This is a workshop I did this week for The Center for Investigative Reporting and their Board members. I work at CIR as their web strategist, and have trained lots of people in using twitter for more focused purposes that just chat. I'm pleased with this preso because I think it concisely addresses A LOT of the questions people have. So, here's the document. Enjoy!
The impetus for starting Oakland Local was the murder of Oscar Grant. I'd always thought many people in Oakland lacked a media outlet--blog or news site--that reflected who they were and what they cared about--but I'd always felt like starting one myself was more than I wanted to take on. Did I have the focus to get it going? The commitment to social justice it would require to continue?
But then, as the information about Oscar Grant's death unfolded, and people reacted to the killing of a hand-cuffed young man on a train platform, and to the failure of BART to be immediately accountable, and to conditions that made some people not want to acknowledge Grant's death as the outrageous event it truly was, it became clear, in those days following the killing, that a lot of voices were being left out of the media conversation.
Problem was, to my eyes, that the coverage was unbalanced--there were accounts of merchants' whose shop windows were broken as a demonstration turned violent, but no accounts of people of color whose voices went unheard by mainstream media, or whose grief was treated as colorful and exotic. And then there was the question of police accountability--and responsibility--in this death.
As the New Years' week went on, and events unfolded, the coverage improved a bit--but not really enough.
Why weren't there more local people of color voices being heard? Why did so much of the media degrade into us and them? And why weren't more perspectives on Oscar's death, the BART police, and what passed for justice able to be accessed?
"There has to be a way to have a more diverse range of voices be heard in Oakland, " I told my friends and my partner. "This is just not balanced, not rounded in any way."
Those feelings gelled into the idea of a new site for Oakland after I met Kwan Booth, now our senior producer (and an OL principal), who simultaneously corrected some of my misconceptions ("People are talking," he said, "But not on blogs and social media sites where you can see it,") and agreed with some of my arguments ("Yes, the blogosphere and the media are pretty siloed here.")
We started to talk about the idea of building something for Oakland that would be more open than what we saw in January 2009--a news & community hub that would be a platform for multiple voices, a place where people with diverse experiences and views could all share and be heard.
And here it is, a year later, and we're into the third month of operating Oakland Local.
Thanks to a grant from J-Lab's New Voices program and hard work by a lot of people, Oakland Local is up and running. Judging by our growth over the past two months, jumping from 10,000 to 19,000 unique visitors a month, there seems to be a genuine need for a site that is diverse, community-focused, and speaks to a wider audience. Our blend of reported news and community voices also seems to have hit a mark, with some member-written stories getting over 1,000 page views apiece.
Interestingly, while the spark for Oakland Local started with Oscar Grant's death, a lot of what we have done to carry it forward speaks to his life.
The OL coverage of this one-year anniversary of his death--with his killer not yet tried--honors the vibrancy and humanity of a life lost way too young. It reflects our commitment to highlight the opinions and views of people who too often feel pushed outside of the mainstream, made into the Other, and our promise to ourselves to speak truth to power.
Oakland
is a city where moving forward to solve our problems means talking
clearly with one another, then making things happen, We can say "We are
all Oscar Grant," but what makes the statement meaningful is how we
listen to one another, how we get out of our silos.
bLaKtivist
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@susanmernit I've been pretty happy with Slicehost. A lot of people like Linode, though. Who are you using now?Most of my working life pre-writing was split between libraries and
bookstores and that's where I first discovered the holy trinity of
Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and Poets and Writers, along with a whole
gang of other writing related rags.
After this revelation my productivity dwindled to just above nonexistent, as just about every moment was spent with my nose between the pages of one of these wordy journals. Luckily I was surrounded by other booksluts who shared my addiction. I mean, these were books we were talking about-serious business! Plus PW came out like every week and I didn't pick up my 1st copy until I was like 19, I had a lot to catch up on."
--Kwan Booth, Boothism, describing his inner life as a book review fanatic
Are you a female entrepreneur or small business person who launched something new in 2009? Let's chronicle your successes and celebrate them. Use the form to add the following: your full name, company name, company link or relevant article and twitter name. We'll share the results across the web.
"Because of the way it wraps
around the heart, it's inoperable, it can't be sectioned," the vet explained as
I sobbed into a wad of crumpled tissues. "All you can do is make him
comfortable at this point."
Winston has been in my life
for 11 years. He wasn't meant to be my dog--when we bought him, I was living in
the New Jersey suburbs with my husband and 13-year-old son, both of whom
thought having a giant bulldog would be fun. But somehow, I was the person the
dog ended up loving most, and when my ex-husband and I split in 2005, he was
insistent that the dog (and the cat) go with me. In the 5 years since then,
Winston's been my constant companion through three moves, an equal number of
relationships, and a complete re-thinking of what I want and who I am. Always
good-natured, always ready for a walk (or a pat), Winston's been one of those
loving animal friends who keep humans' blood pressure down and hold depression
at bay.
Sadly, though, it's these
giant breeds--Rotties, bulldogs, Great Dances in particular--that can get these
malignant tumors as they age--on the spleen, the liver, or the heart. Manifested through weakness, vomiting,
swollen tummies, and general malaise, these fast-growing cancers cause internal
bleeding that manifests as anemia (pink, pale gum) and malaise, and ends up as
weakness, heart attacks, internal bleeding and, yes, death.
It is so hard to look at my
dog--begging for bits of toast in the kitchen this morning, then snoring at my
feet as I type, and recognize that, three months from now, he will probably be
feeling quite different--sick, weak, frightened and in pain. That thought keeps making me cry.
How can I protect and care
for this pet I love without cutting him time short too early? How can I make
sure this cancer doesn't steal away his life?
I can't.
No matter what I do, Winston
is going to sicken and die. I can be witness to it, I can be owner and
supporter, but a process has started I do not have the power to unwind.
And so, I cry.
I cry for my dog, for the
years we spent together, for the affection and good humor he has given me. I
cry for the future, for the pain and suffering he can't see, but that I imagine
is to come. And I cry for the end of life, the death we will come to together,
that moment--natural or imposed--when Winston will die and cross that rainbow
bridge, leaving me to remember the best, most-loved pet I've ever had.
Buddy, I love you. And I cry
for that.
Found this and have been laughing for hours (okay, minutes.)
