7 Answers for 7 Questions

1. Who is our target audience (hint: Don't try to be all things to all people)
Our audience would be people who read the metro section of newspapers. We want to launch limited to a small geographic area. Our audience would also be people of voting age, reporters and people who work at local nonprofits.

2. What is the competitive landscape? (hint: Sites that do it well)
Who Represents me? http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
opensecrets.org

3. How do we differentiate ourselves? (hint: Secret sauce)
Forum for users. Also, editorial input would be limited to posting legislation and straight-talk translation.

4. How do we create our site? (hint: Staff and schedule)
Site Manager, IT, undergrad/grad interns to do research, editors, forum moderator,

We would need at least 6 months out past hiring staff to launch the site in order to establish a backlog of information.
Once launched, new legislation, ordinances and zoning will be posted within 24 hours of being posted by governmental body.

5. How do we get our content? (hint: Pre-built, manual, automatic, updated)
We will cull legislation from online postings via Sunshine laws and open meetings acts rules, we will establish relationships with legislators and local government members and also find places where the info is posted on the web already so that we can become a one-stop-shop.
We will scan in legislation/type it up and then the straight-talk translation will be done with intern research and editorial write ups. Forums will be created by IT and maintained by the forum moderator.
Design will be very simple, almost Drudge-esque, but with better fonts.

6. How do we market our site? (hint: Spread the word)
Since we plan on embedding the technology into established sites, most of the marketing is done for us.

7. How do we sustain the site? (hint: Show me the $$$)
The start up will be through venture capital and investors. Lots of interns.

Elevator Pitch

Many times citizens don't know about important local legislation that will affect their lives until it's too late to act. This happens because newspapers often don't have space to follow every local ordinance and zoning variance. This searchable feature will allow people to enter their address and search for upcoming laws, ordinances and legislation that will affect them. The technology would be a perfect addition to a newspaper's website.

Building a community

I think two really great examples of communities being formed on the web are the examples of Andrew Sullivan and Nico Pitney. Pitney has been quite a hot topic recently since President Barack Obama called on him at the press conference yesterday. I think Obama probably called on him because of the amount of information that Pitney has come across from the thriving community that comments on his blog, sends him tips and other material. Andrew Sullivan sometimes writes posts that either repost a comment from the blog or responds to it. I think both of these men do a great job of engaging with their audience.

Another method I've seen in community building is meet-ups. Jezebel, a popular blog that covers news and pop culture with the focus on women and women's issues, has meet-ups for readers and commenters in cities all over the world. Sometimes commenters for a specific blogger become close and throw meet-ups that even the bloggers attend.

Speaking of the Gawker Media site, I think that Gawker Media has had a lot of luck with the approved commenter system. There is a pecking order among commenters and the most consistently funny commenters get stars next to their name. Terms violators and commenters that otherwise perterb the moderators are blacklisted and no longer allowed to comment.

Ultimately, it's about making sure that the people that contribute to the community of your blog or website see dividends. They can benefit from engaging debate, recognition or the promise of happy hours with new, snarky friends, but there's gotta be something in it for them.

Project Pitch

Local government tends to have a much bigger impact on the individual than the federal government. Zoning, ordinances, liquor laws, smoking bans and other local governmental decisions tend to only make newspapers and other news outlets when it's too late for an average citizen to get up to date and have a chance to affect change in their communities.

I got the idea for this website awhile ago when I was checking to make sure a particular part of my beat was represented by the same Texas State Senator as the rest of the area. It's possible to search by address to see exactly which State Representative, State Senator, US Senators, US Representative, city council member etc... represents persons registered to vote at that specific address. Why not make it easy for people to search for what ordinances and laws are being discussed that will affect them based on their address?

The site would allow visitors to pull up both the official version of the legislation when available and a plainly worded summary that would simply explain the impact of the bill, ordinance, variance etc...We would not include federal legislation, but eventually we would also be able to pull up earmarks that would bring money into our communities, though that may not be possible at first. This type of service is not currently available in a searchable database that users can search by address.

To start, we'd start with a small geographic area to test the site and get feedback before a larger launch. We'd have a team that consisted of web designers, engineers, researchers, writers, multimedia specialists and editors.

Depending on feedback from engineers and the like, I'd hope to get the site up and running right after a local election like a city council election. I'd also like to allow visitors to sign up for email updates. We'd have multimedia reporters at planning and zoning to create videos for the site and also to create podcasts as advocates for and against more controversial laws and ordinances.

When I was reporting on local politics and government I got tons of requests for these types of articles, but my papers simply did not have enough room. I do think there is a demand out there, but, like I said before, it would be important to test in a small area before any large launch to determine the real demand.

The ultimate goal would be to sell the technology to a larger site so that they would have to maintain and moderate the site. It would take a large backer to keep the site running up to its full potential

The internet: Killing and Sustaining Books at the Same Time

Technophobes love to point their fingers at the internet and accuse the internet of killing tons of stuff. The internet is a mass murderer and has killed everything from interpersonal interaction to music to books. The strange thing though, is that the internet has done a lot for those same things it supposedly killed. Let's look at books, for example.

