ME and Ophelia

GET INVOLVED IN OTHERS BLOG PROJECTS
Build a relationship with them and their readers -
Put your hand up, volunteer some time and contribute in some way

Blogger Darren Rowse is married to 'V' and lives in the wonderful suburb of North Fitzroy - Melbourne, Australia.

Darren heads up a small team of people who are planting a church in the inner North of Melbourne called the Living Room. He is a baptist minister and enjoys spending a growing amount of time working in that role as a wedding celebrant.

He also works for an organisation called Dreamland (also known as Forge) who are an organisation interested in resourcing the church for mission, especially to 18-35 year olds - a missing demographic in the Aussie church. Dreamland are the people behind the e-zine Phuture (which he currently edits) and the blog Stinky Convoluted Past.

When he is not doing Living Room or Forge work he's either studying (and about to complete a Bachelor of Theology) or working on his photography which he does as a hobby, and is becoming in demand as a semi professional, particularly for weddings.

He has two blogs - the main one is LivingRoom which focuses on Emerging Church and other personal rants and raves. His newer one is Visually Speaking which focuses upon his photography, including some of his photos.

A good example of 'community spirit in the blogosphere' is in this extract from Darren's main blog: "From time to time other bloggers will invite your participation in a blog project of theirs. Put your hand up, volunteer some time and contribute in some way. Don't just do it to get a link on their site, but take the opportunity to build a relationship with them and their readers. Not only will you make a friend, but over time you build some credibility as a blogger who is not just thinking about themselves.

On the flip side start your own blogging project. Do something that is of service to other bloggers. Rachel's Blogger Gallery was a great example of a project that allowed others to get involved and I tried something similar with Underblogs."

Also, thanks to Darren for this list of sites that he checks out on a semi regular basis. They cover a variety of parts of the world, interest groups and streams of thinking.
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Here's hoping that you'll be able to check out these links - there's plenty to keep you surfing for a few days! I am collecting examples of bloggers creating and contributing community spirit to the blogosphere, for sharing here with readers. If you find examples, please share them here in the comments or "Community in the Blogosphere" discussion log. Thanks.
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[Note: I am still working on Chapter 2 of Part Three of my previous 'Something wrong in the blogosphere?' post. Sorry, got sidetracked looking for examples of bloggers with community spirit]