StartupDunia
Indian startups | India Web 2.0 | India Internet
Instablogs - a case of identity crisis ?
Some time back, I received a request to review Instablogs. I didnt get around to finishing the review at that time. But with some time to spare today, I decided to revisit Instablogs and finish the review.
The first impression that I got from the site is that they are a network of blogs in niche categories such as politics, entertainment, technology, food, sports etc. Something along the lines of Weblogs Inc or Gawker Media. On closer inspection, though, I found that new users can sign up and start their own blogs. So, then they are a blog network (similar to Blogger).
But wait - then what’s this ‘Newsroom‘ and why are all posts resonating like news stories ?
I decided to check the FAQ’s page to see how actually they define themselves:
Instablogs Community is a personalized platform that endeavors to bring bloggers and readers closer.
Through this platform, you can connect and engage with others having common interests and passion. Here you can share your views, photos, blogs, comments, and make friends. You can be a part of topic-specific communities and tribes, read, rate and comment on stories, keep track of your friends, upload your content, and even personalize your homepage. Moreover, on top of this, you’ll be able to reap plenty of rewards for your active participation and may end up as an editor for any channel of your choice.
This description confused me even further. So, finally, I decided to send an email to Vikas from Instablogs asking for further clarification.
1) What is the concept behind Instablogs?
Instablogs Blog Network initially started as a network of news-based blogs. An online version of the traditional news media, except that it was a two-way interaction between readers and bloggers.
However, the latest version of Instablogs – named ‘Instablogs Community’ (launched on 14th Nov. 2006) is aimed more than a blog network. Instablogs Community in simple words is a personalized platform that endeavors to bring bloggers and readers closer. We do it by keeping the focus on the readers and actually making them a part of the whole blogging process.
The Instablogs Community has a plethora of social tools, which not only empower readers but also help them to become writers themselves. The new version encourages better communication between writers and readers and symbolizes the crux of ‘Citizen Journalism’ or ‘Participatory Journalism’ in its true sense, i.e. ‘Journalism by the people, for the people’.
2) Who are the founders? When was Instablogs started? How did it come about?
Instablogs Network was found on Oct. 5th 2005, by Ankit and Nandini Maheshwari. Initially, the idea was to launch a network of 50 news-based blogs written by bloggers all over the world.
An announcement was made few days before the official launch and applications from bloggers started pouring in. Instablogs employed different payments models from pay per post, revenue sharing and monthly salary for different bloggers. The launch was criticized with many people questioning about funding, few labeling the network as a network of cheap content producers, to outsourcing in blogging. But, the team stick to their job and now the posts are regularly linked by likes of NYTimes, MSNBC, CNET, Digg, Boing Boing, etc, and read by millions of readers per month.
3) What is the long-term goal of Instablogs?
The long-term goal of Instablogs is to bring local bloggers blogging from third world countries under the umbrella in upcoming version of Instablogs Global. With the motto “Right to be heard”, it will try to bring the unheard voices of people from all over the globe in its pursuit of promoting Citizen Journalism.
Eh ?? They’re into citizen journalism ? As per wikipedia the definition of citizen journalism is very vague and subjective. So, I speak for myself here. In my opinion, this is not citizen journalism. Just providing a 3-5 line summary and linking to the original news story is not citizen journalism. If they term it as ’social news’ (aka Digg, SlashDot), I’m still cool with it.
None the less, the way the site is structured and presented are very misleading. It isnt clear what the actual focus of the site is - to blog or to post news summaries. If its to blog, then they should refrain from making any references to news or citizen journalism on the site. If social news is the focus, then I dont understand how the blogging / blog network aspect fits in.
Technically and visually, they’ve done a great job though.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...
Similar Posts
- BatchBuzz is…..confusing
- Jobyantra - Affiliate based job board for Indian startups
- Proto startups - Where are they now ?
Comments
20 Responses to “Instablogs - a case of identity crisis ?”
Let me answer few of your questions. Though one can easily find these answers in FAQ/Tour or either by spending few more seconds on the site itself.
