Today I’m awaiting some extra information from two e-book-related contributors–before posting their work.
Meanwhile I’ll keep the focus on blogging. It really has more to do with e-books than many would think. Get people on the Net, one way or another, and the e-book reading will follow in time–ideally with bloggers able to point to favorite titles; in fact, even paragraphs within them.
With a TeleRead-style approach and OpenReaderish tech, books could truly be part of blogdom.
I was tickled to get an email reply back from Jerry L. McClough, with whom I’ll be blogrolling. Jerry is the visionary behind that 102-blog network that the North Carolina NAACP is setting up; and he and I will be chatting later this week. While blogging is good for most everyone, it’s the poor and minorities who can benefit the most, given the frequent neglect by white journalists
Blogging offers a way to pass on information, empower minorities and the poor of all races, and build a sense of community. Thanks to video and audio, you won’t even have to enjoy reading to be able to participate, especially in the future as broadband prices decline.
I’m pro-literacy, of course. But I say, “Get the people online, and the reading may well follow, especially if local libraries, schools and churches can encourage this. They themselves can link in to community blogging networks.”
Notice? I said link in–with the community people already having built the networks. No, I’m not saying that library- and newspaper-built networks are bad, just the opposite. But community-created networks may enjoy far more credibility among the poor and members of minorities. By taking the initiative in such a major way, the Carolina project is a landmark in the history of blogging at the state level and perhaps even the national one. Z-z-z-z. I can hear a few techies snoring. People-type things can be real yawners. But trust me–this is significant, perhaps even more so than the Greensboro News-Record‘s laudable efforts to reach out to bloggers.
Toward mass blogging at the community level
Having done the poverty-beat decades ago at a factory-town daily in the Midwest, I’m thinking of the steps needed to get low-income people blogging in a massive way so the media can know they’re alive. Even good newspapers are likely to miss out on important minority stories if community people themselves don’t act proactively. Hint to the newsies in Greensboro: Jerry’s NAACP blog network is itself a great example of minority news worthy of mention. Is a story for the print editions coming if you haven’t done one already?
But what about issue of what’s next for Jerry and crew? He is the real expert, but below are my own thoughts from afar–generic ideas that may apply in many places, not just North Carolina. If anyone thinks I am wrong or am missing out on something, just shoot me a line.
Anyway, here’s a possible roadmap for getting community people blogging in a major way:
Step #1: Try to build on the existing blogging movement
Minority and the poor can try to build on the existing blog movement and see if there are volunteers willing to help. Type the name of your city and “blog” and see what Google will spew out. Another good one is Vivisimo, with its ability to sort its findings into categories.
No guarantees. Yes, some bloggers may not care enough about the technology as a path to better schools, more jobs, better roads, improved medical care, and other sources of boredom. But it’s worth a shot. You never know. Some of the hardest-core geeks may even be past activists, and you just might reawaken the Inner Do-Gooder in them.
Don’t give up if the interest isn’t there locally. If nothing else, I suspect that the Carolina initiative will establish itself as a role model to follow, and you can piggyback on the lessons learned there–and maybe share your own wisdom.
What’s more, keep in mind that blogging isn’t the most complicated technology for ordinary person. Free canned solutions are available from the likes of Blogger, and if people want to set up a blog network, all they need to do is designate one blog as Blog Central–a Community Blog picking up items from member blogs.
One of the glories of the NAACP’s Carolina initiative, however, is that Jerry took the initiative and created blogs all set to go.
Step #2: Address hardware issues
Try to obtain computers for community people if needed–the digital divide is still alive and well in many places. Any big corporations with cast-off machines that they could give to community groups in return for tax breaks? And how about old machines from universities? Time to check in with, say, the local United Way and see which business are the most community-minded? Also, visit the Web sites of groups listed by Hearts and Minds.
Step #3: Educate folks in use of the hardware and the Net
Show folks how to use the machines and the Internet. Perhaps already-computer-hip young people could earn hardware by tutoring others. This is in line with what some other community projects are doing. The good folks at the Epie Institute are experts in the Time Dollar concept as applied to high tech. Also check out groups such as Computer Mentors, the source of the above Digital Divide graphic, for pointers. Consider, too, participation in the Digitial Divide Network for activists, educators, community organizers and others. Training is a major issue the Network addresses.
Step #4–actually happening with Step #3: Get community people online in an affordable way
Get community people online in an affordable way, ideally with at least some limited video and audio capabilities. Multimedia at 56K is better than none at all. The real solution will be wi-fi or other wireless technologies. What’s more, local communities may be able to get advice from One Economy, which may help not just with connectivity but hardware–or at least offer suggestions.
