My Take On Open Source Media

Note: I am not a member of Open Source Media - or OSM.

This post is extremely important to you and I would strongly encourage you to explore its few links, including OSM, as a starting point - and please read and click, and read and click through as many entries as you can.

It's important because we now live in an information age and the information you manage to consume from the so much which is out there may be the most important aspect of your life. It will shape you, your children and increasingly become your connection to the world, perhaps even coming to define your world as you move through its information.

Even more importantly, perhaps, is that web logging and ventures like OSM empower you to shape your information sources more directly and efficiently than ever before. Ultimately, it is that close and quick interactivity, along with the ability to actively participate in it, that represent the greatest advantage of emerging technologically-enhanced media over what bloggers call the MSM. It is the future - though some don't yet know it, and no one yet knows what that future will eventually be.

I chose not to be a part of OSM, first, as I felt it was important to retain my independence for now - and in that sense, I am not a big fan. Additionally, I have significant issues with how it has been devised and what it could do to the blogosphere as presently comprised. The latter reason being just as good a reason to join it, BTW, depending upon your perspective.

The blogosphere will and must change - it's inevitable - the nature of the beast, if you will. But insider battles are best left for another day. Ultimately, they should and will be best resolved by readership numbers and economic viability, not insider bickering - though that bickering is extremely important, too.

As you read through you will see friction, protest, some fault-finding and much high praise. All of them should be considered .... by you. Why I applaud and welcome OSM is because it is new, it is experimental and risk-taking - and win or lose, it is now a part of the ongoing formation of our new information-based world.

That's an amazing thing to observe. Were it a planet, you would be seeing it at a time when amorphous gases were spinning, tremendous heat was being generated, and only the patient and lucky observer will be around when whatever is happening will ultimately emerge as a world transformed - and all based upon information.

Your reading and participating in it, however you choose to define and interpret it, is what will, more than any other one thing, make it better and worth while in the end.

So, do yourself a favor and take some serious time and explore - OSM along with

Pundit Guy with this: Well, they pursued, and they found it – a name to call themselves by, which could be a name already called for, and claimed by, one Christopher Lydon.

LaShawn Barber with this: I’ll update this post with news and views (and photos) on Open Source Media later today. In the meantime, check out funnyman Scrappleface (blogging on WordPress now).

Ann Althouse with this: But what do you think of the new Open Source site? Is it fun to use and workable? I notice a lot of flabbiness in the writing. The home page currently features this block of text to draw us into the blog opinion on a top news story:

Instapundit with this: And though it's a light-blogging day for me, that doesn't mean there's nothing to read. Check out the Carnival of the Vanities, the Carnival of Feminists, the Carnival of Education, the History Carnival, the Carnival of Liberty, and the Carnival of the Liberated. And I think I forgot to mention the Carnival of the Capitalists earlier, too.

and Moxie with this: It's deja vu while watching the disaster formerly known as Pajamas Media. Luckily, they not only found a truly generic (and utterly forgettable) name to go by -- Open Source Media -- but they also had the foresight to buy a domain name!!!

So, what are you waiting for? There's a new world out there for you to explore. Just be sure and come back and let me know what you think.

Comments

[hardyandtiny]

"Were it a planet, you would be seeing it at a time when amorphous gases were spinning, tremendous heat was being generated, and only the patient and lucky observer will be around when whatever is happening will ultimately emerge as a world transformed...."

haha

[Buckley F. Williams]

Whether or not it succeeds or fails, I agree that this is an important step in blogging. They have managed to garner a good deal of media attention, but their have been big missteps (as Pundit Guy, Dennis the Peasant & Ann Althouse have pointed out.)

Will these hurt their credibility? Will they get better at communicating their intent (an odd thing to be lacking given the communicators on board)? Following through with what they say? Will they learn from mistakes and adapt? Will they only continue to market and focus on the large and best known blogs?

To my last point. One of the ideas that was consistently pitched when the concept of Pajamas Media was conceived was that they were not focusing just on the big name blogs (Disclosure: Mine is not a big name blog.). As a newer and relatively small and unknown blogger, this was an attractive notion to me.

However, and I may have missed something, every single piece of correspondence and press release has focused on the "star power" of the talent on board. I understand that using the names of Michell Malkin & Glenn Reynolds makes sense, but it is not how they said it was going to play out. Again, has the gameplan changed?

Because of the size and scope of the project (and the nature of the blogosphere), they will be under intense scrutiny the entire way. We will see how it plays out.

[jeff]

OMG, Moxie, too good!

[MarlboroGal]

This spells out the goals of OSM:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/leigh200511150825.asp

[Fil]

cool!

[Fil]

cool!