Somewhere around last month, the IBNMA sprang into existence, headed by a “Paul Chaney”. According to the Facebook group:
The International Blogging and New Media Association was formed to promote and advance the blogging and new media industry through research, information, education and advocacy.
The Facebook group is currently standing at 82 members, so the IBNMA probably has fewer members itself. Membership, at the cost of US$25/year, entitles you to:
* Secure access to IBNMA Member Intranet with exclusive tools and resources
* Subscription to industry leading Blogger and Podcasting Magazine (current benefit)
* Monthly email newsletter
* Discount on training and certification classes
* Discount to registration to BlogWorld & New Media Expo (current benefit)
* Member to Member chat rooms and discussion groups (coming in late July)
* Discounted rates on publications and special offers at the online IBNMA store
Most of these benefits aren’t even current, and are only planned to launch in the future. Overall, I think the IBNMA is nothing but a moneymaking farce, and I’ll even tell you why:
The “Member Intranet” can’t be anything more than a loose dump of documents listing techniques and resources you’re likely to find via any one of the hundreds of blogging help sites out there. Hell, even BlogForge.
The Blogger and Podcasting Magazine is already a free publication.
Training and certification? Last I checked, the only real certification to gain entry to a company/group that’s blogging for profit is “know them personally”. Other than that, you’ll need a portfolio, which is pretty much what your blog is for!
Member to Member chat rooms? They invented Twitter and IRC for that, plus you can find various forums scattered around the Internet that already have so-called “A listers” registered. Plus, bloggers that know what they’re doing have those discussions take place right on their blogs anyway.
Discounted rates on publications on an online store that doesn’t exist, and that won’t publish or sell material you couldn’t get for free online anyway. No real reason to pay for that.
The only tangible benefit is the discount for entrance to the BlogWorld & New Media Expo, the cheapest ticket being $75. Since USA isn’t the capital of the planet, there are many bloggers doing their thing well in other countries that would probably be unable to attend anyway.
So much for “International”. In fact, so much for “association”, too. Technorati’s reporting there are several million blogs currently in operation, and the last incarnation of the IBNMA reached 200 members:
… I attempted to start an organization called the Professional Bloggers Association. Even though we gathered an A-list of founding members and had over 200 individuals express interest in joining, the association never got off the ground. [link]
Finally, the reason the blogosphere is unique and exciting is because it is so widespread, evolving at different rates, speaking different languages to different people on different topics, which makes their mission statement:
The International Blogging and New Media Association (IBNMA) has been formed to serve as a single voice representing members of the industry and as an advocate to promote its growth.
… seem pointless at best.
It would have been even funnier if it was Nigerian, but that would just be a dead giveaway.
Hey wogan. I think it is a bit harsh comparing the association to a Nigerian 401 scam. I understand that the organisation will have it’s detractors as it has already tried to get off the ground once before. My hope is that they have learnt from their mistakes first time round and will offer a better service this time. They even have a board of chubby balding guys in suits, they must mean business!
The same thing happened to the Marketing Association of South Africa but when they rose from the ashes like a Pheonix, they were great and I appreciated being a member so lets not be to cynical about the IBNMA’s intentions. Remember, all mature industries need such a board.
I wasn’t really comparing it to anything Nigerian up until the last line, but yes, I see your point. The thing here is that they’re asking for money in return for, well, nothing of value.
If there was something tangible that I, as a member of the international blogging community could gain by joining, then sure, I would. But there isn’t, and so I won’t. And given that the only real benefit is a discounted price on a conference that the founder of the IBNMA is responsible for starting anyway, is there really a point?
Given the free and open nature of the blogosphere, I would have had loads more respect for them if they started out by gathering all the resources they offer into a single, free umbrella, and then eventually charging membership fees for discounts on paid services that weren’t a part of the information available to everyone.
Yes, the blogosphere is maturing. That I won’t doubt. But given the very nature of the blogosphere, I doubt whether a single international body can really be all things to all members, everywhere. This just looks like an attempt to try re-locking the communication value unlocked by the blogosphere, something mentioned in this video.
Thanks for stopping by ;)
Wogan,
I appreciate your concerns and wish to address them.
