What? You’ve never heard of Blog News Co-op? Well, that’s probably my fault. I do mention it from time to time, but I’ve never given the project the kind of attention it deserves.

What is Blog News Co-op?

Well, the idea is to develop a way for bloggers to share original reporting with other bloggers. Our slug line is, “Original reporting by bloggers, for bloggers.” That sort of says it all.

Read more about the work that’s going on behind the scenes and see if there’s a way that you can contribute.

If nothing else, could you help spread the word? Thanks!

Want to follow me on Twitter? There’s more involved than you might think. I have multiple twitter accounts for the various blogs. Here they are:

• bRight & Early — @brightandearly
• Reclaim Conservatism — @ReclaimCons
• Blog News Co-op — @blognewscoop
• FloridImagine — @FloridImagine
• The Regiment — @Marblehead_Reg

While you’re out and about on the inter tubes, please go over and sign up at The Regiment. My goal is to have people from all 50 states actively involved in the first half of 2010. Just 48 to go!

WordPress version 2.9 has been released, which means I’ve been busy getting my publishing empire upgraded.

• bRight & Early — Done
• FloridImagine.com — Done
• Floridimagine.com/blog — Done
• Blog News Coop — Done
• Reclaim Conservatism — Done
• Blogs4Bauer — Done

That should do it for now. I’m going to bed.

And I’m up again. Meant to add the links last night. I’ve done so now.

Yes, bRight & Early is where I do the majority of my writing, but it’s not the only place. Consider this a PSA for the other sites I work on. They need a variety of things, but mostly more eyes.

Reclaim Conservatism — http://reclaimconservatism.com/blog is a group effort with the aim of reclaiming conservative values. We are looking for bloggers (frequent or not so much) to contribute on that theme. You can follow @ReclaimCons on Twitter.

Blog News Co-op — http://blognewscoop.com/blog/ is a great idea that needs a push. I’m looking for original reporting by bloggers to use in a shared setting. That’s why our tag line is “by bloggers, for bloggers.” I’m looking for bloggers who want to contribute stories that other bloggers can use and link to. The only criteria is that it has to be original reporting rather than commenting on the writings of someone else. It doesn’t have to be a big national story. Coverage of a local council race or regional news story, interviews with local politicians or celebrities, and even your personal coverage of local events are all the type of stories I’m looking for. You can follow @BlogNewsCoop on Twitter.

FloridImagine.com — http://floridimagine.com/blog/ is my business site for web hosting and design, specializing in setting up WordPress blogs for others. Of course I do other sites as well. It is also a site for Florida news and information. I am looking for people who would like to write on Florida sports, events, news, people, and attractions. If you are a writer from here in the Sunshine State please let me know if you are interested in contributing. And if you are a blogger ready to move to your own domain or someone looking for a web site, please get in contact. On Twitter you can follow @FloridImagine.

Last, and far from least, is a blog I didn’t start but I am proud to be a part of — Blogs4Bauer — http://blogs.4bauer.com As you probably know, this is a site for all of you 24 fans. Season eight will be starting in January, and Blogs4Bauer will once again be the most irreverent fan site out there. The unique combination of snark and dedication is always a lot of fun. And while the real fun starts when the clock starts ticking on yet another long day in Jack Bauer’s life, we don’t rest during the “off season.” Casting news and other tidbits are up all year long. Check us out.

Well, that’s the roundup. Check out those other sites and see what’s going on there. Hopefully you’ll find something interesting, or even somewhere that you can contribute.

Wow am I running late this morning. I had a lot of things I was hoping to do before work. FAIL.

Since they didn’t get done here’s an open invitation to take a look at other projects (that I also didn’t get to work on this morning).

Reclaim Conservatism — The name says it all.
Reclaim Conservatism
Reclaim Conservatism Blog – Using a new theme. Check it out.
Reclaim Conservatism Wiki
@reclaimcons on Twitter

FloridaImagine — Web hosting, design, and Florida information for the Tampa-Orlando I-4 corridor (Orlampa).
FloridImagine.com – Like the shoes of the cobbler’s children – unfinished and underdevelopment.
FloridImagine Blog – Up and running, but way behind where it should be.
@FloridImagine on Twitter

Blog News Co-op — Original reporting for bloggers, by bloggers. Under development, but a darn good idea if I do say so myself.
Blog News Co-op Blog – at least the blog is going.
@BlogNewsCoop on Twitter

After you check out those sites, consider this an Open Thread. Get commenting people! I’ve gotta go!

