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BURNINGBIRD
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a node at the edge
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August 05, 2002
 Weblogging Consortiums
This afternoon I was visiting Mike Golby and Jeneane Sessum when I realized that Blogspot was down. Again. I am not unmindful of what Blogger has provided to the community these last few years -- a free and easy way for webloggers, especially new webloggers, to get their voices online. However, I do believe it's time for the community of webloggers to take some of this burden away from Blogger. Before we lose a whole lot of webloggers when Blogspot goes down for the count. An effective approach would be to create Weblogging Consortiums -- groups of webloggers who band together to lease a server for an entire year, thereby sharing the costs of the server among themselves. In particular, webloggers wanting to move to Movable Type 2.2 with MySql support have been faced with increased costs, especially if they're using Windows-based systems. Shared space would be very cost effective. Another Consortium service would be a listing of those with extra server space, willing to provide hosting for others. For instance, on my own system, once the environment is in place for Movable Type, adding new weblogs isn't that much of a strain on resources. I have more than one weblog on the server now, and could easily add another 5 or 6 weblogs without any strain. In case you're wondering whether my server will 'go away' some day, I've had a web server since 1996 -- neither Burningbird nor YASD is going away. Dorothea Salo has also offered to host some Blogger weblogs, and I imagine that most people with a server have extra space. Finally, a third spoke to this Consortium wheel is a weblogger supported fund used to finance servers for newbies only. These servers can be pre-setup with Movable Type installed for each weblog, simplifying the process for new webloggers. In addition, perhaps other weblogging tool companies would also donate services for the Newbie Servers, though companies like Userland in addition to Blogger have taken on more than their fair share of free hosting (and are to be commended for their generosity). If the newbies last past six months, at that point then they would move to a hosted server. The weblogging community would help them make this move (handle tool set-ups, migration of archives and so on). The weblogger would then pay for the tool they're using (such as Blogger, Radio, or MT, or whatever), and pay a small yearly fee to be hosted. The amount of this fee would be based on what they could afford. Hopefully with this approach, the servers would eventually be self-funded. The Consortium would not be a quickie Paypal setup with no financial accountability -- the plan would be administered by a sanctioned organization under whatever non-profit corporate laws are in effect to the host country, with online access to the books and balance at any time. Weblogging shouldn't be for those with lots of bucks or technical skill. It should be open to anyone who can find some way of connecting to the Internet, and has something to say. Stay tuned because I'm going to have more to say on this. And I'd like to hear what others say.
Posted by Bb at August 05, 2002 08:58 PM Trackback Count (3) Comments
I don't know if I qualify as a newbie having just celebrated (well, having noted anyway) my six month blogaversary. But as a blogger experiencing the unending parade of troubles at Blogger and somebody currently low on cash, I must voice my hearty interest in your proposal. Consider me tuned in. . . Posted by: Richard on August 5, 2002 05:15 PMTom Poe might be interested in taking this under his wing. I owe him an email anyway. I'll ask him what he thinks. Posted by: Dorothea Salo on August 5, 2002 05:21 PMThis is an idea that deserves to really take off. Posted by: Karl on August 5, 2002 06:00 PMDorothea, sorry, but who is Tom Poe? Posted by: Shelley aka Bb on August 5, 2002 06:23 PMGood idea, Shelley. Posted by: bearman on August 5, 2002 06:50 PMWhat a fantastic idea! Conversant http://www.free-conversant.com/) offers free hosting and has a weblog plugin, although the admin interface can be daunting. I'd volunteer to help newbies through setting one up, and answering any questions they might have. I have a site all set up for that sort of thing: http://www.free-conversant.com/newbies (Caveat: just a user, not an employee of