Saturday, December 03, 2005

Collaborative working

Like Rebecca, I'm attempting to provide "content" when people feel that there's nothing go up at any of the community sites.

We're all working on the latest The Third Estate Sunday Review. And I'll copy and paste to show who's working:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man, C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz and Wally of The Daily Jot.

The biggest question I'm asked by friends at work, the woman I've started seeing and Three Cool Old Guys is, "What's it like when you all work together on this?"

So I asked for impressions during the first half of a session tonight. We're on a break right now.

Collectively, we have four pieces started. Two of those are completed. Dona says that she feels the crunch on every edition. Jim talked about how it "keeps the creative juices flowing." Ava offered that she and C.I. think they'll do a compare and contrast of two shows, one no longer airing, for their review this week but they haven't started it yet. Mike says it feels like it's moving along pretty good considering the hour. Betty's eager to get started on a planned piece.
Jess points out that the four started will probably result in only one or two that makes it online (all will go in the print edition). Ty's wondering how late this session will go. Kat says she slept in Saturday morning to be sure she had the energy for tonight/this morning. Rebecca points out that not only does C.I. have to do this but as soon as everything's posted, C.I. has to go over and come up with an entry for The Common Ills. Elaine says she's chilling by listening to the Cowboy Junkies. C.I.? "What's the question?"

How do you feel about the latest edition?

"I'm a little tired tonight so it's probably better that I don't note anything but that."

The feature Betty's eager to get started on has to do with Bob Woodward. Jess says that it should make the online edition regardless of how it's rated when it's completed because "the watchdogs are sleeping on this topic."

Another question I got asked a lot this week was why I didn't want my stuff blog spotlighted at The Third Estate Sunday Review?

I just didn't personally feel that I'd done anything worthy of note. C.I. called on Friday to say that I had to let them spotlight "Race." I don't know if it was C.I.'s persuasive powers or the fact that the feedback's been so strong on it, but I've agreed.

There are a number of sites in the community and I just feel like if I'm grabbing a spotlight, I should be doing so for something really worthy of noting. Copying and pasting those things in takes time and they can't highlight every site every week. I prefer that they note Betty just because I know she's worried that people aren't interested since she's gotten some threatening e-mail and since she's only able to do one chapter a week. So she usually has my vote.

It's kind of like instant run off voting some weeks with us picking our favorites and ranking them. That's why C.I. tries not to be spotlighted. C.I. feels like The Common Ills doesn't need the spotlight. (One will be spotlighted this week because Jim's successfully argued for "Target: the 9th Circuit (The Republican war on the judiciary continues).")

I'm not being bashful or modest, I just know that there's a lot of strong posts coming from everyone and I feel like there's other stuff to be highlighted. A lot from The Common Ills because C.I. posts over twenty-eight times a week.

Here's a trick that C.I. pulls that I don't think anyone else has noticed. "Don't spotlight it this week, but if you really think it should be, we can do it next week." C.I. counts, I think, on the fact that no one's remembering by the next week.

When we all get back from break, that's the first thing we'll discuss. What's getting highlighted.
It's an easy way to get back into step.

Is there a lot of back and forth during the writing? Yes, there is. If it's something identified as being a member's pick or a member's statement, it's no problem. But if it's something that we're all going to be responsible for, we do have a back and forth over it.

That's not screaming and yelling. Elaine's good about saying, "I can't live with that sentence. If you take out the clause, I can live with it." But everyone does that and that's the back and the forth as we hammer out an editorial or whatever. So that's how the process works.

Tags never get read at my site but I'll go ahead and swipe some from Kat's site and try again.
This may not have been bold content, but it was new content. Rebecca and Kat also blogged today and C.I. posted several entries. Check out The Third Estate Sunday Review tomorrow.
Nearly forgot to put in Wally's description of the process. He says it's like running a track marathon and you're always reaching for that one last bit of energy.









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