'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?
.

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.