Maybe journalists are the problem

So, should you work for a company if you don't like their product?

It has long bothered me that many journalists don't subscribe to their own newspaper.

It bothered me more to discover that some don't even read their own newspaper.

Don't even get me started on those who don't read any news source.

But after reading this explanation of Newspapers - and why I've tired of reading them I have to ask why do you work for a newspaper then?

Are you trying to change it from within? Why?

Or is the lack of a connection to a community by a staff member reflected in what's produced in a newspaper? Is it this lack that has contributed to the problem of boring print products?

And do we lack connections to communities of geography because we move more then our parents do? Or we spent childhoods in organized sports and organizations -- adult-ordered worlds of perfection -- instead of imperfect street games in urban courtyards and backyards?

Read through the post's comments to find an interesting question from Ryan Sholin: What newspaper did you grow up reading?

Is he right? Does that help us judge what is a "good" newspaper? I know back in the early '70s it took my mom and I a long time to stop holding our new newspapers up to our hometown papers. See, we thought every community had newspapers like the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.

When you train a woman ... when you try something different

I'm traveling outside my normal Internet path today, exploring some web sites at the request of an organization. Awe-inspiring work by journalists clearly not worried about buyouts helps balance the blackness echoing through much of what makes it to my stream of reading.

Deep in a package about water, this quote stops me:

"At Kenya Water for Health Organization we believe that when you train one woman you train many more people than when you train one man," says Joshua Otieno, head officer for the solar project.

I know. I should be caring more about the crisis of water.

Instead, I'm struck by how often the world turns to women to take small steps of change to affect larger problems.

In this article, it's training women to clean water safely.

In the Guideposts that slipped into my mailbox yesterday, three men who crochet turned that hobby into a moneymaker for women in Uganda through Krochet Kids International.

And then there's Beads for Life, where women turn recycled paper into beads.

I'm clinging to the hope that there are many more Lisa Wilsons (Placeblogger) and that the McCormick Foundation's New Media Women are bringing some ideas that will ensure untold stories of communities near and far surface.

Books help me jump into my memory stash

Sometimes, there's nothing better then reading a book - especially a book that helps you remember better days or lets you escape into music or a world of make-believe.

A book about Bob-Lo, an island in the Detroit River, does all three. I spent many summers on a boat like the one pictured here. It was the start - and end - of so many perfect days as a child.

Plus, I re-discovered I had a Good Reads account and stumbled through some more of the books I've read recently.

I started my fun reading with Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors (Music of the Great Lakes) by Ivan Walton and Joe Grimm. The book was published in 2002 and one of several that I bought from Wayne State University this summer.

The 262-page book is a collection of stories and songs of the men who sailed the schooners on the Great Lakes in the nineteenth century.

Summer Dreams: The Story of Bob-Lo by Patrick Livingston was in the same book order from Wayne State University.

This book was newer - published in 2008. It was fun to read about the history of Bob-Lo and see the photos and maps.

I love knowing the back story of places, so it was an adventure to read about the struggles, dreams and plans for a place that was only a fun place for me. The author delivers what is promised: Tracing the story of Bob-lo

"from its discovery by French explorers to its use by missionaries, British military men, escaped slaves, farmers, and finally the wealthy class, who developed the island as a summer resort."

The book cover describes the island as

"the ultimate summer playground for families from Detroit and Windsor for nearly one hundred years. In its heyday, the island housed an amusement park with one of the world s largest dance halls, an elegant restaurant, and a hand-carved carousel. It also employed two large Frank Kirby designed ferry steamers complete with dancing and other entertainment to transport patrons to and from the island, which was not accessible by car."

The island is located twenty miles south of Detroit where the Detroit River meets Lake Erie. But we always went to Bob-lo Island by boat and it seemed so far away.

The book brought back memories of going to Bob-Lo as a child, back to a time when rides like the Flying Scooters, the Roundup and the Wild Mouse could scare me.