Just so you know, I haven’t been a total slacker since hitting 200,000 visits.

Spent most of the weekend working on a new web site: Spot-Trot.com and on Spot’s Blog. If you happen to need a dog walking service in the Central Florida area between Tampa and Orlando, check them out.

I also spent some time under the hood at other sites I help out with. Web sites are like your lawn, there’s always something that needs to be done. And there are getting to be quite a few of them.

• FloridImagine.com — This is the site I am using for web design and hosting. The only visible part right now, because I need to do a lot more work behind the scenes, is the blog. If you are ready to make the move from blogger, or some other free service to your own site, or need some blog tweaking, I’m your guy. Just ask Wyatt or Dana.
• Blogs.4Bauer.com — The best 24 fan site on the web is like the women in Jack’s life (other than Red Hot) – needing constant attention. Be sure to be there for tonight’s Liveblog.
• Reclaim Conservatism — A site I really want to spend more time on is being kept active by Stix. Thank you! If you would like to be a contributor there, we are looking for people who would like to post on (or near) the topic of, what else, reclaiming conservatism. Register, and shoot me an email [lakelandjim at gmail dot com] so I can make you an author. [TMH/Pomalom I'm talking to you, too.]
• Blog News Co-op — Yes it needs lots of attention, and it’s nowhere near where I’d like it to be by now, but I’m convinced that it’s a good idea. Check it out an give me your thoughts. Please.

All of these site could use your link love. I can’t give them all the attention.

Blog News Co-op is looking for stories from tomorrow’s Tax Day TEA Parties. If you have a first hand report of a local TEA party please consider sharing it there. There are two ways to submit your story:

1. Register at Blog News Co-op using the link in the left sidebar. After registering send an email to contributor@blognewscoop.com. Include the screen name that you registered and we will upgrade your status to Author.
2. If you don’t want to sign up to be a Blog News Co-op contributor you can still send your story and pictures to submissions@blognewscoop.com

Have a great time tomorrow, and share your story there.

I’ll be talking about the idea I’ve mentioned several times before — Blog News Co-op — tonight on bRight@Night.

First, about bRight@Night. It is the show I do three times a week on Blog Talk Radio. Visit the show page linked above, and make sure to sign up for a reminder of when new shows are going to air. You can also go to the main page and access the chat room about 15 minutes before air time. Normally the show airs at 11pm Eastern Time. That is subject to change in the future.

Tonight’s live podcast will start at 11:30pm Eastern. I couldn’t schedule a 30 minute show at 11, thus the later start.

The topic tonight will be the Blog News Co-op. You can read about BNC, but the basic idea is this: Bloggers contributing original material and first hand reporting on stories that they cover. I would really like to get the input of other bloggers, and I hope you will join me tonight.

Michelle Malkin has a lengthy list of right-of-center bloggers providing original reporting over the past year.

For various reasons, the incredible amount of investigative online reporting published on conservative blogs in just the last year alone has gone largely uncredited. Let’s fix that here and now:

It is a long and impressive list. Seriously, take a look.

And to those on the list, you are welcome, even encouraged, to submit your stories to Blog News Co-op. Let’s not rest on 2008′s work, but rather break out even more in 2009 and beyond.

Most of you reading here only know that I write at bRight & Early. That’s great, and I appreciate every regular and occasional reader. What you might not know is that I own or contribute to a few other sites as well. Here is a little guide to those sites, just in case you’re interested in visiting, linking, or adding them to your blog roll.

Blogs.4Bauer.com — Quite a few of you may know about this site. It is the best 24 site out there, Jack says so. It is a fan site, but to simply call it a fan site would ignore the irreverence and the occasional love/hate relationship we have with the show. Case in point: 24: Redemption Live Blog. B4B is a group effort with a great cadre of writers: Amy V, Lawhawk, RFTR, The Jack Sack, The Man, Tyler D., V the K, and Wyatt Earp. In addition to the blog there is also Forums.4Bauer.com and Wiki.4Bauer.com The forums are occasionally active, and the wiki is very much a much neglected work in progress.