Here's some ways that the internet has helped books.

1. Book trailers- YouTube has a ton of these. Smaller publishing houses and the biguns have both found these videos to be a great way to drum up hype for new releases. Here's an example:


2. Chronological reading through blogs- I've seen a couple of examples of this and I bet it's going to get more popular once more people see how fun this can be. For instance, Dracula is an epistolary novel. It's written as a series of dated diary entries written by the protagonist, Jonathan Harker. The novel starts on May 3, so on May 3 of this year the first blog entry was put up. It's an incredible way to read a novel because you're truly able to experience the pace of events!
Another example of this was when George Orwell's journal was blogged chronologically according to the date of the entries.
If you subscribe to these on an RSS feed it's easy to keep up.
Here's Dracula and here's Orwell.

3. eBooks- More and more people are reading books online. Now, I don't read books online, so I'm not sure where the best places are to get eBooks, but here's a place to start.

So, the internet, while it can be quite the unpredictable force, isn't out there to steal your beloved tomes and eat your babies.

Politico 44

Politico 44 is a site that can stand by itself, but it's run by Politico. I think that the site probably is deceptively simple to run because so much of the content is supplied by other people and organizations. The blow by blow schedule is supplied to the press by the White House, so that bright shiny feature is spoonfed to them I bet.

The White Board is essentially a liveblog of whatever's happening live. Politico must have a correspondent that follows the president around to document the minutia. Then you see the speed read, which is basically a glorified RSS feed that links to content from other sites.

Next to that is a story written by Politico staff that could have been written from a wire or just from cursory info sent from a correspondent on the scene. I'm not going to break down every facet of the page, because there's so many. But, I think the content on this page is a genius mix of scene reports, hard news, scheduling news, video and links to other content.

There's gotta be a large amount of Politico staff that make it there business to being around. Parts of Politico 44 even remind me a bit of Gawker Stalker. They just need eyes and ears on the Hill and at The White House, some reporters that are used to writing stories on the fly, the information customarily available to the press, some researchers that sort through other media outlets and multimedia experts. They also must have some talented web designers because I usually hate pages that have this much content, but I actually think the page is inviting and clean.

I just wonder how long people will care about this kind of detail. America and the world are fascinated with 44 now, but when the sheen wears off will people still spend their times on sites like this? I'm not sure.

Political Sites Worth Visiting

I like to read sites from all over the political spectrum. I believe that avoiding the rhetoric of people and publications that I disagree with would be counterproductive. People tend to get all riled up when they are exposed to views they disagree with, but what better way to continue to hone your own argument? Plus, you might actually learn something and possibly even change your mind every once in awhile. I know I have.


This list is pretty limited, but I figure not everybody wants to spend the amount of time I do in front of a computer screen. That plus genetics is the reason I am so pasty white. I don't care though. My tattoo artist says my translucent ivory skin is an excellent receptical for ink. Even yellow shows up on me. But, I'm getting off topic. Here's some of the political sites I enjoy exploring day after day.

538-Nate Silver is a statistical prodigy who rose all the way to the top of the ranks of pollsters and political insiders last year after being largely known in sports circles for some time.
It's hard to say which is more impressive, Silver's prediction of the Tampa Bay Rays' unexpected playoff bid or his crazy accurate forecast of the popular vote in the 2008 presidential election. I would LOVE to take him with me to Vegas or Pimlico.

Politico- I really enjoy reading Politico, but the tone occasionally bothers me. The site has an engaging, gossipy feel that sometimes makes it hard to take seriously. Either way, Politico has made its way onto my daily read list because it's entertaining and it excels at showing the more human side of the hill.

Weekly Standard- Features well known conservative writers like William Kristol, Fred Barnes and the Weekly Standard Blog. The blog is a good read and the website has content from the magazine as well.

The New Republic- The website of the liberal magazine is a mix of free and paid content and several prolific blogs. Their reviews and arts coverage are also excellent.

Huffington Post- Huffington Post has been described as the future of journalism. While that remains to be seen, the site has writers from all over the political spectrum and has fostered a great community dialogue.

Congressional Quarterly- Congressional Quarterly could be a one stop shop for political coverage and I especially like the transcripts they post. Other fantastic features include bill and vote trackers. I recommend taking some time to explore the site to find all the goodies because the layout isn't the most friend. Still exceptionally useful though.

League of Ordinary Gentlemen- This site chock full of excellent writing and thoughtful analysis. I have been quite impressed with the site's commitment to tackling the most controversial topics without resorting to name calling, accusations and the other nasty habits of political pundits.

Great Use of Multimedia in Texas State Legislature Coverage

The Austin American-Statesman's political blog, Postcards, is a really entertaining read and it's helped keep me up to date with what's happening in politics and state government in my homestate of Texas. Its focus is the Texas legislature and multiple bloggers contribute.

Postcards posted a video today that shows off the more human side of the lege. This is part of the reason why I love Postcards so much. It shows readers how legislators interact with each other, the shenanigans, the tensions and the camaraderie at the capitol building. This video isn't too long, it's well done and for readers of the blog it brings this session to life.

