Tag: community

Lehi News Organization

Warning: Undefined array key "adf" in /home4/hpvcxhmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/similarity/similarity.php on line 69

Warning: Undefined array key "sim_pages" in /home4/hpvcxhmy/public_html/wp-content/plugins/similarity/similarity.php on line 70

One primary concern for a Lehi news organization would be cost. Especially the upfront cost. Getting a website would be financially painless, but getting paid reporters or printing with any regularity would become cost prohibitive very quickly without a revenue stream. Without a very compelling argument I would not want to take money from the city to run the organization. It should be privately funded and run from neutral sources of revenue. Advertising on the site should be able to pay the modest costs of running the site, but I would be wary of expecting it to pay for much else (at least until I saw actual revenue coming from that advertising). Ideally the cost of printing would be such that a modest price for the printed version of the paper would cover the costs of printing and print distributions thus allowing people to access the news for free from the site if they did not want, or could not afford, to pay for the printed version.

For the reporting, I wonder if it would be possible to get by with less than 5 paid employees. One would serve as editor and head of the paper, perhaps three would be paid reporters, who would be expected to extensively use bloggers and comments from readers as sources of information to drive their reporting, leaving one employee to manage any other administrative functions. I wonder if there would be any possibility of collaboration with the high school or with university students interested in reporting as a way to add some unpaid staff to the press corps.

The initial move in starting such an organization would be to find out how much interest there is. Are residents interested in having a Lehi-centric source of news? Are there bloggers who are interested in their community (as opposed to some other special interest they might blog about) who would be willing to contribute and work with reporters? Are there others who are not current bloggers but who are interested in contributing to an ongoing discussion of local news items? Would the city council and local businesses be interested enough to provide information relative to whatever discussions are current?

Anyone from Lehi or surrounding areas is welcome to answer.

If you are not near Lehi I would still like to hear your thoughts on this – would this interest you in your location? Does the idea seem sound?

Tags community, media, technology

culture

Community News Organization

Post author By David
Post date July 5, 2007
No Comments on Community News Organization

I read a blog post on 10 things about the future of newspapers which seemed to paint a clear picture of what news can and should be like in our current age. One of the key points was that newspapers need to be focussed on items of local importance because national news is pretty well covered already. It struck me that a local orientation to a newspaper could be a very valuable tool in building a community. At times it might seem necessary to “make news.” If that were done by using slow-news days to bring a spotlight on areas of the community that often go unnoticed (like local artists, or community projects) it might help people feel connected to each other in a more meaningful way.

Among the 10 things there is a heavy emphasis on embracing many things that might otherwise be considered competition by the newspaper – search engines, and online advertisements may seem to cut into the potential revenue that is needed to run the paper. Bloggers and other amateurs of reporting might be seen as competitors to paid reporters when they could be used as allies. In the current world of publishing there are also more opportunities for publishing in a variety of media formats (text, audio, and video) and through many different means of distribution (print, rss, website, podcasting, mobile devices). These same technologies open doors to allow more participation and interaction with the audience (comment boards as well as letters to the editor, even the possibility of allowing people to submit images, audio, or video in response to what has been published) so that the newspaper is really a vehicle for discussion instead of becoming a platform for declaration.

This gets me interested in breaking Lehi away from the publishing center of Utah County. Currently we have a town section that gets published weekly by the Provo Daily Herald. With a population of 30,000 there is no reason that Lehi should not have an independent community news organization. We should have no aspirations to compete with the New York Times, or even the Daily Herald, but there is nothing to stop us from controlling our own platform for local news coverage.

I will have to write about how a Lehi community news organization might be formed, run, and financed and see if the idea is viable.

Tags community, ideal, media, technology, thoughts

culture

Community: Ritual

Ritual in a community includes parades, holidays, and customs which bind the community together. The rituals of a community help to create a shared identity. Some examples might include the Fourth of July or Christmas. While the entire nation (which is a community) celebrates the Fourth of July we can see the identity of smaller communities in the way they celebrate this national holiday. Some might have a parade while others have fireworks. There may be memorial breakfasts or inspirational speakers.

