You may want to read these two posts before continuing.

So what we’re looking for is a blog for a city like Birmingham that fulfills the following criteria:

1) It has enough content to be regular and in-depth.

2) It has the potential to develop a community of its own and/or become an valuable part of the wider local scene.

3) It is sufficiently different from other media offerings online and off.

4) It’s fun to write and, most importantly, enjoyable to read.

5) It has the ability to develop, mutate, adapt and hopefully grow over time.

A question folk might ask is “what is the blog about?” The immediate answer is “it’s about Birmingham” which then leads to the next question “so what is the blog about?” How will it cover Birmingham? What angle will it take on things? What will the tone be? How long will the posts be? Will it be links or articles or both? What sort of subjects will it cover? Who will write it? Who is the intended readership? Most critically, what colour will it be?

If I’ve learned anything in my many years of doing stuff it’s that you can’t answer these questions beforehand. Projects like this have a tendency to take on a life of their own and go in directions you never conceived of in the outset, partly because they’re so vague. A blog about Birmingham is a terribly vague mission statement, so let’s narrow it down.

It’s a blog about Birmingham as seen by the writer/s of the blog.

Which is pretty much the definition of a blog. Life as experienced communicated through words.

So, going back to those five criteria again…

1) Can one person or a group of people experience enough of a city to write regularly and in-depth on a wide range of subjects over a prolonged period of time? Tricky, but I think it can be done. In fact, the act of working on the blog should encourage the writers to see more of the city, rather like my going out and photographing things pushes me to areas I wouldn’t normally go to. It depends on how willing the writers are to get out of their comfortable niches.

2) Can you develop a community around the writings of a small number of people? I think so, at least one sufficient to support the egos of the writers (as mentioned in the previous post). And I’d hope that any such blog would slot into the wider community well, especially as it’ll be covering what people are up to. Funny thing – you write about people and they become aware of you.

3) Can the blog be sufficiently different from what’s already out there? Possibly. You could argue that a Birmingham blog already exists but it’s distributed around various sites. Gig reviews over here, political stuff over there, observational stuff somewhere else. Doing this stuff in one place would be novel but not really revolutionary. That said, the act of doing the blog over time could hopefully make it more unique, trying out new ideas and approaches to the city and it’s people.

4) Can it be fun to write and read? This is the million dollar question really. I guess the answer depends on who’s writing it, whether they enjoy writing it and whether they’re good enough. I’m a strong believer that absolutely anything can be made interesting if it’s written about well. That’s the whole point of art – taking the everyday and making it fantastic. Actually doing this on a long term basis however would be hard work.

5) Can it develop and adapt? Yes, if it’s intrinsically connected with the city it’s writing about. Cities are always changing and if the writers actually get out there and actively interact with the place there’s no reason the blog shouldn’t mirror the city. If it doesn’t then it’s failing.

What I’m getting from these answers is it all comes down to the writers. Just saying “I’m going to blog about Birmingham” isn’t enough. Neither is “I’m going to blog about myself in Birmingham” because it needs more than that. Certainly the personalities, interests and habits of the writers are an intrinsic part of the blog but they should just act as a filter on the real subject: the city and the people who make it what it is.

Concludes here…