No syndication please, we’re SAP

I have recently started to compile a database of corporate blogs for my research and was delighted to see that German software make SAP has also joined the growing family of blogging companies.

My sympathy evaporated, however, when I realized that you have to register to access their blogs. Yes, register. Now, this might be acceptable if you assume that the blogs they host are only targeted at developers and clients – people who are closely affiliated with the company and will actually benefit somehow from being “recognized”. But if you have a look, no less than five SAP board members blog, clearly not just to a select few SAP insiders (they hardly need a blog to get their facts), but to the public at large. Who on earth wants to fill out a form with no less than 18 required fields, just to douse SAPs apparent paranoia?

While others take a proactive approach, the gentlemen from Walldorf seem rather reluctant to embrace blogging – at least if you understand blogging in the way that pretty much everyone else does. Needless to say, they have no syndication via RSS either, as that would circumvent registration. Instead they have… *drumroll* e-mail alerts! Oh Joy! Makes you scratch your head and wonder why they implemented blogs at all. Ah, well.

I doubt that they’ll respond to my criticism, though possibly they’ll realize at some point that they’d reach far more people if they dumped their 90s-esque registration scheme. They are, after all, a tech company.

Sad to see that sometimes the mindset isn’t en par with the engineering.