b5media

September 19th,2005

b5media is Live

By Darren Rowse

b5media is live!

After months of talking, planning, dreaming and teleconferences we’re happy to officially launch the worlds newest blogging network (well for another 15 minutes it’ll be the newest one).

In this Launch post I want to cover a number of questions we’re getting asked about:

1. What is b5media?
2. Other Blog Networks
3. Why b5media as a Name?
4. What are your First Blogs?
5. Are you in beta testing or Live?

In the post to follow this I’ll cover how bloggers can get involved (we’ll be taking applications from those wanting to join us shortly).

What is b5media?

b5media is a network of blogs that have been born out of conversations between Duncan Riley (of BlogHerald.com fame), Jeremy Wright (serial blogger from Ensight.org) and Darren Rowse (blogging at ProBlogger.net).

b5media is not a simple thing to sum up - you might want to look at the different ways that we as the founding team have described it in previous post on this blog.

• Duncan’s Thoughts
• Darren’s Dreams
• Jeremy’s Perspective

You’ll see in these posts we come from a variety of perspectives but that there are some common hopes and vision for b5media. Some of these include:

• Bloggers as Heroes - We are excited about the blogs that we’re in the process of launching - but we’re more excited about the team of bloggers behind them. As a result we are encouraging our bloggers to infuse their blogs with their own personality and to enjoy the raised profile that this will bring. We don’t want our bloggers to be faceless names behind their content - rather we’re hoping that b5media will be a launching pad for some exciting new blogging talent. As a result we’re working on resources to help make our bloggers better at what they do - both in the blogs they write at b5 but also in their own time.
• International Flavors - Our core team is made up of one Canadian and two Australians and our initial blogging team comes from a variety of other countries including the Philippines, UK, France and the US. We’re already talking to a range of other bloggers from other parts of the world and are looking forward to adding to this cultural diversity. While being international brings its challenges (try getting us all together on the one Skype Call!) we believe it will enrich our blogging.
• Passion - While we want to be a network that is rewarding to be a part of in financial terms - the way we’re choosing which blogs to start has more to do with a blogger’s passion than the commercial viability of a topic. The question we are asking our bloggers to consider when they apply to join us is ‘what would you love to write about?’ We believe that if bloggers are focussing upon their passions that readers will come and the commercial viability of blogs will be more likely to follow.
• Experience - Ducan, Jeremy and myself have about 10 years of blogging experience between us and in that time have been involved in the starting, running, writing and overseeing of around 60 blogs. We currently have a combined daily readership of around 100,000 unique visitors. This doesn’t ensure automatic success but it does mean that we enter into b5media with a fairly realistic idea of what is ahead. We know that successful blogging comes from hard work, strategic planning, a bit of luck and great content and authors. We’re optimistic that what we’re building has every chance of success.

Other Blog Networks

As we’ve told people about b5media - one of the common questions people ask is:

‘How are you different from (((insert other blog network name here)))?

It’s an interesting question and one that we understand - people like to define things and know where they fit in the scheme of things.

It’s difficult to plot where b5media sits in the spectrum of blogging networks because there are things that we like about all of them. In fact we’d like to acknowledge that b5media is not only born out of our own experiences of blogging (both Duncan and I already have blog networks) but the experiences of what we’ve seen other networks do as well as the experience of many others, especially the loyal readership that we’ve all developed on our blogs about blogging.

Why b5media as a Name?

Where did the name come from? Well we’ll let you come up with your own ‘b’ - although we are a Blogging network. The ‘5′ part comes from the fact that when we started talking about the network there was 5 of us involved in the initial conversations (in fact at one point there were 6 of us). As we talked about our hopes and dreams for b5 and as people came to terms with the shape and size of what we were doing and how much they were able to contribute - the 6 became 3. We want to acknowledge that what is being built today is built upon some of the ideas an vision of those others who were part of the initial conversations.

The Blogs

Everytime I open my inbox and spot an email from Duncan and Jeremy the number of blogs in the network seems to grow. We have big dreams for b5media - lots of blogs (and possibly other projects) - but one has to draw a line in the sand and start somewhere. So we’ve chosen to launch with 14 blogs. Some have been going for months, others weeks and a few just a matter of days. They are all at different stages of development. As a network we’re still in beta testing - so be a little patient with us as we get it all working the way we want.

Cell Phone 9 - a blog about mobile phone technology - written by Jayvee Fernandez from the Philippines who has extensive experience writing for a variety of magazines and sites on technology. He introduces himself here. Jayvee has 2 years of blogging experience and blogs on his personal blog at The Bugged Life

Flight Nest - a blog exploring the many facets of aviation. Tim Flight (real name) and Mike Elgan are the bloggers at Flight Nest. Time is from Maine in the USA and blogs at a cool blog called GPS Review and Mike is a technology writer/publisher/editor based in California who is involved in some pretty amazing projects both on the topic of aviation and wider technology. Check out some of his work at his site. Both Tim and Mike are hobby pilots - they know what they’re talking about and are set to make this an authoritative blog on a very popular topic.