It's the same park where I thought a giant slide was almost as much of a thrill as checking out the blockhouse. Imagine an amusement park bragging about those types of thrills today.

I had such wonderful memories of good times when I was young that I couldn't wait to take my daughter once she was old enough. First, I had to persuade my husband as the annual excursions to the amusement park were not part of his childhood.

By the time, we made it there the amusement part of island was on its last legs. Surely, the fact that Bart Simpson and not the Captain or even the Bob-Lo Bear posed with my daughter was a sign that the leisure time thrills were changing. I don't think many were surprised when the park that began operation in 1898 closed in September 1993.

The book was also a chance to see what Bob-Lo looked like in the days when my mother and father courted there.

The photo is of skaters from 1949, not my parents. But then my parents didn't take many photos back then. I had hoped to share the book with my dad, to hear his memories of skating, of moonlight cruises and picnics. But by the time the book arrived, it became too hard for him to talk about anything.

In my imagination, Bob-Lo was his chance to escape the projects and be a big man on campus. The island was cool in temperature and in activities for a teenager who could scrape together the ticket that included admission to the boat trip and island. The book confirmed that picture and some of the stories I remember hearing long ago.

I remember the freedom of being able to go from floor to floor of the boat. It was so much fun to be old enough to dance on the wooden floor, to race to the bottom floor and see and hear the giant engines.

The book cover describes the island as "the ultimate summer playground for families from Detroit and Windsor for nearly one hundred years. In its heyday, the island housed an amusement park with one of the world s largest dance halls, an elegant restaurant, and a hand-carved carousel. It also employed two large Frank Kirby designed ferry steamers complete with dancing and other entertainment to transport patrons to and from the island, which was not accessible by car."

The author traces the story of Bob-lo from its discovery by French explorers to its use by missionaries, British military men, escaped slaves, farmers, and finally the wealthy class, who developed the island as a summer resort.

The book is worth a read for anyone who was in love with the island. There are a few fans - the online Bob-Lo Gallery has a nearly 600 photos - and that's just one of many web sites.

Think list: Finding Niches of Information

Yesterday's filing deadline for local elections anchors the abstract for now.

Candidates had until 4 p.m. Tuesday to file for local offices. The local newspaper published an article about some of the county offices in the print edition and later online.

There also was one article about my local township board in print, but it didn't talk about the races I knew were possible because people had come to our door seeking petitions.

I checked online at 9 p.m. - nothing at the websites of the newspaper, 2 local TVstations, county or township.

Granted, this isn't a must-know NOW item but it personalizes for me the concept of news sites becoming circles of niches.

Of course, I should stop thinking sites and find something like FriendFeed or the Facebook News Feed.

The problem is what I ran into with Social Media when i tried to create a stream on news about the reorganization of Girl Scouts that is taking place. You can't draw resources together if none are created in a timely manner. (Or if people are deceptive and use the words Girl Scouts on their porn sites.)

Back to the filing deadline - I've got to believe that there were a few folks up at the Township Hall noting every filing. What if each had a way to post the list in a way I could find it when I wanted it?

Sure, some of them might blog about it. Eventually, the county and local goverment will post a list. But what if I could draw out the information now.

The term in some journalism circles would be crowdsourcing.

I think it could be the N = 1 idea outlined in The New Age of Innovation by C.K. Prahalad and M.S. Krishnan. John Soat sums up the N=1 idea by saying it is the ability of a business to interact with customers on an individual basis by co-creating value with them.

Krishnan explains it by saying it is co-creators of new knowledge.

I'm thinking that my new "newspaper" is going to be this collection of niches delivered to my mobile device on demand.

First draft ...

Wise folks skating to mobile

Just whipped through the May 12 Information Week magazine and it's hockey season - go Red Wings go - so I'm thinking news organizations ought to be skating toward mobile.

Information Week's Richard Martin wrote about the dangers of IT folks ignoring mobile device management, citing research from IDC that predicts growth - 63 million units by 2010 compared to 7.3 million in 2005.

