Four Years (and counting)

I started my anniversary journal entry in 2014 with the words “What a year”.  Little did I know at that stage that those words could just as easily be used to describe the coming year as the one just past!
 
On a personal note the last year can be summed up fairly concisely; work, two fantastic photographic holidays and way too much time visiting NHS establishments.  I even find myself with the prospect of two visits to the same hospital, for unconnected reasons, on the same day early next year.  It would be great to get passed this episode as quickly as possible.
 
In terms of Blipfoto, I find myself in the surprising position of being able to influence its future, albeit if all of us in the community here want it to happen.  Much has been written about the last twelve months, not all of it accurate.  The Polaroid link up, following the redesign of the website caused seismic reactions amongst many of us.  Then within 3 months horror of horrors, liquidation of the company that had created Blipfoto, its founders and investors losing control, the staff that had nurtured the site losing their jobs, the spectre of the site closing down.
 
For the record Polaroid never took over, owned, went into partnership or in any other way gained a control over Blipfoto.  The best explanation I can give is that Blipfoto went into an agreement with Polaroid to use its brand name, to increase its appeal to certain markets around the world.  If the community is successful in buying Blipfoto, the Polaroid branding will be removed.
 
Within a month we got the news that two American investors, Jeff Hechtman and Bobby Sager had bought the company.  The news was delivered by Joe Tree, who with Graham Maclachlan had been asked by the new owners to work for them.  We heard very little from that time.  The site continued, but with none of the previous cosy interaction between operators and users.  It caused disquiet amongst the site’s users, many left, others waited for news while faithfully posting images to their journals and continued to maintain their friendships with other blip friends.
 
It came as something of a surprise in October when I was contacted by a fellow blipper.  He wanted to chat to me about Blipfoto.  What transpired was that I was asked to join a group of other blippers to debate the prospect of buying Blipfoto from the American investors and creating a community owned business.  Joe Tree facilitated this debate, but was careful not to lead or influence the discussion.  This has not been a way for Joe and Graham to re-acquire control of Blipfoto, indeed they are not part of Blipfuture, the community interest company we subsequently formed to make the offer to the users and visitors to the site. 
 
So, what to the future?  Well it depends on us all.  We have a mountain to climb, not only to raise sufficient funds to acquire the site and have enough working capital to run the site while we put in place a sustainable operation, but also to rekindle the spirit of Blipfoto.  In my view we are fortunate to have a very committed group of regular users.  Yes, there are less of us than at this time last year and that makes things more difficult as we need the community’s support to sustain the site.
 
Finally, but most importantly, thank you all for your friendship and support over the last 1460 blips.  You are the reason I am still here and have committed my time to trying to secure Blipfoto’s future.  I don’t need to explain to you what a wonderful place this is, how valuable my friendships are, how much I would miss you all if we are unsuccessful.
 
   
May I wish you a happy New Year, and I fervently hope I can do the same with you all on Blipfoto in 12 months time.