These rituals help to define the way we see and portray ourselves. They help to give expression to our shared values. This is a useful way of helping newcomers become a part of the shared identity. It is also a useful way to participate and add their unique perspective to the existing community.

I wrote this last week as part of my community series – this morning I found this post about ritual.

No national or cultural identity can survive without ritual, even if the group remains in its own country.

Americans knew this until the era of anti-wisdom was ushered in by the baby boomer generation in the 1960s and ’70s. We always had national holidays that celebrated something meaningful.

. . . Congress made a particularly foolish decision to abolish the two greatest presidents’ birthdays as national holidays and substituted the meaningless Presidents Day. Beyond having a three-day weekend and department store sales, the day means nothing.

Columbus Day is . . . not politically correct.

Christmas has become less nationally meaningful as exemplified by the substitution of “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas.”

Memorial Day . . . fewer and fewer Americans visit military cemeteries just as fewer communities have Memorial Day festivities.

(It also has some nice stuff for my post tomorrow.)

Tags community, holidays, ideal, thoughts

culture

Community: Entertainment

Entertainment could also be called arts and entertainment or any number of other names. It consists of things like theater, art, and parks. Essentially it provides the infrastructure for relaxation and play. Relaxation and playing are important aspects of our lives. People will find ways to play and relax on their own, but a community where there is little or no opportunity for shared play/relaxation will be an incomplete or out-of-balance community at best.

Things like theater generally combine commerce with entertainment, which is fine, but there should also be some opportunity for uncommercialized entertainment as well. The reason for this is not simply that some people can’t or won’t afford the entertainment which has a commercial element, but also because I believe there is a different kind of fun when all connection to commerce is removed. Sometimes people just need to get away from commerce.

Tags community, ideal, thoughts

culture

Community: Commerce

Commerce is the means by which members of the community interact economically. When building or running a community it is not likely that you would have to actively promote commerce but it is important to be aware that commercial interactivity is a basic element of community and should be a consideration as various decisions are made regarding other aspects of community. In a physical community it may be helpful to have areas where commerce is a central activity.

Commerce generally involves financial transactions, but it can include non-financial transactions as well.

Tags community, ideal, thoughts

culture

Community: Communication

The communication aspect of a community runs from the formal (newsletters, bulletin boards) to the informal (chatting with neighbors). Without the means to communicate, the various members of what would otherwise be a community are isolated. Communication is also the lubricant that keeps other aspects of community working. Actions by the government must be communicated to members in a reliable way. Commerce flows more freely when there is a means of advertising available goods and services.

I believe that both formal and informal means of communication must be present in order to have a healthy community.The key is to have various channels of communication and to ensure that communication multi-directional (and multi-modal with current technology).

Tags community, ideal, thoughts

culture

Community: Government

I think that most people have a pretty clear idea of what the government element of community is. We can all imagine city hall as a place where meetings of the community leaders meet and make laws and where members of the community may appeal for changes which they feel should be made. The more I read and study, the more I become convinced that government has no business beyond codifying and enforcing the law. I am also convinced that we almost universally exceed those boundaries by making “laws” to give incentive to certain behaviors (fines for driving a car with a broken taillight, or tax breaks for buying alternative fuel vehicles). While those examples are largely outside the scope of a small municipality, which is where my attention is focused, they illustrate how easy it is to exceed the proper bounds of government.

Tags community, ideal, thoughts

culture

Buildingblocks of Community

Post author By David
Post date June 16, 2007
No Comments on Buildingblocks of Community

As I think about the components of an effective community I thought it would be valuable to list what I think are the essential parts of an effective community. I will try to define them just enough here to make it clear what I am thinking. If anyone finds anything I have missed, or a definition that they think should change, please let me know.

