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.


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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)

Dismantling the audiotext system

It's only a matter of days before I'll pull the plug on The Flint Journal's audotext system. Seriously, we have still been delivering information by phone.

But despite the number of calls to hear the lottery numbers, the weather, the horoscopes, updates on soap operates, it is time to pull the plug.

I know I was the last one to care, and I gave up at least 15 months ago when it became clear no one was interested in selling sponsorships with the hot, sexy Internet grabbing all the attention.

I've let it limp along - 22 phone lines feeding into a computer that takes an information feed and delivers it upon the request of four digits. (Hey, I wanted to eliminate some phone lines, but we were waiting to do that when we moved the system to the "new" computer room.)

Yes, I know that some of the lottery numbers were popular only among those playing numbers.

Yes, I know that all of the information is available somewhere online. (Do you know there are still some who don't use computers? I'd be happy to direct all the calls that will come in to you, if you'd like.)

It just seems ironic to me that when the population has more portable phones then ever, we are pulling out of the service.

And we are one of the last newspapers to do that. In fact, we may be one of the last businesses to do that. We looked for a place to send folks to - just a few years back every phone directory in the area had a similar service. Today, none of the four in our area. (I did find one 800 service over on Tellme.com 1-800-555-TELLME)

I remember when we once had numerous vendors striving for attention, for our business. We'd meet and share ideas for using these phone-computer systems for contests, polls, and delivery of all sorts of information.

ZDNet calls it A voice response application that allows users to enter and retrieve information over the telephone. See IVR.

There are a few vendors and systems out there ... just no one seems to be aggressively trying to deliver the information via a newspaper or media company.

Buzzmachine: Work collaboratively

 I'm convinced the only way we as a society are going to survive this series of journalists layoffs/buyouts/goodbyes -- Did you see More than 1,000 jobs eliminated in 2 months -- is to get more people interested in creating content, reflecting the communities we live in. It takes hard work and money.

I know lots of people had this dream of folks contributing to a rich community computer network back when free-nets were growing.

Jeff Jarvism in a post on Buzzmachine, shares ideas on getting the public involved with creating journalism, with covering a community.

Here's a summary,  

* Ask public to sort large amounts of data/documents put online 

* Ask the public to help gather data points around a story. 

* Get the public to help file FOIAs and create a FOIA repository 

(Plays nicely off the Empower readers, viewers with FOI advice a column in January Quill from Society of Professional Journalists (Sorry. You need to be a subscriber to read that, but here are some resources to help with FOI )

* Let public help assign reporters

* Establish communities of experts to help on stories, their reporting and checking and even their assignment.  

* Give citizens  camera and recorders and ask citizens to capture meetings, lectures, events.

* Get the advertising side involved in supporting curated, quality blog networks

Head to the original   for examples.

He closes with

To get started, I'd hire a collaboration editor charged with getting such projects going all around the newsroom.

And has this bit of advice:

But I'd make sure that job gets phased out as journalists collaborate on their own self-interested initiative.

And I suggest you make sure you carefully assign that job ... you need an enthusiastic champion right from the start. Actually, the more champions, the better

Twitter away

Sometimes, experience is the best teacher so let me share some insights from another on Twitter and give you some links to Twitter media links.

Here's what Rick Mahn, who spent a year with Twitter says:

"As I've followed more and more people on Twitter, and have more people follow me, I've grown in my ability to absorb the data stream.

I've become accustomed to having bits of information stream past all day. I find it interesting when someone chooses to vent frustrations.

I'm invigorated by the short conversations on topics I rarely think about.

I get excited to be able to answer someone's question.

I'm happy when I hear good things happen to these people who are familiar to me.

I'm proud of the way the community itself pulls together and makes things happen.

Imagine, all this is captured and shared in 140 characters or less."

I can't imagine why any journalist is missing becoming a part Twitter

Want to see which news organizations are twittering? Check this list and this list of media outlets.

Don't forget the Flint Journal's breaking news Twitter.

Taming technology, training me

Before voice mail and caller ID, before cellphones even, a friend showed me a liberating lesson by letting the phone ring. I thought of that when someone suggested I try silence when stumbling over the difficult task of saying "no.".

Back to the phones. At first, I was puzzled. Didn't he hear the ringing phone? Is he avoiding someone? It didn't take many incidents before I had to ask why he didn't answer the calls.

His answer: I am busy right now talking to you.

Whoa. To someone accustomed to racing to the rings, that was eye-opening. The technology does not tame me. I can choose, much in the way people once collected the mail and held onto a letter to read in a quiet time.

We can choose the importance of the call when it happens, weighing what we are doing at the time.

It is the same with SMS, AIM, and even email. Instant responses may be expected. They don't have to be given - then.

I still slip sometimes if I am near the ringing phone. My eyes will dart to the panel of numbers announcing the caller.

That gesture, though, is rude to the person who is already talking to me - in person.

I wish others learned that lesson of politeness prior to getting a cellphone. Then, fewer people would chat while being waited on or sitting in a crowded waiting room. That is an easy, a familiar rant.

I am trying to use that lesson to answer questions that have no answers or don't deserve answers or where the only right answer is no.

I want to master the technique of greeting an unbelevable request with silence. Not the "give me a second to round up my thoughts" silence.

I want the silence that says "are you serious?"

I want the silence that makes you realize you popped the wrong request to the wrong person.

I want the silence that will remind me that says it is OK to say no and to be polite to myself.