1. What’s this Newsroom?
Ans: Taken from Instablogs tour (http://www.instablogs.com/tour/page3.php)
We have over 300 bloggers/writers/citizen journalists working for Instablogs. Newsroom is a place they can pick news-leads or assignments to write stories on. Every News-lead comes up with an expiry date. You can publish your own story too, without taking any news-lead from the Newsroom. We are the first media organization/blog-network to open up a Newsroom and make the process as transparent as possible. Newsroom is run by editors, writers as well as readers themselves.
2. So, then they are a blog network (similar to Blogger).
Ans. No, we are not similar to Blogger in anyway.
When you sign-up for an account on Instablogs, we provide you a space, we call it MyBlog. You can use this section to post stories or import your own RSS feeds from your own existing blogs. Instablogs Network has over 2 million unique visitors per month, and growing. The imported posts are always linked to original posts on their existing blogs. This can be a great way for existing bloggers to get your blog good traffic easily. (You can’t import more than 255 characters of your existing posts.)
Taken from (http://www.instablogs.com/live/instablogs-community-launches/)
3. Just providing a 3-5 line summary and linking to the original news story is not citizen journalism.
Ans. Why don`t you check out few of our posts. You can start from here … (http://www.instablogs.com/live/)
It isn’t clear what the actual focus of the site is
Ans.The actual focus of the site is to bring bloggers and readers closer.
We do this by empowering our readers. Making them a part of our Newsroom, Editorial, and Content Generation as well. Most of the blogs/blog networks today restrict their readers to the comments itself, or occasional tips but we believe in bridging this gap and move from a walled community of writers to a uniformed community of members and participants.
Well to put it in one line the whole point of instablogs is to blog, give news and move towards citizen journalism as well!
Of course Rome was not built in a day, citizens aiming to be journalists give a gist of what they feel in a few lines.
The idea is a novel one, a whole new concept, beyond the conventional viewpoint that combines blogging, news and citizen journalism as well!
Very well said Kanchan!
As you were saying ‘It isn’t clear what the actual focus of the site…’ well I guess, the company logo is clear enough in projecting its aim ‘Bringing Bloggers and Readers closer’ and that’s what company is moving towards. And it’s a fact that it cannot be accomplished in a single day.
Also, I’d like to add that our company is promoting Citizen Journalism where the readers can actively participate in the news discussions.
Thanks for the review Pranav.
@kanchn @pooja
If Instablog’s aim is to “bring bloggers and readers closer”, that is perfectly fine. However, in that case, I assume that the bloggers are going to provide me some unique content to read - their perspective,their biases, their prejudices anything is fine - but there has to be some kind of original content they provide me. That perspective would prompt me (as a reader) to participate in a discussion and leave a comment.
A perfect example would be ContentSutra. They link to news stories all the while. But instead of just linking to the news story, they do a great job at providing their input, their thoughts about the news story.
I too often link to news stories. But then I intersperse with posts about reviews and other original posts.
Majority of the posts on Instablogs offer a 2-4 line summary about the news story and link to the story. Now, if thats the intended goal of Instablogs — that users post news summaries, then why have a blog network for it ? If ’social news’ - users posting news from other news sources and then participating in a discussion around that - is the objective, that is acceptable too.
As I said, I’m just confused. The goal you state above doesnt seem to align with the impression I get by visiting the website.
pranav.
First of all lets talk about 2-4 lines summary.
Instablogs Network is made of 130+ blogs writing on various subjects, and believe me we write on more than 3-4 lines. You need to check any of our blogs.
One of the reason Instablogs.com portal was relaunched was to showcase the content on these 130+ blogs. So we aggregate our own content (255 characters) of each post, to give our readers a glimpse of what is there on the blog. In very simple way you can call Instablogs.com a news-aggregator of Instablogs Network.
Just click on any news you found on Instablog.com portal, and it will take you the permalink page of one of the blog of our network.
As Ankit said, Instablogs.com is a platform on which all 130+ blogs stand - it simply takes the whole phenomenon from a network of loosely tied blogs under an umbrella to a social network of blogs. The portal with network wide tagging allows readers to browse through the latest news at one place and if one wants to have more insight/views/opinion/ on a particular news, he can directly go to the blog and participate in the conversation.