Perhaps I should start be defining what I mean by “community.” I am specifically thinking about a city or town, in other words a physical community of people who live within some defined proximity. Despite that, I believe that the elements of a community that I am considering are applicable to other kinds of community such as a business, or a virtual community.

Government – a body responsible for defining the community and the rules that govern the community. The government of a community would be responsible for arbitration if community members have a dispute about what is acceptable within the community.

Communication – a way for community members to share information about the community, to voice their opinions, or to record events of significance.

Commerce – something to facilitate transactions between members of the community in an organized way so that those transactions are recognized by other members of the community when necessary.

Entertainment – a means of promoting informal interaction between community members which is not focused on commercial repercussions (although there may be commercial elements to the interactions).

Ritual – a celebration of community identity. The purpose of ritual is to solidify the community identity and help members remember the purpose and/or history of the community.

Tags community, ideal, insights, thoughts

culture

Building a Community

I have been thinking about my desire to serve in an elected capacity. I said before that I did not know where I would want to serve, but I am beginning to narrow the possibilities down. I realize that what I would like to accomplish by serving in an elected capacity is to help build a community. That means that I would want to stay close to a specific community. While I think that I have the capacity to serve as a public official at any level of government, I am realizing that my interests are more tailored to serving locally. That could be serving at a city or county level, or as a representative for a community at the state level.

I believe that there is more to “community” than just the political/government aspect. A community is defined by the way that people interact with each other and work together on those things where they have a common interest. Building a community therefore includes establishing the means of interaction between the members of the community.

I can see that it is going to take a while for me to capture and process all my thoughts on this subject. Suffice it to say that there will be more here on this theme as I develop this train of thought. Please feel free to jump in and correct my thinking or point out things that I should be considering about the nature of community.

Tags candidates, community, State, thoughts

life Local State

Moving Language

I attended another rally sponsored by C.O.S.T. to talk about the Mountain View Corridor (MVC). Any regular reader here will know that I am very much in favor of the positions advocated by C.O.S.T. and that I have very defined positions about the correct course of action where the MVC project is concerned.

As a known sympathizer with C.O.S.T., I am sorry to report that the rally tonight was probably not helpful to what they are trying to accomplish. The problem was that the tone and language of the rally were too negative. I could see the reactions of many of the people in attendance who went from interested to apathetic.

Interestingly, I had read earlier about how words can spin an argument one way or another. C.O.S.T. stands for Citizens Organized for Smarter Transportation. This sends a positive, issue oriented message. The rally was billed as a “protest rally” which has a negative spin. Unfortunately the rally had a negative orientation as well and the positive message about better alternatives was lost.

The positive side of their argument, which has attracted me, is that there are better alternatives to fix the traffic problem than what UDOT is proposing. These alternatives can alleviate traffic more effectively than the UDOT proposals. They are in favor of a transit system and commercial development that would reduce the need for commuting by providing good jobs closer to home.

The attitude that should be taken is, “let’s work with UDOT to help them see the error of their plans.” Unfortunately the tone of the meeting was, “fight UDOT – they’re trying to destroy our city.”

There are real problems to be addressed with the current UDOT proposals, but instead os spending time showing pictures of dead animals while talking about trash and roadkill, the meeting should have spent more time talking about more substantive concerns such as the possibility that the 2100 North freeway would further impede North/South traffic through Lehi when the city is already divided by I-15 cutting through it. Instead of talking about the height of the proposed freeway there should have been more emphasis on the traffic mess that will result where the Mountain View Corridor reconnects with I-15 just like the connection between I-215 and I-15. During the heavy traffic periods those interchanges come to a standstill – so much for the benefit of another freeway.

I want to see more talking about changing our city to reduce the need to commute. We should be talking about improving the city for the future so that we don’t have to spend our time sounding like poor, picked-on little citizens in this forgotten hamlet being ignored by the big, bad, bureaucratic government agency.

Tags community, State, thoughts, transportation