One thing that came out of Thursday’s party, where I stood on a chair and everyone applauded and my knees went all wobbly, was the pondering of what next for Created in Birmingham, something Stef and I have been talking about for a while but not really nailed down. While I don’t want to fuck with a winning formula there are factors at work that mean that formula as it stands might not be viable. Firstly I’m coming across more and more information and processing that is becoming something of a nightmare. I’m not just missing stuff, I’m actively aware I’m missing stuff. Secondly, CiB has put me in a very different position to where I was a year ago. At some point the need for me to do the blog isn’t going to be there.
I hasten to add with much vocality that this isn’t going to happen any time soon but it pays to be prepared.
The idea that’s currently in the lead involves taking on someone to help with the running of the blog. If you like an assistant editor to the editor looking after the links, monitoring the CiB email and suchlike, freeing me up to do more interesting things. And then the logical conclusion is that assistant eventually becomes the editor running the blog and taking on another assistant. All old editors are still available in an emeritus-type roll and the whole process is approached as a training program for new bloggers.
But who to take on? One issue Stef and I identified is that I’m now too involved with Birmingham’s arts scenes. Not from an impartiality standpoint, although that’s always an issue, but because I don’t need to did anymore. When I started I was following leads and uncovering people who weren’t necessarily on the big radar. These days I don’t do that so much because I get enough stuff to fill the blog from what have become the usual places. So the ideal candidate would be someone like I was in 2005 - an outsider who’s interested in finding out how it all works.
They’d also have to either be comfortable with the blogging form or willing and able to learn it. CiB, for better or worse, represents blogging to a lot of people in the city. Personally I’d like to take on someone with a lot of blogging experience under the belt who wants to stretch themselves a bit and earn some cash doing it though I’m also aware that I’m being unreasonable about this and am probably wrong. Why this is an issue I’m not really sure. Whatever, the blogging thing is an integral part of the program.
The are other ideas. A group blog, for example, to spread the load over the the range of subjects that I’m not covering properly at the moment. Or some kind of of blogging network with me in a managing editor / mentoring role. But these, while interesting, tend to miss the point. CiB was never supposed to be The Blog for Birmingham’s creative community. Amongst other things it’s supposed to be an example, explaining a system of communication and promotion by deed rather than theory. It’s important, sure, but it only needs at most two people to run it.
Anyway, I’d be interested in feedback on this, with the big flashing banner saying This Is Still An Idea and nothing has been decided by anyone, not least myself.
Group blog is worth trying. Particularly if it has a dedicated manager. Devolving responsibility for input to an ever increasing membership would allow the blog itself to become more of a portal. Out of that you could do a feature set of items. That would address the eventually unmanageable expansion of material and time that one person would handle. Think about what the Post have set up. A managed aggregate.
Your alternative, taking on an apprentice, might suit a lot of people, but I’m thinking ‘experienced’ bloggers would want their own voice/style. Which might be best addressed by, say, a group?
Agree with dp - if CiB gets new input sources a group blog approach, with the right group could continue to keep it ear-pointingly good.
I think Pete’s somehow managed to act as a one-man-group in the initial phase of the site - covering a large area with impartiality, perhaps due to the partial learning curve that came with the job.
Perhaps a group with expertise in different areas of creativity could work - but allowing for more than one member in each area to stop funneling and projection of personal ideals of information, but still allowing for comment and debate. The difficulty in overseeing this project is the innate subjective approach we take to all things creative - words, images, people, so a mix of minds could be a solution. It could also be detrimental to the ethos pf the site without careful consideration given to selection of contributors.
That said, I think there are enough clued-up open talents who blog about creative issues and events in Birmingham to make it work and have the passion to succeed. There are plenty of bods who run blogs now, as either a part of their professional entities or as a personal account of their opinions, who could make this work.
I have to admit that I would find CiB a bit weird without the voice of Pete sluicing across the words, perhaps because he’s become the sole voice in pulling together creativity in the area. And he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, rather than just talking about the whats, wheres and hows. But I do believe that CiB is still in its infancy, and that it’s a resource to be cherished for all it stands for.
I must admit I’m coming around to the idea of a group blog, partly because I don’t just have CiB as my outlet. My personal stuff goes here including stuff about Brum. Impartial stuff goes there.
One of my worries about bringing in a wider group of people is whether they have enough of a sense of ownership of the site to contribute regularly. Why shouldn’t they just start their own blog? But if there’s enough of a difference between CiB and a personal blog where both can thrive then it could work.
Regarding the assistant / apprentice thing I should add that one reason for looking at this is because it’s an easy(ier) thing to get funded. Apparently. And I quite like the idea of Pete & Stef’s Excellent Blogging School. ;)
The group blogging model works very effectively for Boing Boing, where there is a very well chosen team - spread in their disciplines but also united in theme. This model could work for CIB.
Regarding the motivation to contribute regularly - what’s the money like? ;)