Well, there’s certainly been a varied response to the release of the magazine, Stephen seemed to think it was a good idea, and we got some nice responses to the our opening post, but at the same time there Judy O’Connell wasn’t happy at all as apparently it reflects ‘an energetic move to monetize blogging in education’ and Miguel Guhlin produced a completely over the top headline (pulled a ‘me’ ;) with Selling Out the Edublogs Community? which, to be honest, I’m not sure what to make of.
So, thinking specifically about Judy, I figured that we probably need to do a couple of things, in the first case clear up a number of misconceptions about the mag and it’s purpose, and in the second (and certainly the one I’m looking forward to more) lambast anyone who is going to criticize us for promoting Edublogs or, more pertinently, being a business.
So out with the boring stuff first. Besides the monetization bit, Judy certainly seems to imply that this is an Edublogs-only -club or that it exists, ahem, for ‘the overt promotion of bloggers who use the edublogs platform’, which is of course not true. While the magazine aims to inform, engage and generally make using edublogs better for the people who do use it, contribution is open to everyone. Wanna test that out, try submitting something or giving us a few weeks at least!
And more to the point, if we want to create a magazine that serves our users, why on earth shouldn’t we be able to do so?
Oh, because apparently:
rather than creating a magazine that engages us all in the global conversation. This is an obvious commercial move at the expense of egalitarianism in blogging
You what? Who exactly handed the responsibility to us to serve a global conversation? Oh, hang on, nobody. But guess what, that’s actually what we’re trying to do, within a few boundaries obvioulsy, but best we can.
And more to the point (slipping into interesting stuff here), what exactly is this notion of egalitarianism in blogging (I thought we’d gotten over that bit of nonsense), and… drumroll… what is wrong with this being a commercial move? In fact, what is wrong with Edublogs being a commercial operation (it is) at all?
Because here’s how the magazine is commercial. It will provide (hopefully) great news, information, ideas, resources and all that jazz for edubloggers the world over. Contributors will get a decent sized audience (we’re able to promote it to a lot of people, all the ‘egalitarianism’ in the world isn’t going to get you thousands of readers a day), links back to their sites and the chance to engage in a conversation they might have struggled to get into from a central place. Existing Edublogs users will hopefully enjoy it and as a result will enjoy using Edublog even more, and hopefully some people will see the site and think ‘hey, I should get myself an edublog’ or ‘let’s check out this Edublogs Campus thing’.
Which will, in turn hopefully help us to continue to grow and develop Edublogs as a whole. Because as I said, that’s what we want to do, both to provide a great tool for teachers and students (that’s ad free, unlike the platform Judy uses that plasters adsense all over the site, surreptitiously) and to put food on our tables.
I really want institutions to sign up for Edublogs Campus - besides being a bloody great platform (and incredibly affordable by regular hosted elearning tools standards) which I’m hoping is going to be able to evolve into an approach to online teaching and learning that revolutionizes our current tawdry practice-by-platform, it also (kinda) pays the bills.
And I’m dead keen that users sign up for free Edublogs, first up you’ll love the features (I promise, we’re way ahead of other blog providers in many ways) but also because we offer, and are going to extend, paid upgrades that will give you pretty much everything you could possibly want out of a blog… for a tiny fraction of the price you’d pay if you hosted it yourself… and also because that pays for the petrol to drive my kinds to school.
So what do our users get for this? Well, you could say brilliant, free, advertising free, supported, evolving online teaching and learning tools and community. Sheesh.
And if we didn’t commercialize this properly, as Stephen pointed out rather bloody well in regards to projects like elgg (and we all know what happened to eduspaces) and as Tom Hoffman noted at the time, services without supporting business models will not make it.
Really, what I’d like to see is the people who criticize us for commercialization or ’selling out’ do three things:
1. Put yourself in our shoes, remember that this, along with Incsub, is my full time job, it’s what I do for a living and what tens of thousands of educators seem to find useful…. what would you do?
2. Next time you’re out grocery shopping, and you pop into your specialty store (organic, really nice fruit and veg, butchers etc.), make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to tell them what you think of them for making money out of you bu giving you what you want in exchange for $.
3. Get a grip fer heavens sake: “There is real danger it might be destroying the open collaborative environment of blogging around the world… please reconsider the marketing of this magazine…for the sake of our students. (Oh I know it won’t happen - not everyone puts the needs of our kids first!)” Leave the invective up to the pros ;)
15 responses so far ↓
1
incorporated subversion - education, media, community » Blog Archive » In defense of the magazine
// Jan 30, 2008 at 5:40 pm
[…] New post up, on The Edublogs Magazine, responding to Judy’s utterly OTT criticism. […]
2
Kate Olson
// Jan 30, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Yeah, me too, me too! Great job, James - I LOVE edublogs, LOVE the magazine and am one of the few business-minded educators out there. Why shouldn’t people make $$ doing what they do? Especially since WE’RE getting this for free! Keep it up and please never take edublogs away from me :-) You’ve also inspired me to perhaps submit material………
3
Miguel Guhlin
// Jan 30, 2008 at 6:59 pm
You’re just jealous you didn’t get to write the headline first.