We make choices. Companies even. Just because I have made foolish choices in the past, I do not have to repeat them. Just because I have invested heavilly in a project, a plan, I do not need to ensure its success forever.

It is a matter of survival.

Can you think?

I admit that I have wished for a book on you so I can quickly learn what makes you tick and what ticks you off. But I never expected checklists for every part of my life. That's why I prefer facilitators over trainers and coaches over editors.

Yet, many people want a blueprint outlining what to do when. The why is not important. The possibility of unlimited choices is frightening.

Is it that some people grew up with flash cards and everything needs to be broken into small pieces with only one correct answer?

Or do they think they can always ask the teacher what will be on the test?

The national Girl Scouts are in the midst of a major shift in programming. That has to result in a focus change for those folks once known as trainers. I have only a few details on the process of converting those involved volunteers into facilitators.

I like the language change. Training implies checklists, one way of doing things, controlled situations. Facilitating implies giving you tools and skills that may guide you through situations. But the responsibility for carrying out the plans, the program, the dreams remains with you.

It is similar to why a person "lucky" enough to be called an editor needs to spend more time coaching then editor. It takes more time to coach - a lesson I learned at Poynter Institute and from Don Fry and Peter Roy Clark. But a coaching style helps a writer learn what to do in multiple situations.

Editing or fixing as story is a one-time improvement. But coaching a writer by asking questions, by having conversations, by exploring a few possibilities can reap long-term benefits for the editor, writer and reader.

When I share knowledge,, I am hoping they are thinking.

A journalist or blogger who participates in a discussion on why a news organization asks organizations to post a summary of a news article or blog item and link back to the original should now offer the same courtesy to another news organization or blogger, right?
How do you teach someone to apply concepts without spelling out what to do constantly. Hoe do you teach one to make their own checklist?
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Twitter - and your words - to the rescue

I love it when I read something that sums up what I'm thinking before I have acquired the language to describe the thought. Happened to me twice this week - once with a Twitter status -- deep vs echo blogging - and once with a thoughtful post on why you pick up a community when you follow an individual. Then, of course, we could talk about those posts that describe the trend I've picked up only on a subconscious level until ....

Hugh MacLeod helped out in his Twitter on "deep or echobloggers" He uses the phrase to describe the differences between bloggers. Some contribute something original, or at least thoughtful to the blogging world. Others merely repeat what's already out there.

Yeah. That's a way of describing bloggers.

Look at those bloggers who share the links of the day/week/month with no commentary. Contrast that with a blogger who explains why the links are worth pursuing.

I'm struggling with blogging - yeah, see how often I write :) Part of it is I don't want to be an echo-blogger. We seem to have enough of those judging by my RSS reader that gets stuffed with duplicated posts

It takes time to be a deep blogger though. It takes time to pull together patterns, thoughts not fully explained by others. It takes time to stay on top of what's happening, of spotting trends.

Heck, I've sent more than 300 draft thoughts over here. But I let myself be paralyzed by the thought that it might already have been said. Or is it the chain that journalists don't share opinions?

It's similar to an argument I first had with Twitter. Why would anyone care what I'm doing?

Fortunately, what I've learned they may not care what I'm doing* but I care about the conversation that leads to knowledge when you follow the right Twitters.

I've also learned that it is not enough to follow, you need to contribute.

And you need to follow enough people to contribute to the conversation. (thanks to Richard Azia, who has a whole Twitter category in his blog.)

By the way, that blogging about Twittering is a whole 'nother trend,according to another Twitter'er - (Mathew Ingram) - who noted the "Twitter seems to be one of those things that people write about almost as much as they actually use."

Yeah, I've noticed that. It's almost as common as complaining about how often Twitter goes off the grid.


* About the not caring - well, some do and even that surprises me.

People who follow me because I followed them often share comforting words when the MS Monster threatens to suffocate me.

Sometimes, it is those folks I have never met who are alert enough to my patterns to recognize when MS might be sneaking out. They alert me to Twitters that do not resemble the English language. Or stop me when the Pity Party goes on too long.

Thank you.

Cuban asking wrong questions

In the Internet world, I'm late. But I still find Mark Cuban's posts questioning the ethics of someone who interviewed him worth a closer look.

Cuban questions the ethics of the interviewer writing about the interview in his blog AFTER writing the piece for a national magazine. Cuban should've been surprised only if the interviewer/blogger hadn't blogged.

When a journalist comes calling, the person always has a choice: Answer the questions or not.

It doesn't matter where the work of the journalist will go - a national magazine, a community newspaper, a television station or a blog. A person has the right to say no.

It is clear that Cuban knew the man blogged, knew the blog, and yet he continued the interview. It is also clear that Cuban gets blogging since he's behind the Blog Maverick.

About 100 comments were posted on the original post last time I looked.

I agree with commenter Adam Elman who reminds us that today's journalists often use one experience to post in several places. Trying to control the flow of information - even thinking you can control that flow is unreasonable in today's world of multiple methods of communication.

Plus the blog post even mentions - and links back to - the site/article, so the company footing the travel and writing expenses got a link and PR. (A good thing, right?)

You can tell the company that paid must have known Will Leitch blogs - they link to his Deadspin blog in the introduction of the (The most likeable blowhard in sports).

I disagree with those who want to say blogging about the experience is OK if it was for a personal site, but not a blog that makes money. Money should not be the decidng factor.

Did the writer agree to only write about the interview in the magazine? I can't imagine the question coming up or a writer agreeing. (I haven't seen anything that contradicts this - have you?)