Pranav,
Thanks for putting Instablogs under the scanner.
You have agreed with “Wikipedia the definition of citizen journalism is very vague and subjective.†We at Instablogs are perfectly within that domain. Are we not?
Instablogs deliberately has not been compartmentalized into pure blogging or into social news. The two have been blended and served as a delicate cocktail.
A citizen journalist cannot be bracketed under a specific definition. He is freed of the binding rules that apply to a professional journalists. The Instablogs citizen journalist format empowers the professional, the amateur, you and me to find expression on a blog platform.
One can express strong dissent, give a differing perspective, share a breaking event or just contribute opinion and the triggering content site is linked to provide the reader, a transparent view.
For a start up, we are evolving. Opinion, view from the other side, dissent, unique content, its all there on the 132 blogs being constantly updated on Instablogs.
All the blogs operate in niche segments and are news centric rather than just being personal reflections.
However, your insights and views about Instablogs are welcome. It helps to keep us on our toes
@ankit,
I indeed clicked on the news title and it took me to the related blogs. But did not find any additional content on the blog too. There are a few that do go beyond providing just the summary — but just a handful. Here’re the sample items I clicked on today:
(1)
http://www.automotto.org/entry/fiats-cute-500-finally-to-hit-the-roads/
Above story was posted by user Vishal. Went to his blog below. Did not find anything additional than the summary.
http://vishal.instablogs.com/
(2)
http://www.hellocompany.org/entry/virgin-america-wins-tentative-approval-to-launch-us-service/
Balendu’s blog:
http://balendu.instablogs.com/
(3)
http://instablogs.com/entry/laptops-to-represent-more-than-half-of-all-pcs-by-2011/
jolly’s blog:
http://jolly.instablogs.com/
you get the picture.
-pranav.
@Ravinder,
You make some very valid points and here’s what I have to say:
>>You have agreed with “Wikipedia the definition of citizen >>journalism is very vague and subjective.†We at Instablogs are >>perfectly within that domain. Are we not?
Yes,indeed you are. That’s why I said the definition is subjective. What your definition of cit. journalism is may not be what I view cit. journalism as. So, with that said, it is completely acceptable to label Instablogs as an effort toward cit. journalism.Albeit, as per your definition. I beg to differ.
>>Instablogs deliberately has not been compartmentalized into >>pure blogging or into social news. The two have been blended >>and served as a delicate cocktail.
In that case, the name “Instablogs” and the goal “bringing bloggers and readers closer” tend to confuse and mislead.
>>One can express strong dissent, give a differing perspective, >>share a breaking event or just contribute opinion and the >>triggering content site is linked to provide the reader, a >>transparent view.
>>For a start up, we are evolving. Opinion, view from the other >>side, dissent, unique content, its all there on the 132 blogs >>being constantly updated on Instablogs.
That’s the one thing I did not find on the site. From the looks of it, most (probably all) of the team Instablogs have a blog on the site. Why not encourage them to post some analysis, some views, some bias on the news story. In its current state (in terms of content), here’s how Instablogs seems to me - and feel free to correct me if i’m wrong —
Digg but where each member has his/her own blog. So, instead of submitting news stories to Digg via a form, users blog the story as a blog post.
-pranav.
Pranav,
You are not getting the real picture. Whenever you post something on 130+ blogs of Instablogs Network (excluding Instablogs.com), 255 characters of your post are imported in the Instablogs.com and your Myblog section that is something like ankit.instablogs.com or vishal.instablogs.com
Now the second question you will ask why we do this..
1. Since we have so many blogs in our Network, we wanted a single window/portal/aggregator where our readers can get to know what is happening on the whole blog network.
2. Many a times a write is working on more than one blog (even outside of Instablogs Network), but all the posts are stored in their MyBlog section. You can get short description of all of the Jonty’s posts in jonty.instablogs.com
You can track all comments, friends, posts of Jonty and all comments made on Jonty’s posts and other things on his Myblog (jonty.instablogs.com)
3. Any member can import his RSS feeds for his existing blog in MyBlog section.
4. Why only 255 characters? We don`t import completed posts, to avoid duplicate content issues with Search Engines.
5. Though if you want you can post complete articles/posts in MyBlog section, but whenever you are importing your existing blog feeds, you can`t import more than 255 characters.