Simply Dumb - this is where b5media gets a little quirky and takes a look at… well the dumb side of life. Who better to author this one but our very own Duncan Riley from Western Australia - best known for his work on the Blog Herald. It’s a blog about Weird, wacky, wonderful things from around the web - its on my news aggregator already - I love this stuff.

The Sports Weblog - Jacob Murphy heads up the Sports Blog which is the name suggests - is about Sport. Jacob lives in Canada and blogs at lyef & thymes (to name must one blog he’s worked on). Jacob has chosen to add personality to the mix, by always favoring one team in each league, and always contrasting things against that team.

The Movie Weblog - Jacob is also heavily involved in the movie blog (what a life - paid to write about sport and movies - all we need to do now is start a beer blog and he’ll be set!). Alongside Jacob is his co-editor - Erin Harvey. Erin is a self confessed ‘web addict’ and wrote one of the best applications for the job of editor of this and our ‘Play Girlz’ blog. She’s been blogging on a couple of blogs since 2002. The Movie Weblog will have a combination of movie news and reviews - real reviews by real people.

The Play Girlz Gaming Blog - Erin is involved in this blog also - a blog about Gaming by a couple of female gamers, Erin and Ingrid Diaz. Ingrid is from France and this is her first ever blog! I wouldn’t classify myself as a gamer, but yesterday when I forwarded the URL to a gaming friend, her reaction was real excitement - so it looks like Erin and Ingrid have already done something right! Erin and Ingrid are fun and funny - they came up with the name for the blog themselves - it should hit the spot with gamers - male and female!

The Microsoft Weblog - a blog written by John Evans from Syntagma. John is from the UK - and this blog is, as you’d expect, covering all news, rumors and and tips on the topic of Windows.

Windows Vista Weblog - John Evans is also heading this blog up - it and the Microsoft blog make a nice companions of one another - don’t you think? Windows Vista is Microsoft’s next Operating System so this blog should have plenty of interesting news, rumors and tips to post for some time to come.

Cooking Gadgets - I know a few people who are going to love this one - they’re the type that can’t get enough of those homeware shops, they drool over cheese shavers, talk for hours about apple corers and have draws full of all kinds of wonderful ‘essential’ kitchen tools. Professional blogger, Arieanna Foley from Canada, is heading up this blog. She’s a blogger on more blogs than I can mention here - but makes her blogging home at Blogaholics. I’ll be keeping my partner away from this one - she doesn’t need her kitchen gadget addiction fed.

She Knows Best - Arieanna Foley is heading up this blog also - one that I suspect I should probably add to my RSS subscription as its a blog about giving guys easy ways to be stylish, in an affordable, low maintenance way. Hairstyles, fashion, self esteem, whatever helps a guy be a better guy - all according the the world’s best source of information on how guys should live their lives…..Women! (who wrote that??) It’s kind of ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ with a twist.

Literally Blogging - a blog about literature. It’s one of the newest blogs to be added so only has a few posts and is next in line for a new template - but its a blog we’re excited about and wanted to squeeze into our first round of launches. The editors on Literally Blogging are Jacob Murphy and Erin Harvey (our team on the Movie Blog also).

Unplugged Living - I’m pretty excited about this one - a blog on living off the grid and finding your way to energy self-sufficiency. This will not only be a blog that a has a growing audience over the coming years (I know here in Australia this is a massive topic) but its one that hopefully gives something back to the world we live in. Kevin Humphrey is the editor on this blog - he’s an experienced blogger at Turbo Blogger (and other great blogs) and is a self confessed hippy - sounds perfect for a blog with a green bent.

The Search Engine Herald - a more established blog that has been running as part of Duncan’s Weblog Empire network. To this point Duncan has been editing the SE Herald but stay tuned for a new editor to take over in the next few days.

b5media - You’ve discovered this blog already of course - it’ll be written by Dunan, Jeremy and myself and will keep you up to date with all the latest news and announcements pertaining to the b5media network. Add it to your news aggregator and stay tuned over the next few days for a number of additional new blogs which we’re putting the final touches on and should add to the network in the coming week.

Speaking of New Blogs - we are pretty close to launching at least two more and will make some announcements about them in the coming days.

b5Beta

As mentioned above - b5media is currently in beta. We’re finalising many aspects of the network including design. Peter Flaschner from the Blog Studio is working on a new template for all our blogs as we speak (he also did our logo). What you see currently is just temporary. We’d love to hear your feedback on b5media - post your thoughts on your blog, email us or leave a comment - we’re learning lots and are keen to incorporate your ideas.

I feel like a need a virtual ribbon to cut or a virtual bottle of champagne to crack against the the b5media blog to make this thing official - but without either of those things handy - it gives me great pleasure to declare b5media officially launched.