NewsLog

A "weblog" or a "blog" is a website that makes it easy for its owner to add new articles or news items, showing them in a sort of newspaper format with the most recent posting at the top. It automatically archives older postings and provides various ways of categorizing postings or searching for them.

With a minimum of webpage design you essentially get a very dynamic website and you can just concentrate on the content you want to post. Since weblogs usually change often, they are very suitable for attracting a loyal reader following who will come back regularly to see what is new. Assuming you have something interesting thing to say, of course.

There are many individuals who have weblogs and who use them for posting, well, whatever they feel like. Some people stay on a particular topic. Others cover just about anything that springs to their mind. Either way, the weblog format supports it well.

Weblogs can also be owned by groups of people who take turns posting articles. For example different members of a particular project team.

A weblog can be quite effective at attracting attention to a project or activity, including a commercial activity. However, what makes it work is in part that one follows some of the unwritten rules for weblogging. E.g. it works best if things are written in a personal and authentic voice. If you write like you're writing an ad, you'll probably never develop much readership. So, if one of your agendas is to call attention to your product or company, the only way it is going to work is if you write the truth, including who you are, what you're doing, what you feel about it, etc. That means, if you truly are producing doing useful, and you're honest about it, this medium can serve you really well. If you're trying to fool anybody, it probably won't.

The OrgSpace NewsLog is one of many weblogging programs. It is rather full-featured and gives quite some flexibility on how it can be displayed. Here are some examples of personal weblogs done in it:

Ming the Mechanic
Voice of Humanity
Scarlet Jewels
Morphogenesis

If you want to read more about what weblogs are and what they mean, here are some definitions. And if you want a whole dissertation about what it means for business, read Blogging the Market by George Dafermos.