Step #5: Set up your Community Blog–the one that you want the world at large to read, not just members
This wrap-up blog will pick up the best and most informative posts from other blogs. At the start, many of the posts there will be tips for bloggers–both tech- and writing-related. Do your Blog Central even before the teaching effort begins. Link from it to detailed guides for new local bloggers. The guides can be in both multimedia and text.
Also, try to get video and audio going on the Community Blog as soon as possible. Jerry already seems to be headed in that direction via some video and audio on his personal blog.
In thinking multimedia, don’t neglect the possibilties of podcasting–which will be just grow and grow as broadband makes downloading easier. You can hear podcasts on desktops, not just iPods.
Step #6: Blogging 101
Teach folks how to blog and generate items of use to themselves and the mainstream media. Most posts will be for fellow users–for example, sports-, school-, hobby or church-related items. But some posts may be for wider audiences on such issues as road repair. Or how about an item bragging about someone’s unusual achievements–for example, a great grandmother earning her college degree?
In the case of the more computer- and media-hip people, try to help them get going for video and audio. Others will follow.
Also, as early as possible, teach the concept of RSS–using easy software or online services like Yahoo’s online aggregator, or maybe Bloglines. Encourage people to use RSS not just for blogging but for keeping up with the news media, and the same time encourage local newspapers to create detailed RSS feeds, especially of local news. Some RSS feeds might even be organized by ZIP codes, with detailed, super-localized information transmitted that would be missing from the print versions. Perhaps the best bloggers could even turn into correspondents for the papers.
Needless to say, RSS feeds should also be a wonderful way for schools, libraries and other institutions to hook into the community-initiated blogging networks. Blog Centrals could use RSS to pick up highlights from local institutions. What’s more, library systems could offer Yahoo-style aggregation pages that picked up posts from local networks.
The used-car lot concept will apply. So often, car dealers actually find that they’ll do better with their competition at hand–one-stop shopping and all that. The same concept applies here. If community people go online to read community blogs, they will be more likely to read blogs from newspapers, libraries, schools and the rest–especially if these community institutions take pains to carry local items from and of interest to the poor and members of minority. Along the way, everything should keep thinking multimedia, not just text–since the latter can former can lead to interest in the latter.
Step #7: Set up a feedback operation
Provide community bloggers with constructive feedback–nurturing, not just critiquing!–to improve the quality of their efforts. Hone their news sense. Encourage good grammar and good spelling and try to find volunteers to help. But worry less about New York Times-level English and more about accuracy and relevance.
The positive feedback can appear in your Community Blog–maybe even with monthly prizes for the best post in various categories. Negative feedback aimed at individuals should be limited to email, and it should be written in positive ways with the targets’ self-esteem in mind.
Step #8: Educate folks in the ways of the media
Teach neighborhood people how to communicate directly to the press and say: “Look, you might as well write about this since it’s all over town.” Make it clear to the press that you expect positive coverage of achievements, not the usual crime-and-poverty coverage. No certainties. Just give it a try. Not everyone will do the PR routine. But the people behind the Community Blog can educate others for when the time comes to speak to the press, which generally would rather hear a story from its direct source rather than an official spokesman.
Step #9: Aim for structured empowerment
By all means, use the blog network for empowerment–not just on the usual education issues and other civic-related ones, but also on high-tech matters of state and local interest. Use the blogging community to lobby for free and low-cost wi-fi efforts and against efforts by telecom companies to resist this movement. At the same time be willing to work with telephone and cable companies that do seem reasonable.
Let’s hope this post can find the right audience–please feel free to reproduce it without permission. Few Afro-American faces were seen among the bloggers at the valuable conference in Chapel Hill. May future conferences in North Carolina and elsewhere be different!
Related: Lifting some of the fog from blogs, a Hartford Courant article that the Charlotte Observer picked up, perhaps in part to atone for an Observer columnist’s recent atrocity. This article may vanish soon; so read it now.
Update, 8:04 p.m., Feb. 14: Jerry modestly writes in: “David, I owe all the thanks to the true visionaries, who are Tara Sue Clark and Ross Myers of policlicks.com and Choices of Democracy. They have been working on this for the last three years. Google Tara Sue and take a look at the history… We are working with the VFW also. You must meet these guys. They’re awesome.” True. Check out Ed Cone‘s mention of Tara Sue and Ross and the North Carolina VFW. The VFW down there says that all of its 225 posts have given blogs. Great! Another example in progress of a community-initiated blog network!