First, some background. The IBNMA was founded by Rick Calvert, who is also founder of BlogWorld & New Media Expo. Rick, who has a background working with trade associations and tradeshows, wondered why a burgeoning industry like blogging/new media lacked such. Being a person who puts words into action, he started BlogWorld & New Media Expo, which proved to be an extremely successful event. He also laid the groundwork for a 501(c)6 non-profit organization, IBNMA.
It has taken the organization longer to get traction than he and the board anticipated, which is why we announced the relaunch. Based on my background and similar belief that this industry needed an associational body to serve its interests, the board extended to me the invitation to serve as President. My main goals at this point are to lay a solid foundation future growth and to kickstart membership recruitment.
While I am not a liberty to disclose membership numbers, I can tell you that they do exceed the number in the Facebook group.
As to benefits, you’re absolutely correct. Most of them are in early-stage development. Two things have to happen before we can put plans into action. First, we have to create an advisory board and we have to have a more robust Web presence, one designed with the needs of an association in mind. Both are taking shape.
We will announce our advisory board next week and should, within a two-week timeframe, have our new site in place.
You are also correct in that Blogger & Podcaster Magazine is free, in digital form. However, membership in the IBNMA includes a subscription to the print edition, which retails for $79 per year in the US and $99 per year internationally. That, in and of itself, is a tangible enough benefit to warrant the $25 membership fee. Also, because many of our members will be participating in BlogWorld Expo, the registration discount is meaningful.
That being said, our sincere desire is to provide numerous benefits to members. It is our hope the advisory board (which will include some very recognizable names) will give us direction as to what those should be.
I’ve been a blogger since 2003 and understand the independent mindset that prevails within the blogosphere. We don’t expect everyone to endorse or embrace what we’re doing. Doubtless, there will be detractors and we’re OK with that. The proof is in the pudding as they say and we intend to prove our worth. The board and I are in this for the long-haul.
(BTW, for what it’s worth, none of us are paid for the work we’re doing. Everyone on the executive and advisory boards are volunteering their time.)
I would be happy to dialogue with you personally about our plans and agenda. Again, I appreciate your concerns and willingness to discuss them in the open forum that is the blogosphere.
Regards,
Paul Chaney, President
International Blogging and New Media Association
The IBNMA was not founded to make money Wogan. Quite the opposite in fact. It has only cost me the founder, and Miles Durfee (the person who kept it alive for the last year) money and countless hours of our time. In fact Miles has spent far more time and money than he ever expected. More on that later.
BlogWord was started to make money and for the simple fact that I love new media and want to see it grow. I make no effort to hide the fact that BlogWorld is a business.I suspect like you and this blog I do it more than anything because I have a passion for it. It is all consuming for me, every waking hour that I am not working to pay my bills, I am working on BlogWorld to help it grow. I already made a good living running other major tradeshows so I didn’t “need” it to make money. In fact again my life would be much more at ease without it but I am convinced this is the right thing to do for new media and it has driven me to work from the wee hours of the morning till the …. wee hours of the morning again seven days a week for the last two years. As the saying goes there are miles to go before I sleep.
Anyway back to the IBNMA, after making the decision to launch BlogWorld all the research led me to believe this was an industry being born. Not like your typically related industries of magazines, newspapers, television but an industry none the less.
In fact parts of blogging are all of those things mentioned above being reinvented at the same time. WOW! A very exciting thing for all of us bloggers to be a part of. By launching BlogWorld my partners and I were putting ourselves right at the center of that amazing storm, but industries need more than a tradeshow.
They need an association. look at any industry in the world and you will find an association, in fact in most cases you will find several, dozens, or scores of them. Trust me I have worked for (and still do) work for 50 and 100 year old associations. Most of them suck. But they all have the same mission at their core. To help their industry grow and prosper. To educate their members, the general public, and lawmakers, to protect them from harmful legislation. Others have industry specific goals but that is the gist of any association.
Those are the goals of IBNMA. Yes IBNMA is just being born. No it does not provide all of the benefits we want it to yet but this is only the beginning and there is a need for an association like the IBNMA. We hope it will succeed. Maybe it will fail. One thing is certain we are going to work our asses off to make it succeed.
IBNMA has not made any money to this day. I have no intention of owning it or running it. That is why we hired Paul Chaney who works for free by the way. The eventual goal is to pay him a salary commiserate with his responsibilities but that is way to go yet. He has to continue working his full time job to pay his bills and work for free full time on IBNMA. He is an amazing guy who desparately wants to help “his industry”. You should get to know him. In fact you should have pinged him before writing your post but hey thats how “our industry” works right?