Now that I've looked at the article (The most likeable blowhard in sports), looked at the blog post (Why no rich techie should ever buy a sports team) I think the writer was OK.

And next time, Mr. "I have trust issues and prefer interviews by email" Cuban is uncomfortable because he knows the type of blog the writer does he should just say no right then.

He agrees that should be his position in a follow up post:

Its my fault. I was stupid to think that the guy who runs Deadspin could stop being the guy who runs Deadspin. I should have asked for GQ to send someone else. Better yet, I should have stuck to my rules and only do interviews via email.

Bad idea, those email interviews. but that's for another day.

Meanwhile, Cuban needs to read The Scorpion and the Frog before heading out to the flowing river of promotion next time.

New site up, time for rest of my life

Wow. How time flies. Just added up how many hours I've worked this week - 35 and it's only Wednesday. But a version of a new web page launched for the newspaper after a mere five months.

Now, others can tweak the concept. I know the next newspapers who will need to adapt to it will improve it. I still hope to bring some features that were planned back. (What was that joke about the results of committees? mmmmm)

(As I told my husband, today the only thing you can say right now is it is the best thing since sliced bread. Tomorrow - after I sleep at least eight hours - we can be truthful again. I'll share some of my thoughts and I'd like to hear yours.)

And I can start blogging again. I noticed I have 15 times as many drafts as posts. Ouch.

Forget caller ID, tell me nature of call

My Twitter struck a 'me, too' nerve today. Seems I am not the only one interested in the nature of the call more then who is calling.

Now since Twitter limits your space, I merely explained that a color siginal about the news to be conveyed would help. Blue flashing would be a warning, red for danger and green for a 'good' call.

I was reacting to my brother's call. First, he asked me to play soccer, knowing I never had and certainly can't right now. But then the real reason for the call slips out: My dad is back in the hospital. Of course, it was the family tradition: Don't tell anyone until the procedure is done.

We all knew something was up. Although my father is a man of few words, we had heard even fewer lately. Yes, a tumor was back, a surgeon sliced it out, and now we wait. Was that enough? Will chemo help? Is anything else wanted? Or needed? Or capable of sending hope?

We wait, trying hard to be supportive, sending prayers, hugs and wishes. And while the battle continues, somehow I must find a way to walk through my own pain and continue as if nothing so earth-shattering is affecting me.

I try to finish the final details of a launch, figure out ways to make sure the team of six know enough to build their own way and still carry the day-to-day tasks of the job, of getting Medicare, MedI-Cal and Social Security on the same numbers for my mom and stepdad, and doing what I commited to do before my life unraveled.

I have either found the world's best diet or words for a great country song with the latest chapters of my life.

I know I would like to stop answering the phone now - as if that would stop the avalanche of unwelcomed opportunities.



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Cancer, senior discount spur new 'Bucket List'

As I race through the last days of a web site redesign that will end 29 years at the same publication, I am creating "Bucket Lists." There is the rush to explain the thinking behind what's there, the determination to get everything in place and, finally, a focus on my next steps.

Seeing "The Bucket List," with an unasked-for senior discount, and my dad's latest operation helped clarify which list to work on.

Scattered in journals, old Daytimers, and loose papers are lists of goals over the years.

Lately, I have been rushing through a checkoff of things that MUST be in the showpiece I will oversee. Quick, get that poll in, those comment features in. Find ALL the folks already blogging. Get pages about the things that make Flint, Michigan, Flint done. Figure out how to highlight video, squeeze in the latest social media tool.

I had a plan for what happens next - breathing space. My material and threads, my paint and brushes, my wire and beads beckon. UFOs wait - that's unfinished objects for the non-quilters or crafters who stumbled here. My husband cannot believe he has thrown out two months of JoAnn and Michael sales pieces. Folks joke that I have caused the local branches of these and other raw material outlets to consider bankruptcy.

My side of the family hasn't had its Christmas gathering yet.

Yet, the plan to focus on family and friends, on me began to slip as I heard of others' dreams. Suddenly, I am swept up in searching for potential funders, possible grantmakers for projects as diverse as digital media and black-and-white photographs of a town saying goodbye.

Suddenly, I am fascinated by the possibility of writing about things I love.
I jump to get details on possible consulting jobs helping other newspapers change attitudes, at offering corporations diversity awareness sessions, and developing alternative sources for news.

But then, a cashier gives me a senior discount 18 months early. Ouch. I also realize it has been at years since I was inside a movie theater when I used to go at least once a week.

Plans of family time, of friend time, of me time come back into focus.

Perhaps, though, it was my brother's call that made me realize the list that needs the most work

My father had another tumor removed from his throat, which explains his reluctance to talk. Perhaps, chemo will work again.

Me? When I am done with this gig, I won't. It is time for family, for friends, for me

Goal: Journalist, citizen, human

The Journalist and the Buddha blogger asks why journalism can't talk about its own morality in a recent post. Although the writer shares guides that lead him through a discussion on objectivity, depression in the newsrooms and more, I found my a-ha moment here:

"My New Year’s resolution is to work as a journalist, to act as a citizen, and to live as a human without a blindfold."

Although the blogger dismisses that by saying

"I'll try to simply use my God-given head and heart and eyes,"

I found those simples words to be powerful.

For many years, it seems that journalists have sought to build walls around parts of their lives, or even eliminate segments from their lives. Reporters and editors have been forbidden to actively participate in politics, with one newspaper in 2002 extending the restrictions to spouses. (See On the Media: Professional Journalists, Personal Activists.)

