Business Blog Wire

Some people like it, but a some a great many people hate it.  I think it may have problems, but deserves a fighting chance.  What is it?  The Open Source Media blog network, located at OSM.org.  Complaints by other bloggers have ranged from the company’s name (it was formerly known as Pajamas Media, but now sounds like "Open Sores Media") to its URL (why not opensourcemedia.com or opensourcemedia.org, or even osm.com?), to its paltry initial news offerings, faulty design and uninspiring amount of reader participation.  Search on Technorati for "open source media" to get a quick picture of what bloggers are saying about OSM’s launch.  (By the way, if you think this story is boring, think twice: as I write this, Technorati’s main page lists "Open Source Media" as the second-most popular search term in the past hour.)

Those are all valid points.  But let’s give OSM a chance - it has several dozen very intelligent and experienced writers (bloggers) working for it and a hefty sum of money ($3.5 million-plus) already invested in its success.  In three months, most (if not all) of the preliminary glitches will hopefully have been ironed out.  If OSM fails, at least we business bloggers can learn from watching it go down.  Personally, I’d like to see Open Source Media succeed - just needs some sprucing up and some time to get established.

Moral of the Story: CONTENT, not hype, not expertise, and not even money, is ultimately what appeals to Web users (or content creators, as businesses are more fully realizing now) and stimulates productive commentary.  Let’s keep a close eye on OSM’s progress as a blog network.

Technorati tags: Open Source Media, Blog networks, Blogging

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