The question of the opening panel at the September 24  Block by Block conference in Chicago, which is focused on local and community media is "How do you make community engagement work?

I am the moderator of this discussion, and with my panelists--Tracy Record of The West Seattle Blog, Andre Natta of The Terminal (Birmingham, AL) and David Cohn of Spot.us--we'd like to provide some best practices, some stories, and some answers.

Only, we only have 90 minutes. And we could all undoubtedly go on about this for hours. As could you(if you have read this far).  So, here's the invite to you all:

If you are involved with a local community site, however you choose to define it--but with a serious online publishing component, can you please share some of your experiences with me and this panel so we can add you into the discussion?

Here's what we'd like to know:

What are the questions YOU ask about community engagement you'd like to see others ask as well--and get answers to?  3-5 would be ideal

What is something YOU learned this year about making community engagement work that you'd like to talk about at this session? Something connected to your site/project?

Please send your responses to me--or leave in the comments, and I will add them into our mix.

Sitting in the final session of We Media, blogging before heading to the airport and home to California.  I've been on the road 2/3rds of this month, at Tools for Change, We Media, and a bunch of Knight Foundation events and meetings (regret I did not make it to FOWA, drat!)

After 48 hours of We Media, what's my takeaway?

• This year's fad is non-profit news (the PBS model), but no one knows quite what to do about the very ugly deaths so many news organizations are experiencing
• There is intense worry about how news will be present in local communities, but huge differences in perspectives about "reporting" vs "community,", crowdsourcing vs. investigation,
• Copyright vs open source (especially around photography)
• There is no new business model, we just don't know and that is really scary
• Some people want to save and retrain journalists and salvage the news businesses; others cheer the creative destruction and want to clear the rubble away, fast
• Even if everyone IS a media company, and we're all entrepreneurs, no one really knows if there is a way for anyone to make enough money to buy new shoes, let alone pay the housing costs
• People with jobs feel lucky, but seem to be viewing them as temporary
• People w/o jobs are hustling, lots of candidates for the same few things
• Everyone knows that adversity offers opportunities
• Social media is a new flavor everyone is starting to want to taste
• Conferences change as the world becomes more global and less corporate; not enough focus on international and in country perspectives at this @WeMedia; some old models of talking head presos and powerpoints seeming quite outmoded (to me, and perhaps others)
• Activists are at the table, embedded, with major media and the entrepreneurs and nonprofits (this is cool)

Want to improve your ability to speak in sound bites? Be someone who gets promoted as interview material for the press and the blogosphere?   The Women's Media Center in Bostomn is holding another round of their training program, Progressive Women's Voices. It's a free program, with March 10 th deadline to apply for the next class

Training will be held in New York: April 24-25, May 29-30, and June 26-27.  All travel expenses will be paid for by the WMC.  (Click here to see the bios for past participants.)

"My first epiphany occurred in August 2007, when The New York Times ran a story revealing my identity, which until then I'd kept secret. On that day more than 500,000 people hit my site--by far the biggest day I'd ever had--and through Google's AdSense program I earned about a hundred bucks. Over the course of that entire month, in which my site was visited by 1.5 million people, I earned a whopping total of $1,039.81."

--Daniel Lyons, the fake Steve Jobs, describing the 2 years he spent trying to make blogging bring in the bucks.

Bonus quote: "Take it from someone who dreamed the dream: I wish it were true, but right now it's looking like yet another high-tech fairy tale."

Susan sez: Great to hear as print is crumbling, eh?

Oscar Grant Shooting Shows Us: The media voices in Oakland are missing in action

Oakland is one of the most diverse and interesting cities in the country, but its media outlets--newspaper and blogs alike--are woefully lacking.  I spent part of 2008 thinking about starting a community news site for Oakland because there was so little out there, and then moved on to other things.  Now, watching how poorly the local news/citizen journalism/media community is covering the Oscar Grant shooting, I see how lacking local voices are when it comes to the news (and believe me, I have been looking, hard).

Yo, here's the dealio on what the local media is and is not covering:

Oakland Tribune, Inside Bay area, the local Oakland newspaper owned by the Media News Group, the 4th largest US newspaper conglomerate,  filed 12 stories about Grant's shooting, and picked up coverage from other sources as well. Lacking however, are the on the street and citizen media stories that would round out what looks like "crime beat" reporting.


The East Bay Express, the local alt paper,  has filed at least six stories on the Oscar Grant shooting and the subsequent protests as the story has evolved. Coverage is pretty pro-forma, but this paper offers the  most consistent local voice.


