[Poll] Wouldn't it be great if all the small Ubuntu news outlets joined together?

[DeadSuperHero]

Note that I'm not one to point out a practical way of doing this, but the notion of it struck me today. Allow me to explain

There are about 6 tech-related websites that deal specifically with Ubuntu articles. Some sites do tutorials, others cover insights into upcoming releases, some even talk about what Ubuntu OEM's are up to. Fixes, betas, demos, and interviews, these sites have a compendium of great updates concerning what's going on in the Ubuntu community.

The communities that I can name off of the top of my head are as follows:

-OMG! Ubuntu! (http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/)
-WorksWithU (http://www.workswithu.com/)
-Ubuntu Geek (http://www.ubuntugeek.com/)
-Ubuntu News (http://www.ubuntu-news.net/)
-Learning Ubuntu (http://www.learningubuntu.com/)

Each of the sites have some strong points playing to them, as well as some week points. I like OMG! Ubuntu, but it's understaffed for example. WorksWithU has some solid content on the corporate side of Ubuntu, but is very slow to update articles sometimes. Ubuntu News has a horrendous layout in my opinion, but a ton of content.

It is also important to note that each community is relatively small. To many Ubuntu users, these sites may actually be entirely unknown.

Here's my thinking: What if the admins/staff members of each site were to sit down and discuss collaborating on a single large-scale Ubuntu-centric news site? After all, if one were interested in finding news on Windows or Microsoft one need only check out PC Mag. For MacOS, there's Macworld or TUAW. For gadgets and in-betweens, Engadget Gizmodo and Lifehacker.

The fact of the matter is, a lot of Ubuntu coverage on tech sites is marginally smaller than coverage of MacOS or Windows. With these small dedicated sites, there is something, but there is no definitive source of news for Ubuntu users. Even sites such as Linux.com could be said to be out of whack for the average end-user that just wants to know about upcoming features and what they do.

So once again to reiterate, in a nutshell: Would it be viable (or even possible) to get some of the prolific authors doing Ubuntu coverage on their blogs and small-scale sites to work together on a large, pro-Ubuntu community site dedicated to Ubuntu news only?

[DeadSuperHero]

Bump bumpity? Any insight at all would be great?

[Xidram]

Collaboration always sounds nice and usually can increase productivity. Have you sent e-mails to the maintainers of those sites to see what they themselves think? Perhaps start with focus on two and then work your way out. If I am not mistaken, Mark Shuttleworth took that approach with his 'quest' (for lack of a more accurate and less RPG oriented term coming to mind) to increase collaboration between distros, and he started discussing it on the Debian Project's mailing list.

Though I should mention that I would opt for federation (as in keep them smaller and separate, but collaborating with their content) than to have just one huge website. Someone has to run a website, and having one guy (or team) in charge of that much sounds a bit inefficient as opposed to having a number of collaborating smaller sites.

[DeadSuperHero]

Though I should mention that I would opt for federation (as in keep them smaller and separate, but collaborating with their content) than to have just one huge website. Someone has to run a website, and having one guy (or team) in charge of that much sounds a bit inefficient as opposed to having a number of collaborating smaller sites.

What I meant though, was to have one site run by a combined staff of the other sites, so it's no longer several one-man-jobs. This could ensure a balance between good site maintenance and a plethora of good articles coming out regularly.

[Xidram]

What I meant though, was to have one site run by a combined staff of the other sites, so it's no longer several one-man-jobs. This could ensure a balance between good site maintenance and a plethora of good articles coming out regularly.
Well, you know, there is always the more 'capitalist' approach to this. Start up your own site and try to pick up staff from the other sites. Hey, if that kind of mentality can cause Steve Ballmer to throw chairs in rage at Google, then maybe it could work for you! :-P

[DeadSuperHero]

Fair point, and an interesting approach.

This begs the question, though: where to start...

Hmm...

[Shpongle]

well people here would maintain it if they have time , im sure youll get lots of volunteers , if you have the site/s. also to add ubuntu specific content there like wallpapers icons , hold competitions , interview forum members and list all the others ubuntu sites , creating a chain of sites


just my thoughts!

peace

[joey-elijah]

*waves*

hello, i run Omg!Ubuntu!

Your idea sounds very interesting...

...only thing i would point out is that one or two blogs on your list are basically "aggregate" blogs where by they just copy & paste stuff others write or direct an RSS feed to auto-post other blogs posts as their own. THose are great at what they do, but wouldn't really help in your suggestion as there need to be people creating content for these other blogs to... "benefit from".

A lot of those kinds of blogs irritate me in many respects, espeically when no credit is given back to the original authors or no incentive to visit the blog in question. it takes someone like me who has to source, write and create everything on my site a lot of time to do everythin. Then it to appears on another site where you get zero credit or no link to your own hardwork... grr!! Sadly many fine blogs have come and gone because of practices like this...

I love your idea though because it has to potential to create something even better than what there is now...

I only insist it has to be called "OMG! UBUNTU!" :p

[joey-elijah]

What I meant though, was to have one site run by a combined staff of the other sites, so it's no longer several one-man-jobs. This could ensure a balance between good site maintenance and a plethora of good articles coming out regularly.

That would be awesome.

The "issue" with so many smaller blogs is that they can get caught up in just posting news 24 hours after everyone else or reposting stuff that's been posted everywhere purely because they don't have the resources, time or manpower to get to be ahead of the game and find, source and create content.

That's what I've intentionally tried NOT to do with Omg!Ubuntu! (Successfully, i might add! We've been first with tons of big stories hours before the "big sites" and as such been credited on lifehacker, slashdot, gizmodo, endgagdet, etc)

With a bigger team the better the chances of making the news and not just trialling it become. That is, what i feel, a "super-buntu-news-site" needs to do; it can't just become a repetition of "top 10 wallpapers" type posts daily - it has to be a voice, it has to get the news to users first and it has to do it with an engaging style.

It needs to have authority too, so that it can create "opinion" based articles that engage readers.

Issues?

The only things that might be a block to something like this would be: ego, vision, direction.

[DeadSuperHero]

*waves*
A lot of those kinds of blogs irritate me in many respects, espeically when no credit is given back to the original authors or no incentive to visit the blog in question. it takes someone like me who has to source, write and create everything on my site a lot of time to do everythin. Then it to appears on another site where you get zero credit or no link to your own hardwork... grr!! Sadly many fine blogs have come and gone because of practices like this...


Oh, man. Tell me about it. Nothing really grinds my gears than when someone takes credit for something I worked on.


I only insist it has to be called "OMG! UBUNTU!" :p

Well, if it's writers and people to help with your own site you're looking for, I'm all ears. I love writing. :3