideas in an easy manner. From the PublishersLunch BlogWatch II email: “Blogs are turning the Internet into a writing a medium, and are enabling what has always made web sites most interesting: fresh stuff all the time.”