Involvement of journalists in their local churches, community groups or clubs was frowned upon just in case those groups might become a news source.

Today, the debate looks at should a journalist blog?

John Robinson, among others, have suggested they want to know that a potential reporter is blogging - it shows interest in the field, raw ability and more. Yet not all agree that journalists should blog as evident at the discussion in October at the Online News Association.

I like that we are moving to acknowledging that journalists are humans too. I think we will discover that just as being a parent can make you a better editor or writer - watching someone learn what the world is can awaken your senses - so we will find that a person who struggles to be a better journalist, a better citizen and "live as a human" will be the person we want helping us make sense of the world we live in today.

2008: Deliver from the heart

Reading the million Twitters and zillion blog posts of what to do in 2008 helped me realize that just like Todd, there are signs showing me what I need to do next.

Unlike Todd, I didn't ride a motorcycle past a telling sign in front of a church just after asking myself what to do.

Instead, I realize that 2008 is an extension of a journey I started those 10 hours in July spent on a floor and moved further along during the 23 days my foot spent above my head.

That painful day of helplessness led to a phone always within reach as I never wanted to be that stranded again.

As I started using my cellphone more and more I realized how inadequate it was. I'm so grateful that I broke down and bought an Iphone.

I'm grateful Apple realized how flawed the first one was and replaced it before I spent all those days in bed, unable to hold much comfortably as I kept my foot elevated.

The Iphone opened so many doors - an easier way to read the blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and so many other programs. It brought new people into my life, brought back some people and helped me relate to others in new ways.

A Twitter confession that Facebook, Twitter and the Internet could take a big chunk of every day brought advice to watch what I say from Knoxville.

Reviewing Facebook statuses helped me realize how out-of-kilter my priorities had gotten as I became envious of those attending concerts and finding time for family.

I am still amazed as I look back at the last months at how timely some Facebook/Twitter/Internet messages were.

The simple belief that I would be OK, the questions lobbied that uncovered patterns, emotions and skills that I missed, the willingness to share knowledge and play Scrabble late in the night and the openness of those who have gone through buyouts before sharing how they survived.

Chris Brogran says he's talking about blogging tips here:

If you can, contribute new thoughts, different takes, and mash-up ideas to the mix.

Take something you’ve read or heard or seen from two different perspectives and mash them into a new thought.

Share something from your life. Share what matters most to you, mixed with how it might be helpful and of interest to others. Put out crazy ideas. Put out heart-felt ideas.

Deliver from your heart and soul, and it will show through.

But I'm taking it as advice for what to do next as I finish up 29 years at the same newspaper and its online operation.

Those new patterns, paths and pieces, a complicated support system, has helped me realize what I have left to give, what I can do, and even what I should do with these todays.

People in glass houses, be nice, and...

I am perplexed. I just read a post filled with suggestions on how to improve the online dialogue.

It is right on target. Now, if only the author followed her own advice.

Do I say that in a comment?

Or is that message better for back channel talk - say an email or IM?

Or should I assume the author knows how she or her site falls short?

Perhaps I am turning into a grumpy old man. I know perfection is impossible. I realize one individual can't control all of a corporate site

Perhaps I am wrong to hold back on critiquing practices just because I know the site I am associated most often sucks at very same thing

What do you think?

Sneaky ways to start social media at work

Social media certainly is the hot topic and Bloghound: The Foghound Blog takes time to give us 10 ways to persuade the boss to do it.

But that's not going to be my problem, since the days of having a boss are numbered. (I am thinking about how online media sites might use.)

But let's start with a look at those 10 tips.

Here's a summary:
1. Start small, quiet and don’t call what you’re doing social media, Web 2.0 or any of the phrases associated with losing control. Be sneaky: The Foghound suggests doing a podcast, for example, but calling it a series of interviews to start.

2. Host a thought leadership community, with editorially independent bloggers who are influential in your industry.

3. Show the value to search, emphasizing how having valued content helps people find you.

4. Link to the strategic innovation and customer agendas for your company.

5. Watch your competitors, and share what they are doing with executives.

6. Make sure you know how things - visitors, downloads, etc. - are measured.

7. Do a weekly email digest of the most relevant blog posts in your industry for your boss and other execs

8. Create a private online community of customers and prospects.

9. Do a small, 6-month test that is reasonably budgeted and appealing. (Belive the hint of avoiding a company blog as the first effort).

10. Stay grounded and don’t get infatuated.

OK, I really boiled this post down. Go see the original for more explanation.

A tip of the hat for saying thanks

The Social Media Explorer had an up-and-down-and-up experience recently after trying out a social media site centering on travel.

It all started when Jason Falls dropped by to check out a travel site. He wrote a couple of reviews and this week he got an email inviting to him "come" and get a small token of appreciation.

But he got to the designated site and learned he didn't qualify. Oops.

Wait, next up he gets another email apologizing for a glitch that erroneously kept him from the prize. So he tries again. Now, we'll have to wait and see if he gets the hat. Meanwhile, he's happy.

See, Mom was right. It never hurts to say thank you. Only let's make sure you can deliver when you offer.

A word for everything

Direct from a website, a word some of us need to remember ... twurt: A verb (used without object)


Origin: mashup of the words "tweet" and "blurt"

Definition: The act of posting a written statement on Twitter that you wouldn't say outloud or in "present company".

FAQ's: Why twurt and not bleet?

Because a bleet is what a goat does and goats don't use Twitter, silly.

visit the site to see some twurts :)

And I will try to remember there is no reason to share some things, even at 2 a.m.