the company.) I agree this is more important than the tool--it's a fantastic idea. I'd also help figure out ways to backup a Conversant weblog locally so it wouldn't get lost and could move elsewhere if need be. Posted by: Mark Morgan on August 5, 2002 07:13 PMSounds like you're talking about a sort of weblog co-op. I wonder if one can incorporate a co-op whose members don't reside in one state? Posted by: The One True b!X on August 5, 2002 07:33 PMIn the US, cooperatives are usually incorporated entities, with members empowering the association to manage the trade of products for monies. In this case, there is no profit involved, so the corporate structure would be non-profit. Membership could extend across the states. And there shouldn't be a problem with international membership either. We need our legal bloggers for details. Any in the neighborhood? Posted by: Shelley aka Bb on August 5, 2002 08:08 PMNot-for-profit status enables corporate sponsorship. I can see a big law firm sponsoring a law blog consortium, for example. Posted by: Phil Wolff on August 5, 2002 08:22 PMI'm preparing to setup a free/donation based weblog hosting service in Indonesia. I'm very interested in trying out MT to determine if it would work well for the service. So, Shelly would you be willing to host my test blog? Posted by: Joe Friend on August 5, 2002 08:36 PMOne thing I wouldn't want to see is corporate sponsorship. If the co-op was incorporated, this would add a level of accountability of the funds. However, would prefer the money come from the webloggers, themselves. This way, no one can pull the plug. No one. Posted by: Shelley aka Bb on August 5, 2002 08:37 PMIf you set up donation limits... as percent to total maybe, then no one contributor can wield that kind of power - corporate or not. Posted by: Karl on August 5, 2002 09:24 PMOver at Kuro5hin, Rusty just set up a non-profit to promote online communities. Maybe he'd be a good person to contact for ideas and support? Posted by: Mark Morgan on August 5, 2002 09:47 PMOver at Kuro5hin, Rusty just set up a non-profit to promote online communities. Maybe he'd be a good person to contact for ideas and support? Posted by: Mark Morgan on August 5, 2002 09:51 PMThat'll teach me to "refresh" in Opera, won't it! Posted by: Mark Morgan on August 5, 2002 09:51 PMJoe, would be glad to host your test MT blog. Note that this server is also the test server for ThreadNeedle; if you're okay with that, then welcome. Mark, thanks for kuroshin tip. No problem on the Opera thing ;-) Posted by: Shelley aka Bb on August 5, 2002 09:57 PMGreat. How do we go about it. Give me the specifics via email. Would it be a subdomain on yours (or a folder) or can you do a virtual host of a domain i already own? Let me know. Posted by: Joe Friend on August 6, 2002 12:54 AMMeFi commentary on kuro5hin's nonprofit status here : http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/17901 Posted by: stavrosthewonderchicken on August 6, 2002 06:55 AMSorry, Bb, my bad. Tom Poe is studios for recording, a nonprofit that wants to put recording studios all over the place in return for contribution of the work recorded there to the public domain. (No armtwisting as I understand it, but encouragement.) I would think that community blogging is rather the same sort of thing. Tom might go for it. Posted by: Dorothea Salo on August 6, 2002 08:00 AMI'd be in, but I'm such a non techie on this, I don't have a clue how to go about it. I'd send allied over first, because it's less complicated than blog sisters. Posted by: jeneane on August 6, 2002 10:52 AMraises hand Posted by: gary on August 6, 2002 12:31 PMI've got: a) a wussy P-100 server that's stable when I'm not idiotically tinkering with it that I'm willing to share out to others in dire need. It's not particularly user-friendly, but I could be persuaded to set up MT for others who'd like to use it temporarily (because I may be moving, so I can't guarantee long-term availability). I really like the idea though, I'd be in it 100% if my circumstances were more stable/ settled. Posted by: Andrea on August 6, 2002 01:12 PMThough I know the plan is overly idealistic, it would be nice to pursue this. Perhaps at the least, a posting board of people willing to share servers. It's a start. After today, my own server is now officially maxed. Stavros and I have some new and interesting neighbors. Posted by: Shelley aka Bb on August 7, 2002 12:26 AMPost a comment
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