And though the article is aimed at getting IT folks to think about how to manage the devices, it made me think that media companies - or journalists who want jobs - should focus on how to serve content over mobile devices.

Plus Eric Zeman in Our Take says "mobile sites will increase clicks." That article told about the increase in traffic for web sites with mobile sites: "An average of 13% over home PC traffic alone."

Zeman cites a Nielsen study that found a high of "22% for weather and entertainment" and quotes Jeff Herrmann as saying that mobile can help grow the pie.

I know I'm more likely these days to scan the web via the phone then the computer - and I'm old :-)

So it's time to follow Wayne Gretzky, who said “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

Forget print.

Forget web pages.

Skip to mobile.

Right?

And figure out what that means.

Librarians can earn master's degree on their own time - News

Librarians can earn master's degree on their own time - News



I see quite a few exjournalists turning to libraries.

Or entering law school.

Then, there are all the musicians in newsrooms.

What is the connection?

Leaving doesn't stop caring

The Fast Company magazine sat on the counter at least three days. As I struggled to figure out why today is so rough, I read this:

"When your currency is ideas, people become emotionally attached" - Gina Bianchini

The May 2008 cover of Fast Company delivers a vocabulary that defines what I could not.


Now, to find some Mozart. The newest addition is listen to Mozart for 10 minutes only with the right ear.

Today's positive spins: I have the time to try.

I have another doctor who listens, who works with others even as I wish for the days of a general practioner. One doctor for everything. What a concept, eh?

The gray shadows returned to the right eye

See - another reason to be glad I gave up demands of deadlines.

Second chances are always nice

We don't get many chances for do-overs in life. Or opportunities to step outside the life we know as usual.

That's why I'm not passing up this opportunity to win free registration to a Biz School for Bloggers that I think could be very interesting.

Lisa Sabin-Wilson has found that life has piled up too many obligations for her to use her already paid for registration so she decided to give it up. Since it was the too many obligations that made me pass up the last chance to win free registration I'm hoping for luck. :-)

The weekend in Chicago would be an excellent start to my life after buyout from The Flint Journal. It should help me focus more on what's next.

The weekend has been called an "Internet MBA in 48 hours" or "Biz School for Bloggers."

I see it as a beginning of an intensive period of thinking, a way to help me pull back from the routine of producing. I also see it as a way to push me out of the comfortable world of newspapers and mass media and back into the worlds of community and writing.

I know that opportunities are knocking and lots of folks have ideas of how I should "pay back" what I've learned or move on to the next challenge at a newspaper, a web site, a classroom or non-profit organization.

I'm listening to those who suggest I kickback and do nothing.

I know I have the luxury of not having to do anything at all.

But can a recovering workaholic really go from 100 mph to 0 mph overnight? Isn't everything we've done until now supposed to lead to something else?

Winning would be a God Wink, helping to show me ways to move out of the safe world.

I want to hear how folks put together their business plans, and actually meet some of the folks I have been following through Twitter and blogs, learn about social media from folks actually doing it. I want to know what new media outside newspapers and journalism means. And as someone who hasn't had her own business in more than 30 years I want to see how individuals make successful businesses.

I want the roadmap so I know how to survive the detours and blaze my own path. I don't want to start from scratch.

In return, Lisa wants a lifetime of adoration. What's not to like about someone who collects quotes, writes Books for Dummies, and switched careers from nursing to the web, and found happiness in her second marriage.

(which reminds me add editing the Dummies book to the resume that refuses to get done)

Heartbreaking photos of a laid-off newsroom

Like I needed another reminder of what an emptying newsroom looks like?

I'm sure I would not have stumbled across the work of San Jose Mercury News designer Martin Gee without Robb Montgomery posting these photos documenting the impact of a layoff. (He posted them in his own blog, but I stumbled across them over in the Editor's Blog, where the comments get interesting too.

Of course, I picked up especially on the part of depressed journalists.

