In a speech to an audience of chief executives, Mr Gates said the regularly updated journals, or blogs, could be a good way for firms to tell customers, staff and partners what they are doing.

He said blogs had advantages over other, older ways of communicating such as e-mail and websites.

More than 700 Microsoft employees are already using blogs to keep people up to date with their projects.

tja - wenn global verfügbares, kollaborativ organisiertes, freies wissen wichtig für die marktwirtschaftliche entwicklung ist, worüber reden wir dann im zusammenhang mit softwarepatenten?