Why the blog is of interest:

Some blogs in the financial IT space are collaborative in nature, voicing views and opinions from folks throughout an organization. Lab49, Inc.'s blog is a great example. This blog stands out, too, on the basis of the vast variety of topics it covers. Actually, there's something here for just about everyone.

The collective work of Lab49's many individual bloggers is delivered in categories -- .Net, Microsoft, IT Management, and "Fun," for instance -- as well as in sections such as "Tales from a Trading Desk" and "Development in a Blink."

In one recent posting, Lab49's Doug Finke shares some nitty gritty tips on how to program with the use of Microsoft's emerging F# language. But in a lighter moment, Doug reflects pithily on the ramifications of the numeral 2,000,000,000 -- a number that represents the total membership of the ".Net Generation" from 1977 through 1996, according to the top selling book Wikinomics.

Elsewhere, Sal Mangano explains that Lab49 wants to be both "transparent" and "easy to work with" -- and that the company's collaborative blog is meant to bring these very same values to life. "Everyone at Lab49 is allowed and encouraged to blog and many do," notes Sal.

The Web site innovates in other ways, too. On the site's Demos page, for example, Daniel Chait presents a video depicting how WinFX can be implemented in advanced trading applications.

You can reply to Lab49's recent blog postings, if you like. You can also follow all the postings and replies via an RSS feed.

And while you're browsing through the diverse content on the site, you can get a sense of where other visitors are located in the world, simply by clicking on a link to a global map expressly designed for this purpose. Very cool.

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