Which reminds me - have you seen the map created by Erica Smith in her PaperCuts blog. Her Google map mashup includes information about each layoff/buyout/etc. You can see the 2,185 layoffs of 2007 or the 1,171 for 2008 map. I've been meaning to mention it for weeks now,thanks to Charles Apple, who has a blog over on Montgomery's Visual Editors site, interviewed her in February.

Mmmm. So what are all those laid off, bought out journalists doing? That's one of the new things I'm collecting

Is it time for Rent a Journalist, a travelling backpack journalist?

Laugh at the idea of renting a journalist, but then remember this: Layoffs, buyouts, the flu, a riot, a generation that wants satisfaction now.

Most people think of backpack journalists being someone equipped with enough tools and skills to report a a story in multiple mediums.

Perhaps we should expand the definition to include those willing and able to come to your station/newspaper/web site to fill in for the ill or vacationing, supplement thinned staffs when a crisis, disaster or a big "xxx turns 100" special assignments hit your community.

This is not your typical free-lance job with its defined, one time assignment.

This would be the place to hire temps who move in to supplement what needs to be done now because it is now.

Who?

Perhaps retirees or stay-at-home parents who want occassional work.

Perhaps those who like travel, disasters, the challenge of something new everyday.

A company like this might appeal to the generation of "I want it now" that we have raised. It would appeal to the journalist who would prefer to direct his or her career story by story.

Maybe it is expanded to include Rent an Expert, the former journalist who could train your new cops or courts reporter; the designer who could show your team how to efficiently use the software.

Perhaps a way to capture the expertise leaving our newsrooms.

Perhaps a way to re gain the type of knowledge newspapermen once spread from newsroom to newsroom when those type of Johnny Appleseeds were allowed into non-sanitized newsrooms.

Invisible people are everywhere

Being invisible is becoming a daily habit.

The first jarring notice came as I sat with a group of professionals, waiting for a lecture to start.

My inability to name the company I worked for quickly pushed the invisible cloak on me for two women.

The comment later of "I didn't realize you were retired" only underscored the values placed on the workplace.

The invisible cloak came out a few days later. But fortunately it hid me only from some people.

The people at the table could see me and offered advice for the first few months of a major lifestyle change of leaving an employer after 29 years. Perhaps it was because 6 of 8 had done the same.

The invisible cloak was produced by the caterer, who remembered me only when I identified my former employer. Then, the pre-ordered, non-allergic lunch appeared.

I know - get over it. Some folks only know you when you can help them.

How many interesting people do we ignore because we put them into our boxes?

Ironically, I can remember telling folks I wanted the invisible cloak mentioned in the Harry Potter books as I was sure it would allow me to escape the building where I worked without a half-dozen stops on the way in or on the way out.


.

Reporting techniques: Story behind the story becomes the story

The Detroit News tells the story of how it tracked the person behind a signature on a floating piece of paper at the former Detroit train station.

You can read the words, but the blend of photographs and voice is much more interesting.

Many who put together presentations on the web use only the voices of the folks they intereview. I like how the writer frames the story, using the voices of those interviewed to highlight when necessary.

The show also was a good way to pull in photographs from the Detroit News archives.

Michigan Central Depot once was a star. Not now, as another grand piece of history is on the list to be demolished.

'War" ruins friend of a friend

Have you seen the feature on Linked In and Facebook where you get a list of people you might know?

Whitney Hess does a good summary of sites that do this - even includes snapshots of the services like FriendFeed for folks.

For the most part, I've enjoyed seeing who I might know because of who I know.

The hard part is when you see the same face popping up and you know a connection online isn't possible for all the wrong reasons.

Hey, I'm an adult. I shouldn't care but sometimes I do agree with Geoff Dick, senior lecturer in information systems at the University of NSW, who said "Removing someone from your friend list is almost a declaration of war."

Reporter Daniel Emerson quoted Dick March 27 when writing about a British judge who made it official: Being "Facebook friends" with someone doesn't necessarily make you their friend.