But I digress my only goal was to help fill a need I saw that “my industry” needed. I have put in my own personal money to that end. That $25 membership fee you mentioned. Most of those members come via the discount off of BlogWorld registration. That comes out of my pocket.
As for being in the United States, that just happens to be where we live. I am sure if I lived in South Africa we would have done all this there. There are lots of international associations based here in the USA and they do provide benefits world wide. New Media is certainly a world wide endeavor and it is easy for all of us to communicate and mobilize using the very tools that spawned “our industry”. So I don’t see any reason to be hung up on a physical location.
Everything I have told could be bullshit. You don’t know me from Adam. But if you did know me you would know this is my life and I live and breath it every day. All I am asking is that you give IBNMA a chance. I’m not asking you to join. save your $25 and just observe what it grows into and hey if we do something stupid feel free to call us on it.
/ramble off
Blog on!
Rick Calvert, CEM
CEO & Co-founder
BlogWorld & New Media Expo
1804 Garnet Ave. #518
San Diego, CA 92109
Ph. 858.309.4747 ext. 102
Fx. 858.430-3491
cell 951.723-7157
Skype rick.calvert
Follow us on Twitter @Blogworld
Funny. Thanks for the chuckle. You’re an excellent writer with a keen eye. The last line about ‘being Nigerian…’
Your points are fair. At first glance, and even at 2nd and 3rd and 10th glances, there’s lots of work to do to fulfill the goals and mission. One idea would be to wait and get it all just dandy perfect, do it in stealth mode and then announce with a big splash made possible by more secret VC funding.
But that’s boring. Lots of people have done that. Yawn.
What we decided was to…just get going. Just start doing things today. And do them in an open, transparent (even balding), accountable manner. And maybe more importantly, do it in an inclusive manner. Invite the comments and feedback including the ‘first step’…the criticisms.
You’re right in much of your commentary. (I’m still enjoying the Nigerian wrapup…) Nothing but bold claims so far and here we are at the first step for all to see either what we haven’t done or how far we’ve yet to go or what we could accomplish. And already, we’ve got participation and feedback. And from someone who looks and sounds like former idealist who’s possibly had some of that crushed by the less-than-ideal changes on ‘net.
It’s ok. You’ll keep us on the straight and narrow, calling us out when we’ve failed or appear to fail or time hasn’t allowed everything to develop.
And maybe you’re right. Maybe we will fail. I can’t speak for my fellow board members, but it won’t be the first time for me. And it’ll hurt more this time as it’ll be such a public failure. I don’t know about you but I like my failures kept private. But…now it’s all out in the open. Success or failure and we hope you comment on it, report it, riff or rip on it.
That’s part of the process. That’s the power of blogging and new media. And they’re are millions using it now. And millions more who’d love to learn more about it. And at the very least, our failures will help them know what NOT to do. And you’ll have fun commenting on it. There’s the blogosphere in action again.
But wait, what if we get somewhere. What if we fulfill …half of our missions. That’s pretty good. Still a failure. We didn’t get all the way home. But what can we learn in the process? How many newbie bloggers, not experienced vets like yourself or your readers, but people struggling with all this new media…stuff…what if we helped them master this media just a bit more. How many more voices from how many countries could we help find expression.
At the very least win or lose, succeed or fail, it’ll be a great ride. I’m already having fun commenting on one of the first blog posts in response to our announcement.
Oh. One thing you’re not accurate on is that not all of us are wearing suits. I’m the one not wearing a suit. And that’s a cornfield in the background. I’m from Iowa. Kinda like a different country from most of the rest of the US.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. As the Lord is with you, would you keep us in your prayers, help us stay on the right track?
[...] International Blogging and New Media Association? - WoganMay.com Not everyone trusts our motives or credits us with being a real organization. We understand that the “proof is in the pudding” and we intend to prove our worth sooner rather than later. My desire and that of the board of directors is to provide real, tangible value to our members. You have entrusted us both with your finances and attention and we intend not to let you down. [...]
Wow, okay, I have three comments here that are longer than the post itself! This’ll take some sifting, sorry if I miss something.