;->
And, to clarify your 3 points:
1) Make money, just be open about it so we know what your business IS making money on. Be transparent about being a business…not an unusual expectation in the blogosphere. Read Cluetrain Manifesto yet? Here’s a link to read:
http://tinyurl.com/368btz
2) When I walk into the grocery store, I get what I pay for (pretty much). When I get an edublog.com, I get a lot more and you make money. It shouldn’t be a big deal for James Farmer the edublog business rep to be transparent about it.
3) If leaving invective to the pros means you professional bloggers, move over, pal. The edubloggers are here.
8->
Wishing you well on this venture…I’ll be signing up a folks at my March 1 workshop. Care to send some cheap door prizes for folks?
Working on another astounding headline,
Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner
4
M Pamela Bumsted
// Jan 30, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Just to clarify, Miguel, in case others mis-type the URL,
edublog .com has no relation to http://edublogs.org
5
Edublogs launches Edublogs Magazine. | SoulSoup: e-learning blog, elearning blog, knowledge management, e-learning strategy, learning experience design, usability
// Jan 30, 2008 at 10:28 pm
[…] I am little late on this, already lots of (unnecessary) talks floating around, but I have to mention : James and Lorelle VanFossen launched a neatly […]
6
James
// Jan 30, 2008 at 11:43 pm
But we are completely transparent aren’t we? There’s a big ad for Campus at the top… and any edublogger knows about upgrades.
And we write / post stuff like this, and have open comments on everything, and get feedback from users all the time, and have forums and and and….
How much more transparent could / should we be?
7
Teaching Generation Z » Blog Archive » Looking Out Through The Foggy Windows Of My Edublogs Glasshouse
// Jan 31, 2008 at 4:10 am
[…] defense (because I couldn’t be happier with my blogging experience here) but he does a much better job on his own without my feeble […]
8
tech4teach
// Jan 31, 2008 at 4:53 am
James, you provide a fantastic service for all of us educators (and that includes me from the “Tech” side) and provide a quality product.
I really don’t know what some would expect from you. You are very open and clear on what you provide through Edublogs, and what extra can be purchased.
We are looking at Edublog Campus as an option for our College. We like the look of what you provide, and would like to integrate this for our Students. We have at least 1 “twisted” Teacher who can’t wait to get her classes stuck into blogging and buliding up their own networks.
Keep up the good work James. Thanks for providing us this great resource.
Cheers,
TFT
9
Wm Chamberlain
// Jan 31, 2008 at 7:12 am
I don’t understand the complaints. Would bloggers prefer to pay for their blogs, or would they prefer to not have blogs at all? It seems like those are the only other choices.
10
dave cormier
// Jan 31, 2008 at 6:43 pm
i really think you should talk more about me in your magazine guys. What about my feelings? Why aren’t I on your list?
James, while you’re reading cluetrain, there’s this thing called the ‘internet’ that you might find interesting.
omg.
dave.
11
Frank's Blog
// Jan 31, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Controversy sure is good for ratings and promotion on both sides. I need to find a soapbox (authentic of course) to generate a little more flurry of activity. I just read another popular blogger earlier today (different issue but same impact) that got on his soapbox for a heartfelt cause .. and lots of bloggers flocked to his site too to comment and chime in. I think both sides are gaining nicely in this “dialog.”
Seems bloggers respond more to soapboxes than to stories on twitter .. time to restrategize my plan!
Frank
>a href=”http://franksblog.edublogs.org/”Faces of Web 2.0 ★ 21st Century Teachers
12
Miguel Guhlin
// Jan 31, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Frank, you figured us out…gee, how many comments and links came out of that exchange, James?
hehe
;->
I’m still trying to figure out what Dave meant. Dave, why don’t you explain it on your blog and we’ll go hang out at your place…
Figuring this is as clear as it gets that it’s over,
Miguel
13
Frank's Blog
// Jan 31, 2008 at 11:22 pm
@Miguel I’m talking about exposure more that hard comments/links. Most traffic to blogs does not result in posted comments or links. Everybody blogs to be read after all. Hey, anyway you can get it! Between twitter, IM, bloggers, etc. there was considerable noise. After all, how did so many people know about it? No problem here. Whatever gets the rating up a bit is fine with me. Everybody wins.
14
dogtrax
// Feb 2, 2008 at 3:16 am
Good lord.
No good deed …
If people don’t like the concept of the Edublogs Mag, then they shouldn’t read it or put into their RSS.
I agree that no one has annointed James as the guardian of the EduSphere, even though I believe that Edublogs has done more to get more teachers involved in Web applications that any other thing out there. I say this as someone who gives workshops and presentations to teachers in local, state and national meetings.
Kevin
15
http://magazine.edublogs.org/2008/01/30/in-defense-of-this/
// Mar 27, 2008 at 2:23 am
[…] writing a post about this entry http://magazine.edublogs.org/2008/01/30/in-defense-of-this/ Stay […]
Leave a Comment