Is the OpenWine Consortium aimlessly adrift?
October 15th, 2009
Is the OWC out of steam?
I joined the OpenWine Consortium when its membership numbered only a few hundred. I saw the OWC as something with potential to help the industry: it could organize bloggers, raise the bar for online wine publishing, create some educational programs and help wine producers and budding wine commentators build their brands. As I write this, the OWC boasts 4,613 members.
Other than organizing the Wine Bloggers Conferences, the OWC offers a forum for discussions. However, it has been months since I last saw any active efforts to organize members or truly accomplish something of impact for the wine industry. Certainly, the WBC is the most successful effort of the OWC, but as some have commented, rather than helping the industry learn how to harness the Internet and Social Media, these events have been criticized as being primarily press junkets for wine bloggers.
To be clear: I am not declaring OWC’s demise. Nor do I desire it. I continue to benefit from membership in varying ways (primarily networking).
I am, however pointing out that it appears to be adrift - without clear purpose, direction or strong leadership. While some discussion and networking takes place, OWC membership has not established any formative, transformational or revolutionary standards, programs, agendas, action committees, official position statements or reference publications which could serve as useful resources:
No educational programs or curricula have been created for bloggers, writers, people already in the industry (tasting room or wine store staff) or those wanting to enter the business.
No certification programs for writers, bloggers, tasting room or wine store staff have been created.
Although the American Wine Awards were formally and officially handed over to the OWC at the last Wine Bloggers Conference, in March of 2009, there has been nothing said about the program since.
No wine education programs or curricula have been created to educate non-industry enthusiasts.
Neither has the OWC has taken the point on critical issues which recently arose in the world of wine:
No organized effort is being made to challenge the recent FTC regulations regarding endorsements of products in social media.
Nobody has challenged the recent CA ABC ruling on affiliate advertising or attempted to change compensation schemes to allow California-based bloggers to participate without exposing themselves (and the online retailers) to legal liability.
There is no apparent interest in banding together to overcome limitations on DTC wine shipping.
All these are things the OWC and its membership could and should be doing.
When I joined the OWC, I invited a few friends. One of them responded with: “Y.A.W.N. - yet another wine network”. It was perhaps a certain naivete or idealism on my part that led me to reject this notion. However, it seems the person who said this about the OWC at the time of its inception may have been right.
It is debatable if the OWC has the critical mass to achieve any of the things I list. I am also willing to accept the argument that times are tough right now and members are focusing on issues closer to home for the time being.
Certainly, my proposed tasks and goals are lofty. I cannot, however, ignore the fact that far greater things have been accomplished by far fewer people in far more adverse circumstances.
(OWC creator, Joel Vincent, was contacted regarding this post yesterday but has not yet responded.)
Email & Share
October 15th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Hi Arthur,
You have an interesting post here. I’ll let Joel answer you about the OWC, although I do wonder whether a social network like the OWC is supposed to be as top-driven as you suggest or whether it is simply an online locale for people to meet and discuss issues. It seems to be working in the latter sense.
The point I would like to make is despite your creativity in aging the wine blogger, you are mixing the logo of the Wine Bloggers Conference with that of OWC. The Wine Bloggers Conference, represented by the guy with the megaphone and organized by the OWC and Zephyr Wine Adventures, is going full steam. We have not slowed down at all and are in full planning mode for 2010. To be accurate, since your post is about the OWC you should really have warped the logo of the OWC (which you’ll find at the top of that page), not that of the Wine Bloggers Conference.
Allan Wright
Zephyr Wine Adventures
October 15th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
The gist of what I am going to say is that while I could take on more - manage/moderate OWC, organize the bloggers and industry members who want to learn more about bloggers, organize and administer the AWBAs - I can only do so much. I spend a GREAT deal of time organizing things for the wine community simply because it makes me feel that I’ve done good with the skills I’ve developed in my career. Working to improve an industry that I love even though its a community that would seem to not be in need of what I’ve been educated to do; yet somehow I’ve found a way to put my limited skillsets to use for the wine industry.
What I’ve done with the OWC is put in place an infrastructure for community that can be leveraged for education, contact, social change, etc. A hub of community education and communication. Community members can leverage that platform to organize other efforts. I’ve leveraged it for the WBC. Some have leveraged it to get together with local businesses. The community is open in that sense and will remain open to that and I will participate and help in those events where I can. As Allan mentions, its not meant to be as top heavy as you suggest and I still get almost daily emails about great connections that have been made by people on OWC. [note: associating the WBC's logo with OWC's criticism isn't fair either]
What I can’t do is setup the infrastructure, manage the community and moderate, AND be the chief organizer for everything else. I can’t because I need to make a living as well. This is my community service time which I wish where all my time but it isn’t. And that’s how I view it, as a community service that enables a community that prior to OWC’s creation had no online outlet.
