— WarLog: World War III by Jeff Jarvis says:
I propose the creation of The Weblog Foundation for the advancement of weblogs and online media.
The foundation would support weblogs with hosting, software, and honorariums for a wide array of selected webloggers. It would raise money from sponsor/underwriters, who would receive advertising on selected weblogs, as well as from technology underwriters, readers’ contributions, and other activities.
It’s an intriguing notion, drawing a lot of buzz from Photodude, Dailypundit, Instapundit, Eric Olsen, and others. Off the top of my bald head, I’d counter-propose a quasi-standards body to work on the long-term issues affecting blogging, such as micropayments, syndication, and microcontent management; these issues have the potential to pay back more than subsidized blogging, but I have a day job so YMMV.
It’s good that people are taking a constructive direction on the Future of Blogging today (instead of making scurrilous conjectures about the motives for wanting a discussion,) I’d suggest that we pay extra-special attention to the needs of actual writers, such as Ken Layne and Matt Welch; these guys aren’t looking for subsidies (which would be hard to administer given the issues raised by Denton), as much as a means to get paid for the honest work they do; that’s where retrieval, syndication, and payment come into the picture.
I used to joke that we made a mistake in the design of the Internet by making the “money” module a sub-class of “porn;” let’s do a redesign where it’s a subclass of “publishing.”
Yeah, I agree. Some sort of syndication, including perhaps marketing syndicates of blogs to advertizers, micro-payments that actually work, that sort of thing interest me mightily – since this is the only sort of writing I do that I *don’t* get paid for. And I’d like to get paid, whether other people want to do it for luv or not.
Isn’t this model of Jarvis’s pretty much the same as About.com? Content may be different, and presentation (page layout, etc) may end up being different, but About.com is an umbrella for “experts” who run their own web sites, link to a bunch of information on their area of expertise, and benefit from the marketing efforts of the corporation.
Come to think of it, yes, it is — and About.com is a New York company, and Jarvis is a New Yorker.
When the Silicon Valley computer industry forms an industry group, we tend to place more emphasis on technical standards, PR, and demonstrations than out cash grants and the rest of it.
Maybe we need something like the California Independent System Operator for blogging – a market where content can be bought, sold, and promoted; but without the gaming and the other problems.
Richard, that’s a brilliant idea! I need to think some more on it – and also find the SF novel at least fifteen years old that has something in it – I think – about a similar arrangement. I used to be able to remember every damned thing I’d ever read. Now I can’t. Just one more of the joys of advancing age.
How about setting up the International Blog Association (IBA) that is sponsered by Agents, Publishers, Directors, etc., as a club where these people pay a yearly fee to have the right to go in and choose ideas from the website. Writer’s post for free and are paid royalties for any idea that is used. Just a thought.