The Delhi Blog and New Media Society (DBNMS), formed by a group of bloggers, is preparing to bring individual bloggers under one umbrella. DBNMS is part of a national platform called the Indian Blog and New Media Society that will be launched in a few weeks.

The society, now in the final stages of registration, has a 10-point agenda: educating bloggers about technology, good writing techniques and ethical practices like avoiding plagiarism, growing the tribe by encouraging others to speak out, and organising collaborations with new media, traditional media corporates, PR agencies and advertisers are among others. The issues will be dealt on the website as well as at events held offline.

One of the interesting events planned this month is called ‘making money from your blog’.

But the forum’s “most important function”, says Ajay Jain, who deals with consumer and public interest topics in www.ajayjain.com, “will be to provide a united front in case of legislative trouble. Standalone bloggers who highlight uncomfortable issues like local-level corruption have, in the past, been easy targets. It will be more difficult for authorities to flex their muscles if a blogger is part of a larger group.”

Jain is also the author of Let’s Connect: Using Linked In To Get Ahead At Work.

Ashish Chopra, who blogs on www.emptyhead.in and is one of the founders of the society along with Jain, Abhishek Kant and Amit Gupta, stresses that despite its name, DBNMS is “not restricted to people from the NCR. This geographical boundary has been set up only for administrative purposes. Anyone from any part of the world can be an active participant. All you have to do is click on www.delhibloggers.in.” Registration is free and funds will be raised from alliances with the corporate sector. Chopra says DBNMS also welcomes readers and contributors, not just bloggers.

But the fledgling society has already come in for its share of criticism. The idea of a society, say critics, is antithetical to the very principle of blogging: bloggers, unlike journalists with traditional media, represent freedom of speech, independent thoughts and non-conformism. So, would being part of society stifle this? “On the other hand, DBNMS would only strengthen these qualities,” Jain says. “For one, there is not even a suggestion of anybody giving up their freedom.”