I understand that, yes, IBNMA is a new venture, and yes, it’ll take some time to get off the ground properly. And, like all new ventures, there are some hefty time and money costs involved.
You’re all already aware of the fact that I live in South Africa. We’re not exactly on the fringes of the global blogosphere, but we’re a ways away from the States, and all the US-centric benefits of being an IBNMA member. That was my primary concern with this post - the “Internationality” of the IBNMA.
I have nothing against progress, or creating order out of chaos. I’m also (perhaps) a little too passionate about “New” social media, so I can understand most of the motivations behind all of this, and I’m not necessarily against those, either.
You might have noticed I have a different way of approaching things, and when it comes to industry bodies within something as open as the blogosphere, I’d rather make it a freely-available resource to begin with.
I’m sure that you could, with relatively little effort, find thousands of bloggers out there willing to contribute their time to producing materials, assist with research, moderate whatever forums and chatrooms you come up with, etcetera. The blogosphere is a community, and community-oriented projects are more likely to succeed.
Because of that, I saw little point in paying a membership fee right upfront, in return for benefits that would be freely available elsewhere. This was the second point of my post.
Like I said in this comment, I would much rather prefer an association that forms out of an active community engagement - by having input from hundreds (maybe thousands) of people, you’re likely to form a far stronger association than if you just have 5 of 10 people starting it up. As passionate and knowledgeable those 5 people may be, they just don’t have the ground-level, distant-spectator perspective of the hundreds of thousands of people they’re forming the association for.
Just between us, I think you (and you, and you) are far more suited to forming and running something like the IBNMA. I couldn’t lead a horse if I tried (believe me, I’ve tried), never mind making it drink anything.
I’ve just seen the health aspect to having different perspectives with different input, and that’s what this all was about. The Nigerian thing was, well, lol … we’ve had plenty of them here in SA :)
@Paul Chaney - Well, you have me on Facebook.
@Rick Calvert - I have no doubt that all your sacrifices towards the blogging industry will pay off in time. Yes, I also think we need something like an association, even if it’s only US-based at first. International’s a pretty big leap, don’t you think? :)
@Zane Safrit - I’m hardly any sort of policeman - just another blogger. Okay, so maybe they’re not all that different, lol. And I keep plenty things in my prayers - I’m sure the IBNMA is probably in there already ;)
Thanks for stopping by and leaving those veritable battering rams of comments. Now, at least, we have a clearer picture about all of this :)
Not *all* US- focused, Wogan. Dare I say, after the Boks’ unfortunate experience at Subiaco the other night (I know, all the referee’s fault etc), I’m an Aussie who has been doing a bit behind the scenes to help Paul - not “a” Paul Chaney as, for many of us, “the” Paul - and the others to get this show moving again. So yes I am biased in favour of what is being done.
I am also very committed to helping promote and support the “I-ness” of IBNMA and I’m hoping to have the opportunity to do more in that regard. I know there are some great blogs and bloggers in South Africe - and also, by the by, some dedicated and very decent people blogging from Nigeria, as I’m sure you are aware. I hope IBNMA will help to make the work of “the rest of us” around the globe better known.
Also, I am really pleased that my $25 will enable me to get in print form the magazine which I have been unable to read online (maybe they’ve changed the technology, but I had no luck the last couple of times).
at least we are paying attention =p.
The reason for launching as the International vs. US or State or los angeles blogging association was forward thinking.
That is the ultimate goal. I have been a member of, worked for or with and dealt with countless associations who think small in the beginning and end up being trapped for decades.
We live in a global community particularly in the blogosphere which is one of the great things about new media. We can debate across continents.
Your points about legions of volunteers is well taken and we would welcome them. To begin anything you have to begin somewhere. Those of us replying to your post have put some effort into this to try and lead. You don’t have to follow, you don’t have to contribute. You can start your own effort.
We could be completely off our rockers, but the way we have went about starting this association is they way hundreds of thousands of associations have been started. With the added benefit of learning from some of the mistakes and successes they have had.
[...] Some would say a professional association for bloggers wouldn’t offer them anything they can’t already get for free on the Internet. But I believe it would. The professional blogging society would create standards, reliability and credibility in this expanding media. I think with the changes we are seeing in the traditional news media, it is imperative that bloggers use their power for the good of society. [...]