Well, I figured I'd use this time to take a little much-needed blog break and see if I could get some input on my last post. And this is pretty much what I'm hearing:

• There should be some real "association" developed for the Black blogosphere and/or Black bloggers. Niche social networks are needed.
• Black bloggers that write on personal issues want more love. More original content and first-person writing!
• There seems to be a general ennui with celebrity-obsessed blogs (at least from what I'm hearing).
• The Black blogosphere needs to get more involved in programming and venture capital efforts.
• The Black blogosphere should be a network of news of interest to us to get to all of us.

Now trust me, I hear all of this loud and clear. I just need to know how to take the next step. As far as I know there was at one point and time some Black blogger associations, but they had poor execution and even worse follow-through. I've thought of ways to take the Black Weblog Awards and form it into something like that, but I need to hear from y'all ways to do that. What should it include? What should it do? Should there be stringent membership requirements? There are content networks out there that do it big like 9rules and b5, why can't there be one for Black bloggers exclusively?

I also hear that bloggers that write on personal issues want more love, and I can totally agree with that. The blogosphere creates a huge opportunity for us to tell stories of our joy, pain, sorrow and laughter…and there is a proliferation of pop culture noise clogging the airwaves. How can personal bloggers really put themselves out there? Should they put themselves out there, or is it up to everyone else to "find" them? I know that some folks have issues with privacy online and I can definitely understand. Is there a way to walk the line of sharing your story without putting too much of yourself out there?

Personally, I think Black bloggers should really be moving into podcasting and videocasting (especially personal bloggers); I have the feeling that by the time we catch onto it, the next wave of blogging will be here and we'll be left behind.

Naturally, the want to do this has to lay with the individual, and the more we stay and wait for someone else to do it, the longer it will take to get done. Enough with the waiting…let's do this together!