Emerson wrote:

"The magistrate was presiding over a harassment case in which a woman accused her former boyfriend of hounding her by sending her a "friend request" on the popular social networking site on January 21."

The ex-boyfriend, Michael Hurst, 34, was cleared of the charge after the magistrate accepted his argument that the contact was highly innocuous because being "Facebook friends" could not be defined as "friendship in the traditional sense".

"[Popular British radio DJ Chris Moyles] has 1 million Facebook friends. Do you think he knows them all intimately?" Mr Hurst said."

Nope.

And keep the friend of a friend links coming ... it's a great way to meet new people.

Race to the end: Computer or me?

Do I count hours? Do I count days? Or just pray?

Right now I am praying that the computer at work will last through Friday, which should be my last work day forever at The Flint Journal.

OK, I already know I am going in on April 30. But the plan is vacation from April 5 until April 30. May 1 begins my new life - whatever that is based on the buyout terms.

Honestly, I don't know what I am doing post buyout.

First, I need the computer at work to last through Friday.

I have my doubts. It crashed 3 times today!

My email has reformatted itself. I received 2 emails 26 times!

The DVD recorder has stopped recording.

I already turned in the laptop. I gave up my Mac as it was needed (Why with a smaller staff?). That's OK I get exercise as I am forced to wander from computer to computer when I need some programs.

Now I am not sure if the hunk of junk on my desk will last so I can finish one last online project.

Which brings up the other challenge: Am I counting hours, days or the finished project to determine when I am done. Or maybe the computer decides my last moment. When it is done so am I!

Last day at Flint Journal set in stone

It's a date drawn in concrete. My last day at the place I've worked at for 29 years, 6.5 months is April 4.

The date has changed a lot since I agreed to the newspaper's buyout offer last fall.

It has changed as I've trained my replacements.

It has changed as I've worked with so many people to create a web site that puts a bigger emphasis on the content as it develops and not tied to a print product.

It has changed as I watched people with key roles in creating the content also take the buyout or move into new roles ont he shrinking staff.

This date is in writing. This is it.

This is it even if the six people who now form a new Internet team - a team! - disappear from the face of the earth between now and then.

This is it even if the corporate office relents and loosens the hold on the web site design, databases or blogs.

This is it even if the to-do list isn't completed.

So what's next?

Huge question with no answer yet. Or maybe that is the answer: Nothing.

What I know is that I need time spent on nothing.

What I have earned is a buyout offer that buys me time for nothing.

What I will do is visit my dad who has cancer (again), my mother who denies her diagnosis of early stages of Alzheimer's, my husband, my daughter, my craft space, my kitchen and my back yard.

I worked on the redesign for nearly a year, watching the launch day pass by countless times.

Blogging about LaKisha Jones' rise on American Idol showed the possibility of replacing shoveled newspaper articles online with serving fresh news and information about the Flint area.

Live coverage of the Buick Open, the painful launch of a tool to report on high school sports, and the better launch of reporters producing audio opened more possibilities.

And then there was the advertising side where retail sales representatives got easy-to-sell online packages, all sales representatives got an incentive to sell and print artists started producing online ads for the first time.

Then, photos for the first time in print and online in many classifications, new platforms for real estate, jobs, and cars.

Of course, the regular stuff too.

So I am tired.

I waver about the next step. Sometimes I want as far away from the world of producing information as possible. No more deadlines. No more formal structures of who can speak to who when.

Yet, I can't stop thinking of the possibilities ... knowing we don't need more choice, we need more TV Guides (see See Spark Media's 12 principles of New Media)

I start thinking about what sparked my involvement with the Genesee Free-Net and Girl Scouts, the idea of powerful connections and growing community and strong women.

But the partially finished quilts and fabric projects, the uncut material, the beads, the clay start shouting that it is their turn. There's something addicting Or about learning something new with each piece.

Buyout journalists, remember this ..

Don Fry over at Poynter Online offers some tips for those wondering what to do after the buyout at a newspaper.