Farmer Joe's & Friends, the blog for the local Fruitvale grocery where Grant worked as a butcher's assistant has a nice post remembering him. "Oscar, I will miss your smiling face behind that meat counter at Joe's. No words can express my sense of loss and outrage at what has happened."


The Oakbook, the Oakland web site whose founder Alex Gronke  recently  got funding as an individual  from participants in Spot.Us, a Knight News Challenge community journalism project run by David Cohn, has one (!) story on the topic, focusing on the "vandals" who destroyed property on 17th street when protests got out of hand on January 7th. Given this is supposed to be the biggest (and best?) local Oaktown web site, the lack of more coverage is surprising.


Future Oakland says it covers decisions and controversies that shape the future. Clearly, it doesn't think the Oscar Grant story is relevant; their one post acts annoyed at the outcry and implies that rioting negates murder: "Just as vandalizing Creative African Braids and the charming shops along 17th Street is not justice, holding Oakland responsible for the actions of a regional body that happens to be headquartered in a Lake Merritt high-rise is unfair." Big whoop.


A better Oakland: This site about Oakland has no original posts about the Oscar Grant incident, but it does have links to San Francisco coverage. It invites readers to comment on events and provides links to Bay area coverage, including Oakland resident Thomas Hawk's on-scene photos, and to a forum.


And then there are the blogs that are supposedly about Oakland, but exist in parallel universes where Oscar Grant's death is never mentioned, not at all:

No coverage at all:

• O scene, the Oakland blog for people living out loud
• The DTO, downtown Oakland
• East Bay Outtakes, Notes from Berkeley, Oakland and in-between
• Fruitvale, Oakland, CA, Life in Oakland's Fruitvale district/

Note: I made some edits to this post as of Jan. 15th, and would like to note that some of the blogs I highlighted as lacking coverage posted coverage after this post went live. And, in fact, there was additional, very heartfelt coverage, later in the week.  It's also worth noting that the video and photography coverage on flickr and youtube was fulsome and fantastic, with lots of commentary on some photos.

Also, its worth noting that loyal fans of the current Oaktown media scene gave coverage by the blogs they favor an A, thought it was terrific. Since it is important to listen to different perspectives and treat them with respect, it is important to me to note that.

Finally, I removed the grades from individual publishing sources; they were quite wounding to people, and since so many blogs are labors of love and heroic effort, they struck the wrong note.  My intent was not to pass judgement on any specific blog, and I regret giving that impression to anyone, but to share my view that coverage of Oakland events by Oakland community members and Oakland news outlets could be richer, better, stronger and more diverse than it is today. While I have learned from the discussion and posts, I hope the outpouring of documentation, writing and opinion around Oscar Grant's shooting keeps more people online, engaged and communicating where we can read them.

"2008 has already seen more than 15,000 jobs lost at U.S. newspapers. I believe 2009 will be a defining point in time for U.S. newspapers and not in a good way. Many promising young journalists and students are leaving journalism for other fields.

So, I have to ask: When this financial crisis is over, who will be left to rebuild journalism? Will there be enough talented journalists left to rebuild? Will the journalists left have the Web skills that journalism sorely needs?"

--Pat Thornton, the journalism iconoclast, writing on his blog.

Susan sez: This is a question I am starting to think about alot. At this point, the people left trying to practice online journalism are as passionate--and as practical?--as poets. What will their world turn into? What will the revenue model and business look like? (More on this to come.)

Is there something about hard-bitten NYTimes reporters that makes they go all gooey everytime they stumble across--and then write about--anything Web 2.0-ish?

Gushiness is the only thing I can think of-besides needing to fill column inches--that can justify the latest breathless wet kiss for @themediaisdying, a twitter stream of insider-y, media-= bistro like news about media layoffs and collapses (oh yes, and the fact media reporters are fascinated by their own industry).

My snarkiness here is because while the 3,000 followers themediaisdying has garnered in 3 weeks is commendable (as is their strategy of messaging every new person who signs up and asking them to invite all their friends as well), there are people--marketers--on twitter who have 10 times this traffic--and no Times reporters seem to be writing about them.

Why not write about Chris Brogan, who, with 26,250 followers, seems to be turning into the Jimmy Stewart of the interwebs?

Or the super clever Merlin Mann, with 32,000?

Or the  appealing Veronica Belmont (38,000)?

Of course, none of them are focusing on the crash and burn of the media industry, which @themediaisdying covers extremely well. But the size of their audience ain't the news, honey, not in this world.