We have development plans to further enhance the capabilities of OWC, but again, this is infrastructure. The community needs to organize itself (and it does, but that may not be obvious to everyone on there).
Anyway, thanks for the post. Your email was buried in amongst many others.
October 15th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Last point - I think the higher level question is:
If you think the industry needs a way to address the issues to bring up, what’s your plan to address those issues and how can the OWC community help in that effort.
The communication infrastructure is there connecting 4600+ industry people to affect the change you allude to. How can you implement that change on this open infrastructure?
October 15th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Hi Allan
Thanks for commenting.
You are right that the image I have for this post was derived from the WBC logo. I played with the OWC logo, but it just was not working.
The WBC logo is about energy and zeal and being vocal about wine. The altered image I put up represents the antithesis of that.
October 15th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Joel
I also appreciate your thoughts and comments.
I know you work hard and, as a past admin of the OWC, I know just how hard and time-consuming this work is.
The infrastructure you have created is admirable - but it is not being leveraged. This is not really a shortcoming for which you alone should be burdened. Still, you and I can probably agree that there is much potential for the existing community and infrastructure to do a lot of good. Perhaps what is needed is a different approach to how the OWC community is organized and motivated. So I a gree that OWC need not be top-heavy, but it needs a handful of strong voices to serve as rallying points.
And the latter statement of mine answers the question you bring up in your second comment.
I think you will acknowledge that I worked with a good amount of zeal as an admin of the OWC. But as you say, one person cannot carry the weight of 4600.
So this post was not meant to denounce OWC (or your efforts) but rather to exhort its membership to action.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
I’ve seen Joel Vincent in action. The man is busy. The fact the OWC has gotten where it is is a testament to his work and those he’s brought in to keep it going.
However, Arthur does have good points. The potential of the OWC is untapped. That wouldn’t be a big deal if that potential wasn’t very, very big.
Perhaps OWC needs an active Board of Directors that will drive initiatives. Yes, they’d do it voluntarily. And it would take time and effort. But this might be the solution.
4,500+ members is nothing to sneeze at. But just imagine what could happen if they all sneezed at the same time.
October 16th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Arthur,
Contrary to my email, I do have soemthign to say on this matter.
This situation points to one major problem with social networking: if it’s not a revenue-producing phenomenon people working or administrating on their own time will inevitably have to give it less attention. It’s like any volunteer organization, analogue or digital.
It’s a fine thing to create a place where networking is possible–or leveraging, as you guys like to call it–but if that clearinghouse is not a revenue-maker, it quite possibly has a predictable life span.
It’s the same question as the one for blogs: how does one make the Internet into a revenue stream?
Until new media is viewed as a revenue producer and not as a free exchange of ideas or marketplace, it’s probably not going to be a revenue producer for any but the large, capitally-invested players. Nothing new there–all the media that I’ve been involved in have followed that path.
October 16th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Regarding Revenue:
I dunno if it’ll help, but yesterday, I started an affiliate program that would give bloggers an 18% share of my subscription revenue …
This link talks about it generally: http://wineindustryinsight.com/?p=6081
and this one specifically:
http://vip.wineindustryinsight.com/affiliate/
I’m certainly open to changing/adding things if they help bloggers etc. All ideas welcome.
October 16th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Joel has built a great platform for others to use. Leadership has to come from the members, not the techie. Just maintaining the site is more than enough for one person.
I appreciate Joel’s efforts and don’t expect more of him.
If members want a board of directors, certifications, articles, etc. then do it. I’m sure Joel will take care of the software to facilitate member’s activities.
- jim
October 18th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
In regards to mobilizing the membership of the OWC, I think you hit it on the head with one your last points: “I am also willing to accept the argument that times are tough right now and members are focusing on issues closer to home for the time being.”
This is a feeling I’ve had for many charity organizations as well–the organizations which benefit most from certain individuals are the ones whose “issues are closer to home” for those individuals. There are many things vying for your attention in the world, charities, wine communities, and otherwise. You need to rank highly on that meter of “closer to home” to incur any mobilization.
January 4th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Sorry I’m a little late to the party. Thanks to Tom’s recent post for pointing me here. I want to pick up on Thomas’ point about social networks and revenue generation to state what seems like an obvious argument in favor of funding a coordinator.
The most successful offline networks I’ve known have been dependent on someone to lubricate the connections. In most cases these networks had a coordinator who was generating revenue doing what they loved to do. Many times the network petered out when that person found better paid work. The trick seems to be minimizing the identification of the network with an individual and managing the transition from one coordinator to the next.
Joel has done an amazing job building the tools on OWC and coaching members on how to use these tools. The question is how does OWC grow to the next level, and what is that next level? Arthur has proposed some transformative goals which are pretty exciting, but coordinating a group of 4,500 sneezing members to act on these issues takes a significant effort.
February 10th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
[...] was to be THE online wine biz community continues to stagnate. As my recent review of membership illustrates, it is becoming increasingly cluttered with spam [...]