Reclaim Conservatism is another group effort. I started this site in an effort to promote the ideas and ideals of conservatism. It really is a site that you should blogroll and add to your feed readers. Currently Director Blue, GM Roper, Stix, and I are the contributing writers, but we are looking for others who are interested in posting articles about conservatism, conservative values, and particularly ideas about moving conservatism forward.

FloridImagine.com is a mostly non-political blog for talking about things of interest to the I-4 Corridor area of central Florida. If you think that I have been negligent writing here, that’s nothing in comparison to how I’ve been a slacker there. That has to change. There is so much happening in this area of Florida that could be written about that there’s no excuse. Several months ago I lost a good portion of the older posts, which makes it look even worse. I would love for any writers from this area who would like to contribute to contact me. Suggestions are also welcome.

Blog News Co-op — This is a site I created, mostly in response to the News Source That Must Not Be Quoted going after bloggers who dared cite their words. The thought occurred to me that bloggers could do more than just comment on the news, they could write their own original stories. In my original post there I wrote:

Bloggers should be a natural resource. Why?

• There are thousands of us. We are in every part of the country and many parts of the world.
• We have a wide spectrum of backgrounds, interests, and areas of expertise.
• While nearly all bloggers work at something other than blogging for their 9-5, not all 9-5’s take place from 9-5, if you know what I mean.
• One thing that most bloggers have in common is that they like to write. That doesn’t make us all good writers, but it’s a start.
• If all goes according to plan (once there is more of a plan than what exists now) we will be able to cover a wide range of topics, stories, geographic areas, and more.

I would really like to grow Blog News Co-op as we move into 2009. One thing I should mention is that I am not just looking for political articles, but anything that is news: Local interest, entertainment, science, religion, people and personalities, book, music, and movie reviews, humor, food, just about anything of interest. The key is that it will be original reporting.

To make BNC work will take more than just writers. A few of the things I mentioned in the linked article are editors, researchers, fact-checkers, photographers, and illustrators. There is also a need for someone to design a better banner for the blog. OK, that’s not the highest thing on the list, but it is on the list. One more thing would be anyone who is good at coding. I would like to create, and I am working on, a system for submitting, making available for editing, displaying, and distributing the articles that are written. I am a fair coder, but I know my limitations.

Well, that’s it. Have you visited those sites, blogrolled them, added them to your reader? Thanks, I would love to hear your thoughts.

WordPress 2.6.1 was released the other day with some minor fixes from the 2.6 release. When upgrading I realized just how many sites I contribute to or oversee. Here they are:

Blogs.4Bauer.com – We are waiting for the two hour movie that will air in November and the start of season 7 next year.
Reclaim Conservatism – Stix has been doing a great job of keeping things going over there. Check it out, and don’t forget to add us to your blogrolls.
Blog News Co-op – I haven’t promoted this nearly enough. BNC is intended to be a repository for original reporting for bloggers and by bloggers. I would love to hear your thoughts on this idea.
Floridimagine Blog
Marblehead Regiment – This was created when Fred Thompson was still in the race. Any thoughts about what to do with it?
and, of course, here.

I also help Wyatt out at Support Your Local Gunfighter. In fact, I’m supposed to be over there guest posting right now. At least I got his site upgraded.

Yesterday I told you about an idea I’ve had and thoughts are still coming together. This is just a very brief update.

As I said yesterday, I’ve secured the domain BlogNewsCoop.com which is going to get some major work done this weekend. Of course a site called Blog News Co-op needs one very important thing — a blog. It has one now. You can see the beginning at BlogNewsCoop.com/blog/.

This morning I wrote:

Bloggers should be a natural resource. Why?

• There are thousands of us. We are in every part of the country and many parts of the world.
• We have a wide spectrum of backgrounds, interests, and areas of expertise.
• While nearly all bloggers work at something other than blogging for their 9-5, not all 9-5′s take place from 9-5, if you know what I mean.
• One thing that most bloggers have in common is that they like to write. That doesn’t make us all good writers, but it’s a start.
• If all goes according to plan (once there is more of a plan than what exists now) we will be able to cover a wide range of topics, stories, geographic areas, and more.

The blog is not going to be the location of the news. It will be a place for information about the site and the co-op.

Stay tuned, send your thoughts and ideas, tell your friends. That’s not too much to ask, is it?