So he tells us what we can do:

"You can read, write, think, talk, sort out what's important, remain ethical without crippling yourself, train people, inspire beginners and detect liars."

He tells us what business we were in:

"You were in the business of explaining things, the most valuable thing in the world. People who can help ordinary citizens understand their world are rare, and you're one of them."

But he can't answer this one:

"What do you really want to do? "

The answer to that moved Don from writing coach to sculptor.

In St. Louis, it led some to their own media.

It's led some journalists into public relations; some into teaching. So many possiblities.

Fry suggests finding some tough friends to push you on the answer. Or consider using some of the buyout money as a "development grant" and figure it out for yourself.

Don's post is similar to the take by the Recovering Journalist Mark Potts in his Sept. 25, 2007 post: Life After Journalism

There's a piece I've hung onto called "Helping Journalists Make the Jump."

But it all comes down to

"What do you really want to do? "

Or what do you want to be when you grow up this time?

Don't listen, just review?

Ouch! An apology is out there. But I wonder how many times people review without listening first

It seems more possible every time I read the same phrase in a review at multiple locations.

In this day of the Internet, why would you risk doing that?

Forget soup! Get me some fries in my newspaper!

Ready to use food again to look at what's wrong in today's news world?

The nerdy guy from Kansas (now in Washington DC) fondly remembers a restaurant "back "home" that always sneaks a bit of broccoli on the plate with your order of steak and fries.

Rob Curley suggests newspapers think like that chef, willing to put a good-size portion of potatoes, a hunk of red meat and small bunches of broccoli on the same plate:

... "it seems to me that the problem with a lot of newspaper editors is they’d much rather feed you broccoli for every meal, without the steak and potatoes.

And when they do try to serve up something a little more palatable, it sure tastes a lot like broccoli. It’s like they’re trying to impress the other chefs instead of trying to please the folks in the restaurant who actually pay their salaries."

Curley reminds us this fits right in with his familiar theme that news organizations need to "produce both “Big-J” and “little-j” journalism."

Think election guides and high school proms; restaurant inspections and wedding announcements; how government spends your money and Little League scores.

For me, this past year it would be overseeing Google maps of demolished houses and blogging LaKisha Jones travels on American Idol or creating a place for 24/7 online updates and adding photos to open houses.

Curley says there's room for both types of journalism.

Another journalist isn't sure how you get people doing the little-j work forever.

Will Bunch asks in his Nieman Report "Will journalists ‘cover local news for life, with no chance of parole?’".

Bunch, who also has been reading a lot and out at conferences, has heard the battle cry that suggests leaving the big stories to a few products while the rest specialize in he here,

"With the Internet in play, a small group of players — The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC — will dominate the big stories on the world stage and in our nation’s capital.

"For the rest of us, journalism will die if it does not become more local, or even something called “hyperlocal.”

Bunch says he can see why that might happen, but most journalists don't want to cover the small-town meetings forever.

"On an emotional level, I’m going on 49 years old, and I have a lot of friends around my age who have survived the surge in newsroom layoffs and are still working in an ink-stained newsroom somewhere.

"Not one of us wanted to be covering local news at our age (or, for that matter, at any age.) But we’ve been there, done that.

"To be brutally honest: For an ambitious journalist, the only way to get through a four-hour suburban school board meeting—even at age 22—is to keep repeating the mantra “this, too, shall pass.” In other words, treat this day’s assignment as just a boring but necessary pit stop on the road to Moscow or Beirut.

But I disagree. I think there are some who are happy to spend years covering the Kiwanis, Lions and Main Street business openings and closings.

I think we can have different goals, ambitions as journalists - and we can have different goals at different times.

Some of us are willing to work long hours - paid and unpaid - to dig deep into something we think is wrong.

Some of us only want to work 9-5 and go home without bringing work home. Some of us only want to work part time

Plus consider how we may want to change the pace of our careers to match what else is happening in our lives. Can we dial down the Type A personality when family calls and be allowed to ratchet it back up when the kids are off to first grade without harming our long-term chances of success.

