NETWORKED

At left, just under the calendar, you’ll see a new badge that identifies me as part of the The Corante Network, specifically the Corante Media Hub. Explanations are in order.

The Corante Network is an aggregation of blogs (media is one of the categories). From the about information:

The Corante Media Hub is your starting point for keeping abreast of the best writing and thinking on media across the blogosphere and beyond. Here you’ll find the field’s most insightful observers and commentators tracking and reporting on its latest developments as well as weighing in on its future.

This doesn’t mean any changes to this blog. It’s still mine, all mine and I’ll keep blogging the way I always have: rambling from topic to topic, pointing to what I consider vital and interesting pieces of media and about media, adding my own thoughts to ongoing conversations, using the act of writing as a way of trying to figure things out, and so on. Becoming a member of the network means contributing to an aggregation of posts at the Corante Media Hub. No money has changed hands (nor will it, unless I start taking ads at this site).

In short, Corante doesn’t now own this blog or have any exclusive rights to it, nor do I have any obligations to Corante, beyond running the badge and headline feed at left. (I really have to redesign this site; see post below.) Because I believe in the power of aggregation, and the role it will play in boosting the signal from the noise, I’m happy to be involved and to let my content help create a worthwhile site. If Corante makes money from it, good for them.

I signed up for the Corante Network for two reasons: because they asked, and because of the power of aggregation. Second reason first:

I believe that one of the strengths of the internet is the power to aggregate: bring together information from a wide variety of sources and offer it as a starting point for exploration. You can look at mainstream media as aggregation. The internet takes that and increases the potential hugely, because of the ‘net’s tendency to break down content silos. The Corante Media Hub is aggregation in action.

(From a selfish point of view aggregation also has the power to drive visits to individual sites.)

The Corante Media Hub is a good starting point for some of the web discussion of media. (Note that I wrote “a good starting point.” There are others of value, too, among them I Want Media, Paid Content and Editors Weblog.) There are some good, solid names on the roster of Hubsters — Robert Cauthorn, Jonathan Dube, Terry Heaton, Steve Yelvington, Tim Porter, Howard Rheingold and Vin Crosbie among them.

Which brings me back to the first reason I cited for signing on: Corante editor Hylton Jolliffe asked. I am staggered (and not quite convinced) to be counted among “the field’s most insightful observers and commentators.” I shouldn’t be, I guess. Over the past year, I’ve received emails, links and mentions in other blogs indicating that something that I’ve written has resonated. Traffic here is low (some of those I join at the hub get as much traffic in a day as I get in a couple of weeks), but apparently there is something of value in the attempts I’m making to understand what’s happening with journalism.

That’s the story behind the badge, and the Corante Media Hub. Check it out: it is a nice resource, even if I do say so myself.

TAGS: CORANTE, MEDIA HUB, AGGREGATION, JOURNALISM