I’m seriously considering whether to start a new group weblog that can take a on a variety of subjects and gain a more critical view of the online design world than either the relatively boring SpeakUp or the new and horrendously designed template called Design Observer. The object would be to build site that focuses on some of the critical, strategic, philosophical, and more importantly, the commercial, practical, and future-bearing ideas of Web design and development. There’s a huge, gaping hole for this kind of work.
There are a few good examples of small, successful group blogs out there, including Daily Gusto, a cultural and political NYC blog, but most suck very hard and none deal with online design. The goal would be for it to replace the defunct eDesign magazine, psyche out the badly-URLed Speak Out, and focus on Web standards and design approaches the way Zeldman does and his fairly technical A List Apart do.
If you’re interested in this project in any way, please let me know. Thanks.