The Enhanced Blog Edition (EBE) is a SharePoint 2007 solution package which extends the out-of-the-box blog template with the following features:

• Theming
  • Modular Theme Framework (MTF) - no need to wrestle with the default blog master page - start from the HTML you want and simply insert the blog content via XSL.
  • SEO Friendly URL's - blog post URL's that look like /archive/2007/08/25/sharepoint-chart-tool.aspx instead of /Lists/Posts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=37
  • 5 very cool themes to use as-is, or to get you started on the development of your own including dynamic per-post links (e.g. Digg this), tag cloud, etc. Check them out here
• Linkbacks (aka Trackbacks)
  • Send linkbacks to other blog posts you are linking to in your EBE blog post (these show up as trackbacks on the other blog)
  • Receive linkbacks from other blogs who are posting about your blog post (these show up as trackbacks on your EBE blog)
• Spam control
  • Akismet integration to detect comment spam
  • CAPTCHA to help block comment spam at the source
  • Option to automatically delete spam to recycle bin
  • Option to automatically approve spam-free comments
• RSS
  • Custom RSS link (e.g. http://feeds.feedburner.com/myblog)
  • Post trimming (only a portion of post is sent via RSS)
  • Specify RSS feed item count
  • Category specific feeds (e.g. /rss.xml?cat=coolstuff)
  • Validates W3C
• Miscellaneous
  • Securing of system pages (e.g. so anonymous users can't browse your lists and libraries using SharePoint UI)
  • Metaweblog API to support Windows Live Writer and migration tools.
  • Client Date/Time - displays date/time in time zone of user instead of server

The EBE is deployed as a solution package (*.wsp) to either WSS 3.0 or MOSS and activated as a Feature on a blog site. You can activate the EBE feature on an existing SharePoint blog site and de-activate later without losing any data. Most of the EBE features are configurable on/off through a settings page accessible to the site admin. Please read the documentation below for further information on installation, development, and usage of custom themes.

More CKS:EBE resources can be found here

We are also keeping a list of blogs using the CKS:EBE

EBE 2.0 has been focused on individual blog sites and we plan to extend features to provide a more comprehensive enterprise-wide blogging solution in the future. We'd appreciate any feedback you have on the current version and ideas on where to go from here.

The EBE 2.0 would not have been possible without the generous contribution of time from the following project members:

Vince Rothwell (MTF)
Nadeem Mitha (Linkbacks)
Ari Bakker (Themes)
Heather Waterman (Themes)
Yvonne Harryman (QA)
Matthew McDermot (Documentation/QA)
Shane Perran (Themes)
Gaetan Bouveret (QA)
Keith Bunge (Various)
Steven Van de Craen (Captcha)
Brent Bolleman (EBE-PM)
Lawrence Liu (CKS-PM)