This was supposed to be out two weeks ago. I sent a link to this to Emir.

Hi,

My name is Dody and I was the one that introduced the concept of blogging to the broader Aiesec community back in 2002.

I'm writing this in response to some concerns being raised by several talented webloggers at aiesec.ws (FYI, ws = western Samoa).

The success of the community (having grown from a couple of pioneering weblogs (Dig's, Adam's, Sarah's, Steph's, Kristie Ko's and others who will hate me for forgetting to mention them) to whatever it is now) is a credit to mostly others and the Achilles heels mine alone. These words are not cliché as I will explain it to you further.

In late winter 2002, the weblog concept is barely about 3 years old and still at its infancy. It was still a cutting-edge thing to do. Many of the weblog sites you see now barely existed back then. I had been experimenting with blogging for about 15 months (on and off) after purchasing a software called Manila (a great blogging software capable doing other stuff as well), in late 2000, for 299 bucks. The price of a pack of Cigarette in New York City nowadays. What a great deal.

I tinkered and messed around with Manila and use the software in starting the World Discovery program. The year was 2000 and Florida hadn't fumbled on voting. And I had my first weblog, in an outside server. Time passed by and my thick skull didn't realize the potential of having a weblog community for a global, diverse and young organization like Aiesec. What a dumbass. Then 9/11 happened. I was in Indonesia at the time. I created http://911.aiesec.ws as a clearing house in covering the outpouring support and reaction from Aiesecer's around the world.

My friend, that is the first weblog on aiesec.ws. 911.aiesec.ws, created on September 11, 2001.

It took a tragedy of that magnitude to force me understand the value of having a weblog communities inside Aiesec. It took several months more before I managed to persuade several people to start a weblog. 2002, Bush barely in office for 2 months, late winter and I was back in New York Office. The pioneering weblogs started appearing. What took me 15 months to realize, took them an instant to understand. The buzz started spreading, and more people signed up. There were some apprehension within the office of what weblogs will bring to Aiesec (Branding, legal, image, a laundry list of real concern), but to their credit, everybody took the leap of faith and said "go for it". da Queen boss, Suzanne, gave full support.

And things were out of my hand now.

The pioneers took over, gave ideas, and play with the concept. They championed it, blogged it and evangelized it. This was still 2002, Spring time.

We formally introduced and encouraged Aiesec US members, alumni and trainees to start blogging in the Aiesec Summer Conference in Dallas, 2002 (and Aiesec US pushed it in IC 2002 in Switzerland). It's official baby. All the way. Aiesec was among the first organization to openly encourage its members in the US and around the world to blog openly (paid by Aiesec US).

That was cool and innovative at the same time. Some people took notice.

August 2002.

"Dody Gunawinata has set up a Manila/Radio community for his organization: AIESEC. Nice. (John Robb) - COO of Userland at the time.

“This also brings up another note I saw recently from Dody Gunawinata. He is running a K-Logging vertical community for AIESEC (an organization of 50,000 members devoted to cultural exchange through global internships). He is using a mix of Manila hosted sites -- and -- Radio sites published from the desktop. This allows people to select the type of tool they feel most comfortable with. You can see his community here:

http://www.aiesec.ws/  (K-Logs community)“

“Why is this important to AIESEC?..““(Phill Woffs - Aiesec Alumni and Weblog Community Thought leaders)

It spread like wildfire. And the rest is history.

It's time to die.

Coulda, shouda, wouda. The decision I made back in 2002 has become the Achilles heels of the community right now. The software I chose to become the base to host aiesec.ws community is not scalable enough for the growth of the community. It has tons of virtues like being dirt cheap, easy to set up and packed with great feature. In 2002, it's the best blogging platform around (and in certain aspect, it's still is). But it cannot grow along with the growth of the community. This major shortsightedness is mine alone.

Aiesec weblog community success kills.

The more it grows, the more expensive and complicated it becomes for Aiesec US to maintain.

How do we solve this problem soon?

1. Pour more money into it (either by raising funds or having people to pay)

2. Get another weblog software.

3. Preparing eulogy for the concept of aiesec.ws as it is now. It lived, changed the Aiesec world and it's time to die. And let the Phoenix rises from the ashes.

Option one and two are straightforward (including sponsorship, advertising, co-payment, etc). I will elaborate on option three.

Phoenix Redemption.

Cat has similar idea in spirit.

Let's reinvent the concept of aiesec.ws

Flaws:

1. Aiesec.ws is a single point of failure.

2. The costs grow proportionately with the growth of the community.

Fact:

1. There are so many free and paid weblog hostings now.

2. They come with different feature, styles and target audience.

3. The community is the connection between Aiesec webloggers, not the address or the hosting or the software (although these has their own benefits).

Potential:

We can grow and maintain a vibrant Aiesec Weblog Community to the hundreds of thousands, sustainable over a decade or more, without incurring much cost. We can even more capable in connecting Alumni, Trainees, Membership, Families and Leadership of Aiesecers around the world.

How:

1. Change aiesec.ws from a weblog hosting service for Aiesec members to a weblog tracking service. This tracking service will track the updates of Aiesec members weblog (hosted in myriad of weblog service). So you go to aiesec.ws to see who's been updating, read highlights and check out new weblogs.

2. Add and maintain an automated and extensive list of Aiesec Community weblogs around the world (with multiple categories and search methods).

3. Become THE PLACE to advocate, promote and evangelize weblogs to more corners in the Aiesec network.

4. Become THE PLACE for Aiesecer's who wants to start a weblog (available in hundreds of weblog hosting sites) to learn and get help.

5. If needed, Aiesec can offer a web hosting service for specific purposes (record traineeship experience for 5 months, etc)

6. Help existing weblog content to migrate to another weblog system and redirect the current weblog address to point to a new one.

7. Promote free hosting buddies extensively on the site. Hosting buddies are Aiesecers (current or alumni) who are willing to host some weblogs for free.

Aiesec Weblog Community is Aiesec in public, open to the world, with its flaws, gritty details and greatness. Our voice loud and clear. Let them see our failings and glories as we are youth of the world. This is Aiesec, a bunch of die hard idealists insisting in changing the world for the better, impatiently waiting for this world to blink first. "Never say die" flows in our veins, in multiple languages, in every single living continent on Earth. We smashed that Aiesec-behind-the-wall barrier two years ago. Now let's make sure it's not back up, ever again.

Save Aiesec Weblogs.