Monday, November 21, 2005
Open Source Media - Will It Work?
Open Source Media is the latest attempt to corral a bunch of bloggers into something resembling a newspaper or magazine and try and make some real money for all. So far no one that I know of is doing much better than a tidy supplemental income out of blogging, and those that are making such reasonable bucks have another platform for promotion, like Hugh Hewitt.
Josh Clayborn is unimpressed with OSM. Iowahawk, who is part of the operation, indicates to me that they don't take themselves too seriously.
The money thing doesn't interest me much (look ma, no ads) but the cooperation to increase influence does. There was a lot of buzz at GodBlogCon about working together, but how to accomplish that was a huge issue. Anytime anybody tries something like this it's an opportunity to see what will and will not work.
Blogging gives the lone voice far more influence than it ever had previously, but it's still not enough influence to change the world, a local election, or even your congregation. Strength lies in numbers, always has, always will. The echo effect through the blogosphere is good, but on some issues organization is mandatory to be truly effective.
How to so organize while maintaining the individual energy of blogging, which is the motivation for so many of us, is something we have yet to figure out. I don't know if OSM will work or not, but I sure hope we can learn from it.
Josh Clayborn is unimpressed with OSM. Iowahawk, who is part of the operation, indicates to me that they don't take themselves too seriously.
The money thing doesn't interest me much (look ma, no ads) but the cooperation to increase influence does. There was a lot of buzz at GodBlogCon about working together, but how to accomplish that was a huge issue. Anytime anybody tries something like this it's an opportunity to see what will and will not work.
Blogging gives the lone voice far more influence than it ever had previously, but it's still not enough influence to change the world, a local election, or even your congregation. Strength lies in numbers, always has, always will. The echo effect through the blogosphere is good, but on some issues organization is mandatory to be truly effective.
How to so organize while maintaining the individual energy of blogging, which is the motivation for so many of us, is something we have yet to figure out. I don't know if OSM will work or not, but I sure hope we can learn from it.
