How do I write a "professional" blog?

Web logs or blogs started as a way to talk about new technologies, vent about life and interact in a no-holds-barred forum. Since blogs became the next big thing, an increasing number of companies have come to see them as the next great public relations vehicle a way for executives to demonstrate their casual, interactive side.

But, of course, the executives do nothing of the sort. Their attempts at hip, guerrilla-style blogging are often pained and painful.

Given that I'm coming at this business blog after a few years of personal blogging, I hope I'm not doomed to offering too many pained and painful posts here. But I can understand the temptation to keep things light and positive, to show me and the company in a good light.

Tip to the reader: I'm probably not going to be airing much dirty laundry here. I'm all for subverting the paradigm and all, but I don't have enough self-destructive motivation to set out to destroy our own business.

Yet I hope that I can be forthright and honest enough about what's going on in our company, and in the interactive media industry, so that this blog is more than a log sheet of meetings and project tasks. Who needs to read that?

What am I going to write about here? Well, there's plenty. The greater media industry is going through some major changes in technology, in business structures, in revenue models, in audience changes, in cultural shifts -- and it's all happening so fast that, really, we don't know quite what the media world will look like five years from now. The net is getting faster while television is becoming (finally) a smidge interactive. Cell phones and PDAs are becoming one. Palmtop browsing and Podcasting are connecting people out of the office. Peer-to-peer hasn't yet come close to realizing its potential. BitTorrent is revolutionizing the entire world of streaming and downloading -- not just of media clips but of programs and data. And it seems like every day there's a new wrinkle, a new use of an application, a new application of an existing technology, a new meme in technology's use.

What will the world be like five years from now?

We're a new company. Collectively we have quite a lot of experience in media and technology. Yet we hope that we're not blinded by the conventional wisdoms of the past. This is a time to not just push the inside of the envelope but to actually break out of it. That's what we intend to do, just as a matter of philosophy and practice.

I'd write more now, but I have a hard drive to exchange and client matters to attend. On my short list of items to do regarding this site, I have: a draft of a personal bio, some structural and functional matters, and a long-overdue sprucing up of the design. We've been playing around with the templating and probably will be doing a bit more. Hopefully you will see these as improvements.

Meanwhile I'll come here to ponder, speculate and occasionally rant. It may not be required by the business plan, but I need it.