With the rise of open source scripts, creative commons rights, free widgets, plugins, web services and a plethora of web2.0 startups. Is software in a box still relevant today? Share your thoughts.

Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his popular blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. He is currently the Vice President of Media Development at PodTech.net, a video-podcast startup. He is also the co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers with Shel Israel.

Read what one reader has to say about the book:

Scoble and Israel hammer home the point that blogging and other forms of social media are transforming how businesses communicate with customers, suppliers, and all their constituencies.

But this isn’t a one-sided, navel-gazing tome on the virtues of blogging. This book is full of hard-hitting advice from dozens of successful bloggers on what makes some blogs work and others flame out.

The book itself is like a blog on steroids, but with a natural thread through the topics that leads the reader easily from one subject to the next. It’s more of a conversation than a traditional book.

Throughout the case studies, the authors let the voices of the bloggers shine through, giving the reader a sense of the issues each company faced. When the authors agree or disagree with how a business handled a situation, they let you know-in a civilized way.

Scoble and Israel boil down their research and experience to help businesses understand the nuts and bolts of blogging without going geeky on the reader. They’ve got eleven tips for a successful blog, how to blog your way through a crisis, and an update of Scoble’s Corporate Weblog Manifesto.

Make no mistake-this is a business book. If you’re blogging now, read it for the hundreds of insights you’ll uncover. If your organization isn’t blogging, use this book as a discussion starter for deciding whether blogging is right for your company.

If you are still clueless about business blogging, then this ebook will guide you how to start a profitable business blog. Some of the topics that are covered includes:

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The web is once again changing the way we conduct business today. If you own a static website like everyone else, it’s time to include a blog to move with the times. Blogs are web2.0 application that is increasingly gaining acceptance among the business community. That’s the cover story on BusinessWeek. The story may not be new but if you are running a business without a blog today. Then this is worth a read.

Why does this matter? Think of the implications for businesses of getting an up-to-the-minute read on what the world is thinking. Already, studios are using blogs to see which movies are generating buzz. Advertisers are tracking responses to their campaigns. “I’m amazed people don’t get it yet,” says Jeff Weiner, Yahoo’s senior vice-president who heads up search. “Never in the history of market research has there been a tool like this.”

Business blogging is going mainstream. Better be late than sorry.

Before 2004, there were about 5 million bloggers worldwide - largely made up of teens and geeks blogging about their personal experiences and technology. Then came the US 2004 presidential election with political blogs gaining media attention. This follow by business thought leaders such as management guru Tom Peters, start-up expert Guy Kawasaki, and marketing genius Seth Godin who saw the power of blogs in business and marketing. Today there are more than 57 million blogs tracked by Technorati with 100,000 new blogs added to the blogosphere daily. Companies such as IBM, Boeing, Google, Microsoft, GM, and many others are using blogs to connect with their customers, employees, and shareholders. Find out which of the fortune 500 companies are blogging today here.