Actually, today was a good learning day. I learned how to find the permanent address of a Tweet (hint: click on post time. Example Dumped H20 on verified bills. Oops 1 minute ago from web Try it over on Twitter.com).

Plus I know why the RSS feed from a news blog to Twitter stopped. Hint: It had nothing to do with a gag order, just another firewall issue with twitterfeed.

(Better hint: Don't create passwords while taking pain pills, 'cause even if you write them down you may not be able to remember/read them later. Ouch.)

My brain freeze lifted on the 140 Club. Silly, that is the exact limit of a Tweet. Some folks want to use all 7 tiles in Scrabble, others want a Tweet exactly 140 characters. (not one of my goals).

Last, but not least, I figured out how to get Tweets as an RSS feed. I have found I like getting Facebook statutes for friends that way. Soon I hope to see if that is a good way to get Tweets.

Now if I could figure out why some folks follow my Twittering and why the iPhone wants it to be twided when I want it to be twitter I could sleep at 2 a.m. (sure).

Wise words stick around

It's always fun to find an old posting that stays relevant for a long time .... say 1997 to today? Doc Searls is one of the folks who has done this repeatedly. He shared some insights over on Jeremiah Owyang's Web Strategy post on Facebook and pointed us to something he wrote in 1997 on Steve
Jobs and Apple.

Take a moment and think about these two phrases:

Necessity is the mother of invention
Inventions mother necessity

and then head over to read both posts.

Meanwhile, I'm going to think about the Five People I Want to Meet in Heaven (to borrow a title.) Or would I know I am in heaven if Doc Searls, Dave Winer, Jeremiah Owyang and Howard Rheingold were together? (Don't worry the lineup will change another day - I'm cleaning an office out and running across lots of memory triggering items.)

What every good journalist needs to do, but won't

The folks who need to read Howard Owens' survival tips most probably don't know how to find his blog. But I really like his suggestions. Of course, Howard put the suggestions in business language, calling them objectives for today's non-wired journalists. (Even offers a prize, so tell your non-wired friends.)

I like this approach as it is faster then my 'educate gently' philosophy. Or is it called teachable moment? Either way, it takes a lot longer to encourage folks to use Yahoo alerts and Google search announcements if you just show them when they have an immediate need, or how to use Twitter when they want to follow Black Friday sales ,or use Bloglines or Google Reader to track experts for a developing story or expertise.

I know I have encouraged at least three top editors to get Myspace pages, have at least one editor with a FaceBook account, and another spending his vacation creating his very first web page.

Of course, a CEO's challenge to have newspaper folks befriend him seemed to inspire a rash of friending but I have backed off on that. (Who would believe that two more people on FaceBook would have the same name, and some didn't like the requests from strangers.) It has been fun to watch the pokings, pages, and other networking spread through FaceBook.

But if you toss in $$ like Owens or even follow his suggestion to make them steps your Manage By Objectives in 2008, I can see where progress would come along faster.

Mindy Adam's likes most of Howard Owens's recommendations:

Journalists everywhere need to quit whining and go into action. Howard Owens has issued a challenge for all your non-networked friends — you know, the ones who never read any blogs except Romenesko or Shop Talk. The ones who don't know how to work their digital cameras — or worse, don't even own one. Yeah, you know who these people are. They're all over your newsroom.

She suggests we "Print it out for them if you have to!" and tells us why:

• They could save your friend's career.
  
• They could open new doors.
  
• They could make your friends love
  journalism again, the way they used to.

She's not crazy about "messing around with Facebook andMySpace." (My suggestion is she needs to use them more and she'll understand why journalists need to know their way around.)

But Adams does say she hopes that everyone gets into blogs and RSS feeds, "essential components of my daily work."

"I am continually shocked when I meet journalists who say they don't readblogs. It's inconceivable."

Read the rest of her reasons over on her blog.

Unfortunatley, I think Owens and Adams are preaching to the converted. It will be hard to get some folks ever interested.

Need more convincing. Amy Grahan wraps everything nicely online. Her biggest gripe is that the challenge should be available to those not working for news organizations because:

"Personally, I don't see the point of that, since so many of us are independent -- and more will become independent (by choice or not) as the traditional news business continues to erode. We may end up working alone, or in co-ops, or for whatever replaces Google, who knows? I think an important part of this process is envisioning the role of journalism and journalists not only separately from news organizations but in developing a contingency plan for continuing journalism in an increasingly likely future where news orgs have largely ceased to exist."

I also like the link to Digital Native 'cause that's a whole another post someday.


(PS: Over on JournalismJobs.com at least one Michigan newspaper is quite honest in a description for a multimedia specialist, reminding you that the person will work with techies to non-believers.)

Three outcomes for investigative reporting?

You still can comment on a draft chapter on blogs and investigative reporting over on the Online Journalism blog. The blog - and post - is written by Paul Bradshaw. He suggests three paths for the future of investigative journalism.

Bradshaw suggests these ways:
1) Mainstream media can use investigative journalism to provide a distinctive product and prevent the readership migrating elsewhere online.
2) News organizations with declining budgets but a commitment to public service may outsource part of their investigative work to take advantage of their brands and experiences. One possible outsourcing would be to use "crowds," ie. the public and/or experts in the community to help look at something.
3) Foundations and reader donations will increasingly support investigative journalism as an important contribution to society.

Bradshaw says, for now, he expects the third solution to be the most popular and most likely.