So Nick Denton's redesigned the Gawker Media Empire, as they call it. Gabriel Snyder, ME, says the new "condensed format" allows for better viewing of the 50+ stories published across the network.

Seems like the new design is also intended to push more advertising through as "run of network", rather than sell within specific categories, and to hawk more sign-ups to a Gawker daily email, which would give Gawker media the means to monetize a la Daily Candy.

Amusingly, while my first take was that the design had been influenced by The Huffington Post--lots o' headlines, lots o' photos- my second take is that USA Today is the true inspiration. 

In other words, scannability's the game.

Just as with USA Today, which is so eminently scannable before zeroing in on a read, the Gawker media empire reader will be able to easily toggle between editions, flipping channels before alighting on a story she likes and clicking deeper. 

Is this jumping the shark--or pragmatic business in a deep recession?  I'd argue that Gawker jumped the shark long ago, back before Locke left, but that, like SNL, it's one of those white whales that has enduring value.

Dan Gillmor, who was the first person I know to identify personal brand blogging as a category (We The Media, Grassroots Journalism by the people, for the people), released snippets of a white paper he wrote for the Pulitzer Prize Committee as part of their exploration into allowing web-only sites into their journalism and media competition. His post is well worth a read, but I am going to highlight some of his points here:

• The prize needs to evolve to stay relevant.
• Include digital-only, and English-language reporting that didn't originate in the United States.
• Create new categories 
• Do away with the distinction between newspapers and other media, Reward the best work in journalism, defined in the broadest possible way.
  

Dan's full post is here; interested to see how much further the Committee goes over next 3 years--there is so much potential impact.

I'm working with some very cool people on a new start-up we will launch on Q1 09. January is crunch month, February is beta and we're going into regular operation (we hope) by March.

Seeking the following for unpaid positions, 10-20 hours per week:
1) Blogging/editorial interns: Bloggers or journalism students or others interested in writing and researching on on-going basis. Must have clips or blog to show and must have work history showing responsibility. Will be writing and researching, with credit.
2) Research/analyst types to work on some analytic projects, create charts and graphs for web site. Prior experience with web, doing research and crunching data preferred.
3) Social markerting/marketing/biz dev student to work on outreach, distribution, and business side. Good experience for MBA still in school.

Company is based in Oakland, CA, but you do not need to be local. You do need to want to help make a cool new project happen and get credit for it. Would like a 3-6 month commitment.
 
Will bring on 1-4 people, send expression of interest, resume web links to smernit gmail. Phone interviews, in person if you are here. Sell me why this is a good fit for you (I realize I am tellling you very little about the focus, sorry....more if you make it to next round.)

Wowowow, the upscale, post-70s web site for todays' women, over 50 division, raised a reported $1.MM from Bob Pittman and the other shrewd (and wealthy) graybeards at Pittman's The Pilot Group (n top of a previous from the oh so affluent founders.). If you recall, Pilot is the funder that bought (and recently sold The Daily Candy), proving early on that someone was willing to fund media plays on the next a few years ago.

This is thrilling news to me because it proves VCs are closely watching the success(and explosive trajectory) of BlogHer and looking for other properties that can deliver those highly prized female decision makers. Wowowow is so upscale I don't know that it will speak to the folks in the heartland, but with the big, shiny names and the liberal tone, it's certainly got sparkle.
Peter Kafka  quotes Wowowo was saying they had 600,000 unique visitors in November, 10 months after it launched. Even if they're buying SEM traffic to get those numbers. they're a good, strong start.

People talk about whether blogging is dead, or whether it's jumped the shark (and it has), but the truth of the matter is that obsessed people like me, the workaholic compulsives who need to feel connected, could no sooner stop blogging than talking, breathing, or sleeping (notice, I didn't add listening in there.)

However, I have to confess, as much as my connection to blogging--and to this blog in particular--has endured since 2003--there have been times when I was two steps away from dialing it in.  During the years at Yahoo, there was the on-going challenge, which I managed successfully--to not write about my work, the corporation, or ideas that might be Yahoo's intellectual property or useful to our competitors (and truth be told, that didn't leave that much.)

Post Yahoo, this past spring, there was the intense grind of launching People's Software and heading to the relentless pace of TechStars, where both my brain and my energy got focused like a laser pointer on one hard set of achievements (more on that later.)

Now, sitting in Oakland, in a new house, with a new relationship, a new start up my partners and I are working on, I suddenly am finding myself back in a mental space where I feel myself as both a writer (again) and as a blogger(no big change here.)

