October 06, 2004

As Seen In 'The Power Of Many'

A Little Self/Cross-Promotion

Several months ago, we engaged in a short email interview with one Christian Crumlish, who was busily at work on what eventually became The Power Of Many, a book about "how the living Web is transforming politics, business, and everyday life."

We originally knew of Crumlish from when we were writing a weblog which focused on many of the various meta-conversations such as weblogs and journalism, weblog ethics, etc. As such, we of course were perfectly happy to answer some questions about our current project -- this site you're reading right now.

Earlier today we received our complimentary copy of the book, mainly pages 106-107 present a snapshot of our work on this site, drawn from the aforementioned email interview.

We haven't yet had the chance to read anything other than, well, the bit about us (we're still in the process of reading the forthcoming The Portland Edge, about which we will have more in the future), but that won't stop us from urging readers to click the above URL if they are interested in some of the larger questions and answers surrounding the sorts of issues implied by the book's title.

In the meantime, presented here is the fuller expanse of the interview Crumlish conducted with us via email, as taken directly from the replies we sent him along the way.

Date: April 29, 2004 10:13:14 AM PDT
To: Christian Crumlish

Crumlish: Please tell me about your Portland website (name, how started, how it functions, who if anyone helps you with it, relationship with readers, etc.)

Communique: Officially called The One True b!X's PORTLAND COMMUNIQUE, but normally (and quite understandbly) simply called by others Portland Communique, the site began on December 21, 2002. While I'd made an earlier attempt or two to publish a Portland Communique site, it never really came together until I finally secured the locality-based domain name which it uses -- I wanted the site's URL to clearly "brand" it as being from Portland.

The project began as something of an excuse to force myself to learn more about Portland, after having lived here since March of 1997. Force myself meaning: I was making a commitment to myself to write about the City every day, which meant I needed to do far more (and far more consistent) reading about Portland than I had been doing previously.

Early coverage tended to consist of the more typical "comment on the news" approach when it came to general news and politics, but quickly included original reporting from community meetings about various urban design controversies -- such as the burial of our City's open reservoirs and the ill-conceived plan to put a seasonal ice rink in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Each of those example subjects also related to the question of public involvement in Portland, which led me to begin attending meetings of the City's task force discussing new standards for public involvement.

Those early stabs at original reporting on those types of issues in essence became my sideways entrance into Portland politics, which over the site's first year of existence became an ever-increasing portion of Communique's content, and gradually moved me to more direct attendance at City Council meetings and other events around town.

On the technical end, Communique runs via Movable Type on an OpenBSD box in my apartment, served over a DSL line. On the "personnel" end, Communique consists entirely of myself -- although in recent months(after reading an anthology of writings from a women's suffrage newspaper published in Portland in the 1800s) I tend to use the editorial "we" when posting items to the site.

My relationship with Communique's readers has evolved and continues to do so. The simple version of this is that I adore my readers. They are extraordinarily good to me. Outside of the occasional monetary help through donations (in addition to sometimes sending me more books about Portland and its history off of my Amazon wishlist), they are an integral part of the "commentary" component of Communique -- as exemplified fairly well by one day during the local same-sex marriage controversy when I was out of the house for 12 hours straight and came back to find 50+ reader comments busily discussing the issue while I was gone.

In addition, over the site's first year, an increasing number of local reporters for the traditional media have made Communique part of their reading routine, as have an increasing number of people in local government (both elected officials and staff).

I think there's more to say on readers, but I'm doing three thigns at once (as usual), so I'll shoot some more on that off later on.

Date: May 06, 2004 11:12:25 AM PDT
To: Christian Crumlish

Crumlish: So, they provide vital content to the site? Do they have ways to meet each other or strengthen their horizontal bonds with each other?

Communique: Well, the site isn't built with reader participation in mind, per se. It isn't a reader-driven site like, for example, something like the Slashdot or kuro5hin model. The main trust of Communique is, well, me and what I write. It's just that the readers who do comment are fairly loyal, regardless of whether or not they happen to agree with with I say.

Crumlish: Have you thought about incorporating upcoming.org-type functionality into the site?

Communique: In terms of providing a calendar of any kind, or in terms of providing a reader-driven calendar?

Crumlish: "I think there's more to say on readers, but I'm doing three thigns at once (as usual), so I'll shoot some more on that off later on." Can i press you to say a little more in that direction?

Communique: You can press, but I'm not sure, thinking back on it, that there's not much more to say. As I say above, it's not a site whose content is driven by readers -- it's just that given that this entire project began as little more than an excuse to force myself to read more about Portland because I was going to be writing about it everyday, it's gratifying that the readers are there, and feel compelled to weigh in.

Date: May 06, 2004 11:32:21 AM PDT
To: Christian Crumlish

Crumlish: Got it. Also, your anecdote about 50+ comments while you were out made me say that the comments thus are vital content, at least sometimes.

Communique: Well, it certainly was in that case. It's rare for it to be that overwhelming and noticeable, if for no other reason, perhaps, than I myself am posting several items a day and so perhaps there's no compelling reason for a sudden mass wave of comments. On that particular day, news was happening pretty much all day, and I was out around town checking in on those developments, which meant Communique simply wasn't actually reporting anything for nearly 12 hours straight (or some such).

Crumlish: "In terms of providing a calendar of any kind, or in terms of providing a reader-driven calendar?" Both/either.

Communique: There was, at one point, an event calendar based upon my own iCal calendar of local political or community events that I might be going to myself. That will return at some point, when I get around to making it work better.

For Communique purposes, I'm not big on community-generated content(outside of the standard of having reader comments) such as reader-driven calendars. The site, for better or for worse, is for me and my voice, and I'm wary of diluting that. It's the same reason I've turned down offers from other local writers to contribute posts.

Crumlish: "You can press, but I'm not sure, thinking back on it, that there's not much more to say. As I say above, it's not a site whose content is driven by readers -- it's just that given that this entire project began as little more than an excuse to force myself to read more about Portland because I was going to be writing about it everyday, it's gratifying that the readers are there, and feel compelled to weigh in." So it's safe to say it worked?

Communique: The origins of the site as an excuse? It's entirely safe to say it worked. While it would be nice if the next step -- being able to find funding for it -- would work, from a creative and personal standpoint, it would be impossible to argue that going from a personal excuse to read about Portland, to a project that found an audience (general readers, local media readers, local government readers) to an effort that shows up in an article on the front page of The Oregonian and called a "must-read weblog" ... well, it would be hard to argue that the thing didn't work. Heh.

Crumlish: Do you see it as being in a steady state now or do you sense future changes now?

Communique: The future is almost entirely dependent upon whether or not there's a way to fund this thing, so that I don't have to drop half (or more) of what I do with the site for reasons of having to go get an actual job. Other than that issue, there's no grand plan, nor even conscious direction. I follow those stories which seem to compel me to follow them, which is what I did when I started.

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