Foundations and private support for investigations (as well as local journalism) is exactly what Dan Gillmor proposed in September in this piece.

What do you think? Will we see more groups like the nonprofit group Pro Publica forming? (That link takes you to a New York Times article about the group.) Can Pro Publica, now found at http://propublica.org/, succeed?

Andy Carver back, more on blog anniversary

Sometimes, it is fun to look back at the old days. I enjoyed reading Andy Carvin's nostalgic look; partially because I remember those edweb days. He calls the entry "Learning to Embrace My Inner Blogger," partially because of all the attention being paid to blogs in honor of the 10th anniversary of the word "blog.

I never thought of him as a young kid just out of college. I always pictured him as a wizened man, a professor type who got the job of his dreams through public radio. I was sad that I lost track of him for a few years, but the circle isn't broken and all of a sudden I was running into him everywhere. Now, a senior strategist for online communities at NPR I still think he has a dream job.

By the way, NPR celebrates the 10th anniversary of the naming of blogs with a timeline and a week-long series, on the evolution of the blogosphere, the language and culture of blogs, and out how blogs are changing our lives.

Blogger: "I'm feeling a little dirty"

Blogger Tara Hunt effectively expresses one of the problems I've had with crowdsourcing when she asks "Please Stop Crowdsourcing Me" in a recent post.

Hunt says:

"I started to feel a little dirty…a little used…a little like cheap labor, replacing people you probably laid off or decided to save money on not hiring because you were getting so much great value out of my time."

I'm not sure exactly what started the rant on http://www.horsepigcow.com/ (I love the URL), but it is worth a visit to her blog. She leads us to a few more sites and shares her insights on why good crowdsourcing requires reciprocity.

Her feelings are similar to something that perplexes me about volunteers. Are people giving service and time for free what a company should pay for?

(I am thinking about this more and more as non-profits hear I'll soon have "lots of extra time" on my hands as I leave the newspaper/online venture I've worked with for 29 years. Oh, the dreams dancing in their heads as they seek to make sure I have lots to do, a web site here, a contest there, a class over there.)

Do volunteers give a nonprofit an advantage for success that "regular" companies can never achieve?

Will crowdsourcing or sites using only content generated by users help to eliminate more paying jobs for those with journalism or media degrees?

I see big advantages in involving communities in generating content about so many subjects. I just worry about the long-term effects and wonder if we have thought this all the way through.

More on Tina Brown

Just to keep you up-to-date (courtesy of the SPJ PressNotes*):

Here's the hot skinny on the queen of buzz. The amazing Tina Brown is in a newly struck, first-look deal to bring projects and story ideas to HBO, the TV network that also seems to understand "buzz" and great storytelling versus the hackneyed stuff that is on the networks. That's according to Liz Smith of the New York Post

*SPJ PressNotes is an e-mail newsletter produced every business day by the Society of Professional Journalists. It is made possible through a grant from the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. Send subscription requests to pressnotes@spj.org.

Jan Schaffer: Use Big J-ournalists wisely

I first posted this back on Nov. 23, but I am moving it into this blog.

Jan Schaffer: "Use your Big-J journalists where they can really add value. Professional journalists should focus their expertise and skills on doing investigations, identifying trends, building databases, holding public officials accountable and articulating the master narratives in their communities."

But news orgs need to think beyond employing journalists, too. Here are some of the roles Schaffer sees expanding:

• Can do-ers "instead of those who whine about what they can't do."
• Computer programmers to build searchable databases or news games. (Which goes great with the new program at Northwestern University to get computer folks interested in Journalism as well as the Gotham Gazette, which got a Knight News Challenge to develop games.)
  
• Collaborators with "the sensibility to see the possibilities of working together instead of moving into kneejerk competitor mode."
• News analysts to "trawl incoming information looking for Big-J opportunities."
• Tribe expanders: "Journalism in the future will come from many places. We should contribute to the momentum of the best and most responsible efforts and recruit them for the info-structure."

I have really taken a very small part of the post by Jan, so I urge you to consult the original called Construct Your Community's Info-Structure.

Tina Brown: Media challenge, no blog for her

Shoma Chadhury caught up with Harold Evans and Tina Brown in Delhi where they spoke to about the challenge of journalism in the world today

I pulled out a few things that I was most interested in, starting with this question:

What is the biggest challenge facing media in America today? And India?
Corporatisation. The sophistry of the big conglomerate guys is to say there’s never been more plurality of outlet.

Here's the rest of her reply.

Sure. We have a thousand and one outlets now, but their circulation is zip.


There isn’t a place to have any meaningful public discourse. You’re just talking to yourself. Most publications and networks don’t have the critical mass.
And the major networks and newspapers don’t want to do the work.


... Journalists have to become entrepreneurs. The search for the billionaire with a conscience is a dead end.


... But though media is almost more important than politics at this point, the trouble is American newspapers where my heart lies are really a dying thing and you can’t persuade people to invest in them.


It has to be online. I’ve been working on a website.


I’m determined to make global journalism sexy.


But the web is a capricious thing. No one has figured the economic model. It will get resolved. We are in the in-between stage.


It’s like being in the middle of the Industrial Revolution.


Until we figure the online model, we’re stuck with old models with the corporations killing everything. There isn’t a serious journalist who doesn’t feel this. This is not just about professional dissatisfaction. It’s— as Al Gore says in his book — really affecting the marketplace of ideas.

She also shared why you shouldn't expect a blog from her anytime soon.

What do you think the trick on the web will be? I find blogs totally overrated. No rigour.