The challenge for news organizations is recognizing and then matching the skills and interests of staff with the needs of the newspapers.

Supervisors may interpret interest in covering a community that way as a lack of ambition. They want every staff member able to write every type of journalism, regardless of desire or talent.

It's a challenge to manage. It's a challenge to figure out how to pay fairly.

Listen to Bunch:

"I’d say that for the local journalism movement to succeed within the existing newsroom, there’s going to need to be a very different system of the dreams of Beltway punditry or a glamorous foreign beat.

"In fact, the rewards of the more pointed kind of journalism that blogging allows—the ability to develop a voice and a personality and to connect daily with readers—are considerable.

"Another route: convince the Pulitzer Prize committee to double the categories for local journalism."

So, how do I convince Bunch not everyone needs a blog or Pulitzer Prize to know they succeeded.

How do you persuade leaders of news organizations that the flexibility to manage staff members of varying skill levels and ambitions is the same flexibility needed to allow community members the freedom to comment on every story and blog post, to add items to the community calendar without censorship and to publish their unedited announcements.

It's the flexibility needed to get the Big J and little j journalism back in the news organization.

Online soup could use more women, right?

How do we make our own online, stone soup? What's up with all these mom sites? And are woman at the multimedia, web table?

Steve Yelvington got me rolling with the soup imagery. He started by pointing us to a review by Neil Thurman of City University, London, on how British news media are using the tools of interactivity. And moved onto the idea that many newspapers, media sites, web sites want contributions thrown into the pot - without losing control.

That made me think of the Stone Soup fable, where nothing turns into something. Think of an online community site filled with user-generated content created the way the hungry men enticed village folks to make a new soup by starting with a pot, water and a stone and them enticing others to toss in a carrot, onion, potato, etc. The men end up with a tasty soup through a collaborative effort.

That's not what is happening on many sites. Too often, there's a head chef and he knows how the soup will turn out

The folks in charge want to hold onto the right to approve what you want to add to the mix (no, we already have a politician writing so you can't) They remind you to peel the veggies (use full names, write your head like this, put your item here).

The site shows us the pot, then gives the list of acceptable ingredients rather then risking a surprise, something unique for each community.

Is it really a user-generated site if the users only get to fill in the "holes" allotted to them?

Over in Jason Falls' Social Media Explorer, he looks at similar concept in a review of preview of a newspaper's new design. He focuses on the idea that just because you give someone social media tools, it doesn't mean you are a social media site.

The next big hurdle is how many sites do we need?

If I am already -----ing, do I need your ----ing tool? (Blog Friends, My Blog Log, Google Shared items, ... LiveJournal, Blogger, WordPress ... Diggs, delicious, stumbledupon...)

I know of at least eight places to get a list of Flint Michigan restaurants. Seven of the eight ask me to rate the restaurants.

I can go to at least five places now aggregating content from Flint. I'm not even counting specialty stops, such as GeneseeFun.

That takes me to the growing number of mom sites.

Does every town need one of those too? We have them in Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and on and on and on.

Seriously, isn't most of the content generic? What I might need is an online neighbor telling me which pharmacist will add cherry flavoring to my kids meds. But the National Institutes of Health government site is where I will get my advice on the latest flu.

Which brings me to the role of women in developing, creating, growing the network of online community and its information. Are they out there? Are they in the pipeline?

When I think of folks out there trying new things, I can think of Rob Curley, or Zac Echola, or Adrian Holovaty, or Ryan Sholin, or Shawn Smith or ... notice a pattern there?

It does look like a fair number of women are over at the "we're all in this together" Wired Journalists site - and we have some great role models in colleges and heading up grant programs (Think Nora Paul or Jan Schaffer or Vikki Porter.)

But I am still outnumbered at too many digital media, computer-assisted journalism events.

So why aren't women already in the newsrooms learning how to be multimedia journalists?