Consider Myblog as a profile page for each member/reader/writer on Instablogs Network.
Now who here in this dialog wants to believe that whats happening here at InstaBlogs is a group of so called ‘citizens journalist’ doing honest journalism? I think instablogs needs to rename themselves insta-links or insta-Digg or something. How much ‘journalism’ goes into blogs in general? Now how much ‘journalism’ goes into InstaBlogs?
For instance - Yashpal from the gaming section - im glad to see there are gazillion xbox links pointing to other ‘honest’ journalistic ventures … but has the guy himself seen an xbox console?
The same story goes for countless other ‘journalists’ on the team.
For crying out loud … stop packaging every single RSS feed on the planet with an instablog sticker on it. Shameful.
Shameful.
You mean to say, all the people talking about iPhones are dishonest, since nobody has ever seen the iPhone, or people talking about Mahatma Gandhi are honest journalists only if they have actually met him or seen him.
Just try to have some common sense before talking about others.
I am writing in instablogs.com since 6 months. But there is a remarkable feature that bloggers whose articles can be published on the site should come from Shimla or Delhi only.Moreover nothing like payment for your published blogs.
I want to shift to some other bogging site which pays honestly also.
Can anybody guide me abt. some other bloggers’ sites more over the bogger sites which asks you to pay inital fee and then you can start blogging are really truthfull or cheating only.
Instablogs in nutshell is nothing but in your face lifting of content form other sites and posing as a citizen journalism. It is shameful exhibition of social media. You will find copyright violations all around these blogs. Look at pictures on most of thier posts, they are stolen and lifted from other sites. Only motive on instablog is to flood web with some 3rd rate bloggers, build some noise about it and hope to be bought by equally insane portal.
And trust me, the way they work, it would not be surprising that anybody who comments in their favour here is actually their employee..errr. citizen journalist who has never reported even a single original thing.
Here too- I am trying to expose that INSTABLOGS is being managed by small group of friends in hill station of SHIMLA. Have a visit and you will see that whole posting is PSEUDO.
A little bit R & D and you will find that actually own company http://www.himadventures.net, http://www.himadventures.ca and http://www.himadventures.com
This is their actual business and interest- blogging seems to be side business.
This looks strange- more and more people are coming to know about it. I posted a incident I went through while trekking in himalayas. We contacted ANKIT through http://www.himadventures.com and he outsourced us. This issue was raised at http://www.indiamike.com also. And later on one himachal website which publishes ‘ interview’ of ANKIT was also contacted about his reputation. I was shocked when I came to know that he had started this blog netwrok.
One of my friend working in india was traveling through SHIMLA and had visited his office also. This is small group which is posting blogs and making money from adsence.
I am sure people will come to know about this one day. My personal internet search had come to following conclusions..
1. Trekking and mountaineering is their first business and they are operating websites like http://www.himadventures.com and http://www.himadventures.net
2. Not only instablogs- they are operating many more websites.
Their address is found on more than 10 websites.
I am sure this couple will go PLACES.
know something ?
search for : ankit maheshwari, himadventures will bring to the truth what I am saying.
Will continue further…..
We are waiting for your post rosy. Lets us know who are real people behind this.
My searches in google had confirmed that couple of years back Mr. Ankit was operating adventure and outdoor business. I visited indiamike also and found same.
In one interview he claimed he had been paying INR: 2,00,000 as telephone bills. I think this is perfect case for a tax raid !
I bet Mr. Ankit is/was in the SEO business. Can anyone please confirm this?
Reasons:
1. 3-5 lines summary
2. 255 words excerpts in myblog
3. Lack of original writing
4. Using currently hot phrases - citizen journalism, news operation, etc.
5. I suspect people in Shimla are getting paid in the $100-200 range.I looked at the Instablogs release from October 2005 and found it was initially based in New Delhi.
So, the people in Delhi wanted more for doing simple SEO stuff, huh?
Blog Network, SEO network…
What is Instablogs?