I am drawn to the thought of the fires being lit in the Lord of the Rings movie from mountain top to mountain top as my feed reader begins to send messages to me about the b5media network and the fact that Duncan Riley has left the company. It started earlier in the European theater and has quickly picked up speed like a large stone thrown into a calm lake. The ripples are making their way out and news is traveling fast.
Whereas I am reading all sorts of conjecture and analysis of the demise of the b5media partnership, I on the other hand wanted to think about the b5media situation and to think of my own business and partnership at One By One Media which for the most part has been formed and cultivated online. Can businesses be formed and partnerships made between people that have never met face-to-face? Obviously with the ability to communicate easily across time zones, and even continents, people can make friendships and acquaintances, but can business really make a solid foundation? It brought me to think of Shakespeare’s Henry V,
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother
In my own mind, it is a probability that it can work. How do I know this? I was able to spend a few nights with my partners in Seattle with one on the floor and the other in the bed next to me. Like a Band of Brothers, we just seemed to mesh, or I guess it could have been the war like conditions we found ourselves at 3:30 a.m. trying to get wifi to work.. In the case of b5media, it appears that they clashed in some of the basic foundational aspects of making a strong partnership. It happens. Not all relationships thrive and sometimes my girlfriends break up with me, and I them. It was a long time before I found the right match and I think that may be the case for Duncan, Darren, Shai and Jeremy. Not every one can go into the blogosphere battle and make it out the other side without scars and wounds.
Tags: Duncan Riley, Jeremy Wright, Darren Rowse, Shai Coggins, b5media, Blog Networks, One By One Media
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[…] As the sun rose this morning we had Duncan Riley leaving b5media, and now before the sun can set in the west I hear news of Jason Calacanis leaving AOL. Is this all growing pains that blog networks will continue to see over the next few months? Has the blog network bubble began its demise or is there a bursting of the blog network bubble? I believe the answers to be yes and no, respectively. […]