That’s what the DNA of my website will be. Rigour. I don’t want any more spouting of sloppy opinions. I don’t have the time. ABC just fired 75 TV journalists and hired 75 bloggers instead, responsible only to themselves. It’s insane to do that to your brand. This is just the exuberance of a new medium. No one wants to look uncool, but who’s reading it? People keep asking me to blog, but I’m not going to lower my standards, and why would I write for nothing? Haven’t done that since childhood.

Interested? Then read the rest online

Hurry! It's time for Fantasy Congress

Now, my husband will tell you that this former political science student doesn't get excited about politics much anymore.


And there are a ton of friends and colleagues who will tell you I am not a fan of rotball and other fantasy sports games. But this looks interesting: Fantasy Congress.

Gee, if only I could influence the way Medicare Part D is administered. To start, I would make sure that each company that puts approved drugs on the their list HAVE to keep the drugs on the list all year.


Wonder if they have a California game. Imagine the time I could save each year with some changes in the Medicaid program there. I would no longer have to prove:

• He still has Alzehimers
• His military discharge hasn't changed,
  
• He still is an American citizen and
• Yes, he is still broke.

Want to play? You have until Jan. 4.

So, don't I know you?

As I spend more and more time on Linked-In, Facebook and other social networking sites, I am learning about how many people I have forgotten and how many have forgotten me.

In fact, this whole networking thing is becoming one of my regrets of life. How come I was so busy with work and family that I "forgot" to keep up with the people I met at conferences, through blogs and listservs, via places like downtown Flint, Lansing, East Lansing and Michigan State University, or through events like Wheatland Music Festival, Walnut Valley Festival, and the Flint Bluegrass Festival.


(OK, my family might argue about me keeping up with the family. After all, they laughed when they read on Facebook that I was a recovering workaholic and perfectionist.)

I recently had a Facebook outrage when an innocent question from a colleague about something in my status uncovered a range of emotions and feelings I didn't realize I had.

The statement that started the whole discussion revolved around being tired of institutions claiming they were only doing what their constituents wanted, ignoring the flaw in the way the "wants" were collected.

Before the discussion ended, I dumped on the colleague for forgetting our past. Yeah, I couldn't believe this person could forget that I interviewed him about 11 years earlier and written countless comments on his blogs over the years. Or that he didn't know me from other times our paths had crossed.

It didn't take long for me to understand what I was criticizing him for was the exact same thing I was doing to others. (Not a new "revelation", even making Anil Dash's blog way back in 1999, which yes, I forgot I used to read religiously.)

Why in just one week, I heard from three "strangers."

The first was a man whose book I helped edit. A book!

Then I started having e-talks with a man who got me into IRC years ago so we could chat about community computer networks in real time instead of through the use-net group. (Long before AIM)

Then I heard from this guy who wanted to know if I still collected recordings of "Jerusalem's Ridge" because he'd found a version he knew he hadn't given me in the years I did a radio show called Just Country.

I didn't remember any of them until they reminded me.

Yikes!

Wish I had been smart like Robb Montgomery, who uses several social networks to keep in touch with the colleagues he has met over the last 20 years.

"I have a photographic memory - I have to take photos to remember things. I can connect photos and contacts and remember people and events better."

Heck, right now I wish I had been smart enough to not wipe out all of my contacts on the Iphone this week. Or knew how to easily get them back (and, no my backup was useless.)

More on data as journalism

Looking over some of my past Tweets reminded me about this whole issues of data as journalism, and journalism as data.

At The Flint Journal, I recently helped reporter Ron Fonger use Google maps to discover patterns in where the City of Flint was demolishing houses. The maps let you zoom in and out so that readers could get as close to the data as they wanted.

Whenever I think of this subject, I think of the presentations that Adrian Holovaty gives where he shows how easily we could take some "common everyday journalism" stories and present them in a more usable way with databases. Say crime stories or even weddings.

I also have to remember the outrage the Lansing (MI) State Journal faced when it published all of the salaries of state government employees in the state. (And, of course, I have to laugh at how much traffic dropped at the end of the work day.)

The Readership Institute in November explored the whole "data as journalism, journalism as data" thread in this post.
Rich Gordon sums up why Gannet has pushed the Information Center idea online:

• Data is "evergreen" content.
• Data can be personal.
  
• Data can best be delivered in a medium without space constraints.
• Data takes advantage of the way people actually use the Web
• Data, once gathered, can be excerpted in print.

He also talks with folks at the Indianopolis Star, highlighting some of the newspaper's sucessful databases and telling how they were done. (He includes links to their Siren Calls work as well as how Colts player Peynton Manning does

He follows with suggestions of what every online news center should do, again with lots of ideas and examples. You really need to read the original post.

(As an aside, I loved how he pointed out how many of the people involved with "computer-assisted journalism" - a phrase I hated and shared in a Nov. 2 1991, piece for Editor & Publisher - are often the ones leading the databases online approach.)

State schools sue to stop sale of photographs

Scary stuff for newspapers counting on revenue from photo sales. This
battle in Illinois, where the Illinois High School Association is suing newspapers, is one newspapers should follow closely

Graphing Social Patterns: The Business

Twitter summaries of a recent conference helped me understand some of Twitter's appeal and started me thinking of new ways to use some of the technology that springs up so. This site gave more background and insight as it explained Graphic Social Patterns and an upcoming conference.

So let's see if I have it right: First, there was the Internet, the linking of computers. This allowed basic document sharing and simple email as long as you were geeky enough to learn a little code and satisfied with text only. (brief text in the days of slow modems.)