Some of my favorite sites aka How I lose hours out of my day

I spend an insane amount of time online every day reading. I do most of my reading on my Google Reader, which is by far the best RSS feed reader that I've used. All you need is a google account to use the service, so all of you gmailers are set.

One of my favorite features is that you can star posts so that you can read them later or refer to them at a later date. It's easy to keep track of them because you can tag them and organize them into different categories.

Another great feature is that I can share posts with my friends that also use Google Reader. I found some of my favorite blogs and websites through reading my friends' shared items or browsing the feeds that Google suggests for me based on the feeds I already subscribe to.

Finally, Google Reader automatically makes a website of the items you've shared so that people who don't use Google Reader can keep up with what you're sharing. You can view mine here.

It was like Sophie's Choice narrowing it down, but here's a list of some of my favorite blogs, sites and feeds and a little about why I love them.

• TED blog: If you haven't watched any TED talks yet, you're really missing out. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. What started out as a conference to get creative minds from those three fields together has turned into a cultural phenomenon that spans the globe. TED has uploaded over 400 of the talks given by awe inspiring people who have big ideas about how to change the world. The talks are all available for free.
  

• kottke.org: This is web designer Jason Kottke's site. This site is a real hodgepodge of design and pop culture and science. Kottke posts whatever he finds interesting, but he tends to look at it through an intellectual lense. He calls the site a "wunderkammer," which is a German word that apparently translates approximately to "cabinet of wonders" or "cabinet of curiousities".
  

• ffffound: Ffffound is a blog of found pictures and I could look at it literally all day. And, I'm not the kind of person who throws the word literally around as if it has no meaning. I've lost hours upon hours looking at the images on this site. The pictures range from photos of package design, typography, traditional art and photography to the occasional NSFW post.
  

• League of Ordinary Gentleman: I read a ridiculous amount of political blogs. That's why, for the most part, I've left them off of this list. But, the League of Ordinary Gentleman is a different kind of blog and I wanted to include it. This is a group blog that focuses on in-depth (at least, in depth for a blog) analysis of social, political and artistic issues. The writers on the site are excellent and their views don't fit into the teeny little boxes that most political thinkers squeeze into on the web. The posts focus on dialogue and building a community dialogue between the writers and the commenters on the site.
  

• Neatorama: Neatorama is one of my favorite blogs to kill time on. The range of topics on this blog is HUGE, but there is always a quirky, unexpected or fun angle to their posts. A lot of the blog is reposts of fun topics from other places on the web, but the summaries are great and without neatorama I'd have missed out on a lot of interesting stuff. Neatorama accepts posts from outside bloggers, so new bloggers looking to raise their profile should take a look at the instructions for submitting posts on the neatorama website.

• Wooster Collective: The Wooster Collective is a visually stunning site that focuses on what they call "ephemeral art". The site showcases street art, stickers, posters, graffiti and culture jamming from around the world.

• don't touch my moleskine: First of all, I want to warn you that this site in Portuguese. I don't speak Portuguese, but I lived with a bunch of Brazilians a couple of years ago and I speak decent Spanish, so I can usually figure out more or less what this 25 year old Brazilian journalist is talking about. But mastery of romance languages is unecessary to appreciate the site because most of the posts are photos and some of them feature English quotations. There's a lot of unexpected inspirational messages and interesting pictures of pop culture icons past and present.
  

• Juxtapoz: Juxtapoz is a great art and culture magazine and I was thrilled when I discovered their website. They have interviews with artists, art from emerging artists, readers submissions and tons of other interesting and innovative art and features. With all the news reading I do, Juxtapoz is always a welcome break for my eyes after all that black and white.

• NOTCOT: NOTCOT is a celebration of everything design. The posts are photos of creative design in a ton of different mediums from furniture to graphic design. For those interested in sartorial design, notcouture showcases fashion design in the same format. Definitely a fun place to spend some time.
  

• Marginal Revolution: I read a lot of economics blogs too, but Marginal Revolution stands out for me because of the wide way that the bloggers that run the blog, Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, define economics. It's a great way to get your economic news and theories without feeling like you're reading a bunch of term papers or being talked down to.
  

• Postcards: Postcards is a blog on the Austin American-Statesman's website that has several contributors that cover the Texas State Capitol. I like this blog because it's a mix of posts about policy, politics and legislative antics at the capitol building. I especially enjoy the way that the writers cover the way legislators interact and what's going on behind the scenes.
  

• Ask the Recruiter: Poynter.org is a wealth of resources for journalists and this blog is a fantastic tool for journalists of ANY level who want help shaping their careers. Have a question about your career in journalism? Check the archives and I'm sure Joe Grimm has given a thoughtful, thorough answer. If not, ask him yourself. There are also "Ask the Recruiter" live-chats that focus on specific topics.
  

• Al's Morning Meeting: Al's Morning Meeting is almost like a reporter's cheat sheet. Al shares resources he finds for covering timely topics. Some of briefings give tips to finding different angles on tired stories, like the recession. Other posts list sites and tools for reporters covering government reports that were just released. It's yet another invaluable feature on Poynter.org.
  

• I Love Typography: The name says it all.
  

What's your favorite site to lose hours on?