All of a sudden, I am on fire with things to say, issues to cover, points to make. 40 miles away from the Valley, in a neighborhood that's almost as vibrant and diverse as the one I lived in in Brooklyn back in the day, my writer-y senses have been tingling, big-time.

It's a good feeling, to want to re-invent and re-invigorate something I have been doing, so eagerly, for so long, and I know I can learn alot from other people. 

If you have suggestions of bloggers you think I should look at because they're great, tips or pointers you want to share, topics you thing I should cover, suggests for improvement, etc--please share them--in the comments or in an email to smernit gmail.

And thanks for reading.

For a piece I am writing for the end of the year, I'd like to hear from people about who are the women entrepreneurs they admire--name, company, and why.  We're not only talking tech here, but all areas--manufacturing, design, services, media, etc.

For the purpose of this piece, let's define an entrepreneur as someone who starts and or leads a business where they are a clear driver of its development and growth; one critera for fitting this list will be whether their specific actions have driven revenue, audience acquisition, social change, or other success metrics.

Please email me at smernit at gmail dot com with suggestions; I'll acknowledge everyone who contributes suggestions who includes a working email address and/or URL.

Take a look at my new essay, The End of Innocence and Making It Big: The NYTimes spins yet another lost girl tale of innocence, regret and discreetly hot sex, at BlogHer.
A snippet:
"Is there truly any less foolproof way to sell the Sunday issue that to get huge viral buzz from a damsel in distress story played out in that most modern of locales, the blogsphere?

Call it cynical on my part, but I can just see current NYTMag editor Adam Moss looking back over the upper-middle class waif stories (and media sensations) of Joyce Maynard and later Elizabeth Wurtzel and wondering if Emily Gould's sob story of error and reform would generate the same page views and buzz those two highly manufactured heroines achieved.

While much of the media criticism and the consumer comments have focused on Gould's narcissism and opportunistic use of her beauty, sexuality and position, and the aggressive marketing of her subsequent prettily teared up regret, no one has talked much about the cold-blooded cynicism of the Times in assigning and publishing what is just the latest incarnation in an ongoing series of sensational stories by attractive young women who struggle."

As I was working away yesterday, half ignoring the banter on twitter, someone breathlessly reported "Scoble is going to a meet with Arrington!" 

Not Robert is going to see Mike, not Mike and Scoble are getting together, but Scoble and Arrington were having a meet, sometime more in the tenor of the NJ Soprano crime family getting together with the guys from NY. 

Reading this breathless prose, not only did it strike me that this fella probably had only the most passing acquaintance with Robert and Mike, but that thrill of seeing these two larger than life personalities-- 21,955 people follow Scoble on Twitter, 22,935 follow Calcanis, and 15,646  follow Mike--was both hugely entertaining and made him feel in the know.

It was a short path from that observation to this one--that the Valley's most pugnacious, prolific and promoted entrepreneurs were all---to a man--in the business of driving page views.

 I mean, take a step back and think about it--what do Mike Arrington and Robert Scoble create? Uh, media. And Calcanis and Winer?

 Aren't those supremely well-handled personal brands? Ones that drive reputation AND traffic?

You see, on the Internet today, it's possible to play vicarious thrill reality TV to the max. 

You might be a little code mouse who'd choke if he had to say hi to Scoble (and be speechless with Mike), but the transparency of our social media tools allow you to get a fairly complete vicarious thrill.

Even if you're not at the TechCrunch IronMan afterparty, or the "meet" between Scoble and Mike, you can follow these well-documented activities, feel in the know, and imagine you're part of the in-crowd.
 
Only this is, that perspective is bullshit, as authentic as the hi-jinks of the WWE stars of the mid 90s--Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels and so on--only now the story is refitted for a more adult crowd (those same kids, all grown up).

On a certain level, in their Internet personas, Mike and Dave and Jason and a bunch of the fellas are expert at playing to the crowd, even more than any of the female wanna-bes in  their wake (yes, we have those, too.)

Yep, there's a section of Silicon Valley that's just one step to the left of reality TV, with personas as bright and shiny and one sided as those of any wrestlers of yore. That's where the media folk live, the bright shiny page-view drivers, along with the party people, the marketers and the babes (male and femail) inside the bubble.

But then, there's the rest of the Valley--less public, less pretty--where real stuff is getting made, people are too busy to be out every night, and innovation solves problems.

Are these two worlds incompatible? No.  But only one of them is a virtual reality show.
And while it's super-entertaining, if you're watching it, enjoy-- but just don't think that is all there is.