Welcome to the first of ZDNet.co.uk's group blogs

At ZDNet.co.uk we recognise that many of our readers have more in-depth knowledge of specific technologies than we do, and in many cases more extensive experience of working with those technologies. We also believe that as the Internet enables a 'give-to-get' society, more and more people are beginning to see the benefits of sharing knowledge: you give a little, and potentially get a lot more back. Just look at Wikipedia.

We also realise that many people will always remain happy to get without giving, and that's ok; that's also an established truism of the Internet. For instance you can read hundreds of thousands of articles, opinions and reviews, or download many tens of thousands of white papers and programs from ZDNet.co.uk. It's all free, and all you have to do is search for them.

When we added the community features to ZDNet.co.uk, we did so with those people in mind who realise the untapped benefits that can be gained by giving a little more back than just their time. We know a lot of our readers subscribe to this notion, and today we launch the first our group blogs specifically for you: the Windows Vista Upgrade blog, and the Sentry Posts blog.

A group blog is a very simple idea: it is a place where you can blog on a specific subject alongside your peers. It's a place where you know your posts will attract the eyes of your peers, and where you can be part of what we hope will be a vibrant blog without worrying that you must post every day to maintain a steam of content. It is also a place where you can make a real difference: the ZDNet edit team will be watching the group blogs closely - as well as contribution to them - and taking any emerging issues up with the vendors on your behalf.

You may post your thoughts or experiences, or just ask questions. You may remain anonymous, simply by using a nickname for your username, or you may chose to boost your ranking on Google and raise your profile within the industry by using your real name as your username (it really does work).

Getting started is easy. If you are already signed up then simply send a message to our community manager Karen Friar and ask her to give you permissions. From that point on, you'll be able to post into either blog. If you do not have an account then you'll need to create one first - it only takes two minutes.

Of course you can continue to post to your own blog on ZDNet as usual, and any blog post you direct to the Vista Upgrade blog or Sentry Posts blog will still appear in your own personal blog; this is simply a way of giving it more prominence among people who will be interested in the subject matter.

We hope you will try this. We realise that we still have a lot of work to do to improve these, and we welcome any feedback, good or bad. We also plan to launch more group blogs in the coming months so if Vista upgrades or security management do not float your boat, and you have another subject you would like us to consider, let us know.