If it is money, there's a possible solution for a few women. I recently learned that 3 projects are going to get grants (up to $10,000 each) Head to the site for a ton of research showing fewer women staying in journalism, fewer women leading news operations, and fewer women expecting to stay or lead.

What I did not find is a number to back my theory that fewer women then men are in the pipeline learning digital journalism, multimedia techniques, web stuff.

My gut reaction is little has changed since one of the first computer-assisted reporting conferences at Indiana University was attended by mostly men.

Even last fall, only 3 of 40 or so folks at a "multimedia tricks for news" workshop were female.

Yet, women and men are online in equal numbers, according to this NTIA study.

Are they watching, not creating? What can we do to fix it?

Maybe it is not limited to our newsrooms.

Twelve years of teaching workshops to Girl Scout adults and I am still finding women who use their husband's email account. Twelve years, and many know nothing about security and privacy issues because their husband does that computer stuff.

I think we get better soups with more women at the table.

Passion required to get things done

The idea of being passionate is jumping out at me. Right now, it is an publisher's note in the January edition of Oxygen.

Oxygen, a fitness magazine aimed at women, is not on my normal reading list except that it is normal for me to pick up what I might not normally read when I am at a doctor's office. A cover headline on "eating clean in ANY restaurant" caught my eye. But the "Power of PASSION" stopped me first.

Robert Kennedy asks "what are you passionate about?" before sharing a multitude of his passions.

He also notes how many today don't have any passions before reminding us "nothing great" is accomplished without passion.

Now, I know why working 60 to-70 hours in a week often didn't feel like work. The passion of building an information rich site fueled me.

Passion explains why I can spend hours sharing what I learned.

Passion is why I continue to experiment with Friendfeeds, Twitter, and Wired Journalists even as I prepare to end my 30-plus year career. (who hires 54-year-old web journalists'? Heck, who hires journalists these days - firms just buy them out or lay them off.)

I wish I knew how to inspire that passion in others who seem frozen into patterns of desperation and making do.

A recent Twitter status on coping with those frozen by circumstances/lack of ambition/lack of caring got this: @mcwflint: be the big thaw. 09:33 PM February 12, 2008

Easier said then done and perhaps it is because I believe we are responsible for the moments we live.

Perhaps passion comes easy to me since I have outlasted the dooming predictions of others on multiple fronts. (one boss said I just like proving things can be done)

Kennedy suggests feeding passion three ways:
-Be positive

-Pat yourself on the back

-Live it, love it

Kennedy puts changing your job if it feels like work under being positive. I think it can go under each.

Danny Sanchez explores creating passionate newsrooms or at least ideas on how to get people excited about new technology. His tips include find something the reporter is excited about and match a tool to that; train and have patience.

I think that worked with Ron Fonger who had lists of demolished houses and then put them on Google maps. It worked with Marjory Raymer who saw a way to let everyone know who contributed to a the Flint mayor's campaign. It worked with Steve Jessmore who learned to add sound, voices to his Sense of Community portraits.

Sanchez, who was at the Web Apps Miami conference, later posted on creating passionate owners as being the success to business.

He listened to Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV, explain how to build community:

“I fly all over the country just to drink wine with people.”

“You’ve got to have the DNA of your community.”

“There needs to be a face to your company. You have to take care of those people until your bleeding out of your f***ing g****mn face.”

“You need to love your community more than you love yourself.”

“You’ve got to have someone in the trenches. Someone people can touch.”

Then Danny suggested that didn't sound like the average ombudsman and asks how much is your "community manager" out in the community, being a part of a community, being passionate about being a part of that community.

(Remember how I said passion is popping up everywhere. My husband's January 2008 Project Management magazine also had an article on the importance of project managers projecting passion.

Alfonso Bucero says:
- Believe in what you do
- Show a sense of urgency
- Be willing to take on additional responsibilities
- Strive for excellence

See. Passion is everywhere. Find yours. Please)