What is a blog? Abandoning the top 20: everyone can be a star (and it's not us deciding it) video clip
Monday, April 4, 2005
Yes, no more top 20. The WeblogProject will not be using the votes submitted by bloggers to select a number of bloggers to be interviewed.
As of now we feel that our proposition for letting everyone vote and elect the most relevant bloggers to go and interview around the world does not work. We acknowledge our error and we gently steer to improve our direction.
This is what we think:
a) In the grassroots spirit of the movie, we agree and convene that nor A-list or any other individual group should be reserved preference exclusively due to past glories or simply to length of service.
b) The interest is not so much for having the popular A-lister rather than the unknown guy or vide-versa, but for having strong, impactful stories that can allow us to bridge to those who still balk at the word "blog" without understanding what the party is all about.
c) The top20 as it stands (and as we had expected) is not the result of a fair and transparent process. Some participants have been playing the smart guys and we don't want to scold or police no-one.
d) Roland Tanglao and others who prefer to remain anonymous have manifested to us their non-comfort with having in the top20 popular A-list bloggers, essentially for reasons of democracy and extending the opportunity to more people to have a voice in the movie.
e) I (Robin) and Marco want to guarantee that those that will be part of the movie will have an important story to tell. We seek not the blogger who uses the blog to express personal ideas and commentaries with no particular other objective than making himself public. We are rather looking for those that have created, built, enabled and changed something with their blog. We are looking for individuals that thanks to blogs have in some important way transformed their lives or the way they carry out their professional interests.
f) If your question is now: "so, who are you going to interview then?"
The answer is the following:
First, remember that YOU can interview anyone, including having someone else interview YOU.
You need not ask permission to us.
Anyone should be free to interview or capture what sHe feels most appropiate for conveying the message that The WeblogProject wants to carry across:
What are blogs?
What can you do with them?
How can a blog enable and radically change the way things are done?
We are going to move in multiple parallel directions, as much needs to be discovered and tested openly in our approach to grassroots movie making.
I will be soon be shooting some clips in Seattle and San Francisco (in two weeks from now), and so will happen with Marco and Massimo who will be gathering some fresh initial ideas between Rome and Milan.
In the end, as the movie wants to be owned by as many producers and directors as possible (those who will want to compile and edit their final masters), there is no need or advantage in imposing or recommending a list of "top" bloggers to be interviewed.
What is rather important is that we cover bloggers who have unique, powerful stories to tell.
Whether they are A-list bloggers or unknown people should matter little to us.
Coming up next: our overall plan, dates, the live press conference from San Francisco, types of video contributions we expect, formats/duration (dropped 2 min. limit too).
URL of this article:
http://www.theweblogproject.com/2005/04/04/abandoning_the_top_20_everyone.htm
April 27, 2005 at 6:04 AM
ey! cambiaron el caballo a mitad del río ... :-S
bueno... supongo que habrán tenido sus motivos y también supongo que poco importará lo que opinemos los bloggers hispanoparlantes del culo del mundo ... siempre nuestro peso relativo será menor que el de los que viven del río grande para arriba
hubiera sido bueno tenerlos por el cono sur de visita entrevistando a algún blogger para este proyecto, pero también va a ser bueno ver esto terminado y poder observar qué es lo que opinan en otros lados del planeta
saludos!