Now you know............

.............. who ate all the pies.

The latest news from Blip Central indicates that the company will move from Edinburgh and that the team who set it up and gave it life will all lose their jobs. Terribly sad and a reminder that, as Martin says, it's a company not a human right. 

The hoary old saw about "If you are not paying for a product you are the product" is wrong on many levels; It is entirely possible to pay and still be the product, but the main concept behind this relates to the respect between the provider of a service and the service user. In the case of Blip I think that there has always been a great deal of respect flowing in each direction and the ethos of Blip is what kept so many of us here. I suspect that I am not alone in feeling that the next people will have to convince me that they will continue to "Be excellent" or I'll sling my hook. However much respect there was it is also clear that the pricing model didn't work so I expect we'll see advertising and lots of sexy "linked" products. "Print on demand" has been mentioned already as something which the new owners have in place elsewhere. Our much lauded community is tremendous and supportive but we also need to recognise that the people who built and maintain the site need to pay their bills and mortgages and possibly buy a bag of wine gums now and again. 

Watching the reactions on Facebook and the Blip forums as well as individual blips I've been reminded of the work of Howard Rheingold in particular "The Virtual Community" and "Smart mobs" (links lead to free online versions of the books). We'll see whether this is a "barn raising" event for the Blip community or whether people will move on and settle in a new space for a while.

If nowt else this is a reminder that the world of the web isn't one of permanence. However much we talk about stuff always being available it doesn't mean that the edifices which originally hosted the resources will remain. Facebook has hung around but think of the spaces which have gone (or declined greatly); Posterous, Myspace, Bebo, etc. Anything of value which you share online should also be backed up :-)