Friday, 29 Jun 2001
SEATTLE, Wash.
Well, our trusty e-zine, the GoodLetter went out on schedule last night, featuring a lead story on the Center for Neighborhood Technology’s Community Energy Cooperative. There always seem to be glitches with Internet publishing that somehow love to rear their ugly heads right around deadline time. Last night, I had a few rough spots, but I think we survived okay. I feel as if I’m forever talking to other writers and editors who rely heavily on the Internet and who spend an inordinate amount of time digging out of technological snafus. I think it will always be the story of our lives.
Friday is always an interesting and exciting day because it’s postpublication. Who will we hear from? Will we connect with anyone new? Will our subscribers be so inspired by what they read that they either change the way they think about their lives and how they relate to a particular issue or forward the GoodLetter to a group of their friends who might also be interested in our stories? Will we get an indication of people’s excitement about the GoodLetter by the number of folks who contribute “favorite goodthings” (one of the features of our home page and our site)? Will readers be motivated to share their own relevant stories pertaining to one of the topics we’ve covered? Fridays are always days of anticipation. It’s our chance to connect with the people who make what we do possible.
Friday is also our day to step back from our production schedule and try to understand our readers better. Every week, we get a wide variety of email, all of which we work hard to respond to personally. Many of the letters we receive turn into story ideas. My inbox full of messages is just staring at me this morning (they’re distracting me from this final diary entry!). I’ve begun some amazing correspondence with readers that makes being in my role at GoodThings as much of a learning experience as I hope it is to be a reader. It’s also helped to remind me how small the world is and that people who care about progressive change in the world are everywhere. Despite the struggling of Internet-based communities these days (and despite the regular bumps and bruises of Internet publishing that I mentioned before), I remain hopeful that the web will continue to enable us to connect around issues and ideas in ways that we couldn’t imagine 10 years ago and won’t be able to fathom into the future.
So my week winds down. I’m developing a number of interesting pieces for publication this summer. We’ve got a piece on the slow-food movement. We’ve got a story coming up on an intensive documentary-filmmaking school for teenagers. We’re telling the story of Powerful Voices, a nonprofit that provides educational opportunities and mentoring for girls in juvenile detention and as an after-school program. I’ve mentioned the upcoming environmental piece on the work of the Songbird Foundation, as well as the story of WorldWise, a nonprofit that’s delivering school supplies — by sea — to needy children around the world. And there are many more. What are your ideas for GoodThings? I’d love to hear from you.
I forgot to mention that Friday is also a time that I drown in “Good Gravy” (that’s what we call our weekly music, book, and film reviews section). Giving people recommendations of refreshing, surprising diversions that they might not otherwise hear about is the icing on the cake that is my job at GoodThings. I think I’ll put on one of the CDs we’ve reviewed recently, respond to some letters from readers, and see where the day takes me. Thanks for reading this week. Come see us.