Then, the world wide web brought images to the Internet. That act opened the Internet to many more.

Now, a third wave is here/coming. It is connections, reaching out to all we know -or want to know - in social networks. The growing pains now center around open ID, sharing of profiles across platforms.

In a way Facebook and the whole social network movement reminds me of the angst of mailing lists. After managing a listservs for so many years, I can predict some of the squabbles that will arise by the time of year.

Are the Facebook growing pains unlike the struggles free-nets experieced?

How could you have townhall-organization of information without allowing businesses online?

Now, it seems silly to keep businesses offline as many wanted in the early 1990s.

Someday perhaps the issue of ads on social networks will seem the same. (No. I am not in favor of the Beacon system that didn't allow choice).

Interesting twist:: Staten Island Ferry inspires blog

I like how someone noticed activity in a forum and decided to create a blog on the same topic, 

Ahoy all Staten Island Ferry riders ... I hope this Weblog will be a place that you will call home every day. I want to hear your ferry stories, gripes, questions and see your photos.

Now I want to know how many are reading blog about riding the Staten Island ferry.. How does that compare to the forum traffic?

It hadn't occurred to me to create a forum or blog on a community gathering place. Of course, as blogs tend to do, the ferry one led me to Overheard in New York. So now I want to combine Twitter feeds into a place blog that includes longer posts.

Next up - which Flint places? Downtown? Coney islands? Auto City Speedway? Or...

All of that gives me one more argument for site software that lets users create own topics, blogs as the new MovableType community piece. If only it wasn't so pricey. I like it, but can't justify cost for groups I can see using it.

Update: The blog changed addresses in July 2008.

New J-school requirement?

After reading "Entrepreneurial Journalism in the Facebook Age" online in the Bits Technology - New York Times Blog, I have to ask:

Will we need to insist that running your own business classes become part of the curriculm for j schools?

Or perhaps the training is needed only for those of us born after 1980? Read the original post on new ways to be a journalist for yourself to see what today's journalism students are thinking about for careers.

When I think about all the laid-off and boughtout journalists, I realize there is a lot of power capable of changing communities if the skills of that group were tapped. Money wasn't the motivator when they pursued that career choice. Figure out what was and change could happen. (does that sound too '60ish?)

Need for a new Trash 80

Jack Lail talks about the search for a new Trash 80. I liked the test for a computer's strength:

The "Trash 80" or as Tandy labeled it, the TRS-80 Model 100, 102 or 200, was completely able to survive the dreaded "sports reporter" treatment, which should be de rigueur testing for all laptops billed as durable.

I'm assuming that would be drop, kick and ....

Some would rather die then change

"Postmodernism is a change-or-be-changed world. The word is out: Reinvent
yourself for the 21st century or die! Some would rather die than change."

Leonard Sweet, cultural historian.

Food for thought on downsizing

One of the unintended consequences of downsizing is that we're sending capable people into the world to compete against us on the Web rather than creating new media options for them from which we also benefit. In this sense, traditional media companies may be supplying a two-by-four that will  one day be smacking them over the head.

Terry Heaton shares examples and says "So now these former employees are competing with their former employer as freelancers for a start-up". Do you see a pattern developing here?

Heaton points to Glenn Reynolds who in his book, An Army of Davids talks about “the triumph of personal technology of mass technology.” Despite this new reality, mainstream media companies continue to lay people off instead of exploiting the tools and energy of the personal media revolution to better serve their communities.

(This trip started for me through Jack Lail's Downsizing Old Media)

random thoughts to start on computers

TRS 80 - first computer used after leaving Michigan State; late 1970s
At Michigan stae - Cobol! Fortran! Crashing system at Lyman Briggs, mainframe 1972 - 73

Before that - IBM cards turned into wreaths

one of the first "home computers" for me was in 1983 - PFS file to do bluegrass festival; larry used for classwork; we dialed into university.

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer released by Commodore International in August, 1982, at a price of US$595. Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore MAX Machine, the C64 features 64 kilobytes (64×210 bytes) of RAM with sound and graphics performance that were superior to IBM-compatible computers of that time.[citation needed

At work, I used the "Trash 80" or as Tandy labeled it, the TRS-80 Model 100, 102 or 200. It was completely able to survive the dreaded "sports reporter" treatment, which should be de rigueur testing for all laptops billed as durable (Jack Lail).

407 JRN web links, documents, etc.

Here is where I'll link everything

The first three files are PowerPoint, so if you have access to that program you can download the presentation
Mapping for Journalists MSU.pptx
Mapping for Journalists - Census.pptx
Mapping for Journalists - Build maps.pptx

These three files are the PowerPoints converted to web pages automatically. They work in some browsers, such as Internet Explorer.
MSU Mapping for Journalists MSU.htm
Mapping for Journalists - Census.htm
Build maps in class 

Then, here are some links that may help:
Learn more about Google maps:
Add content to Google map

Depending on your location, you can create personalized, annotated, customized maps using Google Maps. Your maps can contain the following:

• Placemarks
• Lines
• Shapes

Once you have created a map, you can:

• Add descriptive text, including rich text and HTML
• Embed photos and videos in your map
• Share your maps with others
• Collaborate with others New!
• Import KML or GeoRSS to your map New!
• Open it in Google Earth

To create or edit maps, you must be signed into your Google Account. You do not need to be signed in to view a map. You can also search for maps made by specific users.

You can also use and add additional content in Google Maps. Learn more.