One of my goals for the spring is to establish myself with the basics of CS (I’ve taken a lot of math, but the only computer science course I’ve taken was 101 in high school. C++ and GUI menus FTW).
I’d like to welcome any of the CoPress team to pursue these goals with me! I’m going to try and take 6.001 in a network-based fashion. It would be way sweet to learn with you. I also plan on learning the basics of Python via “How to Think Like a Computer Scientist” (I’ve already started, but wouldn’t mind running through what I’ve covered again).
Any takers? I’m thinking about starting either this week or the next.
Also, Andrew Dunn has an idea for a course to study business models for news. I think we should get him to lead it…
Following up on the post I wrote the other day about leadership, I’ve created a few goals I’d like to pass along:
- Let everyone’s voices be heard. Although we’re going to have to transition away from a consensus-based decision making structure, my goal at conference calls, etc. is to go around the table and get everyone’s weigh-in when there’s a decision to be made. Additionally, I’m going to try and more actively seek out dissenting voices and, as an expectation of the team, please make those voices to be heard.
- Be more assertive in my expectations. There’s been too many examples of action items people have said they’re gong to do, including myself, that then don’t get done. That’s inefficiency. I understand the load on everyone’s plates, so the ideal solution is that everyone is more realistic about what they can accomplish. If we ask you to do something and you’re not able to, please do voice that. We have other resources we can allocate, and it will allow us to better identify what our priorities are.
- Lastly, CoPress has become far greater of a project than I expected, and I’m finally ready to step up to the challenge of taking it forward. I’ve decided to cut my work in Peru short and, if all goes according to plan, will be back in the States on the 13th of February. In the interim, I’m going to set distinct office hours for the next two weeks, and will make sure there is someone to cover me when I can’t be on something.
Is there anything immediate that you think I’m missing?
What do you think about these ideas? Please add others in the comments.
- What do you need to have a successful college news org online? (inspired by Alex Klein, Duke Chronicle)
- How do you change the collective mindset from that of a primarily print-centric organization to Web-centric organization?
- How do you staff your paper to work in 24-hours news environment? Who’s in and at what hours? (asked by Emily Ingram, Daily Nebraskan)
- Building an online staff, including bringing programmers/computer science students into the mix
- Regardless of my CMS, what are some free tools I can use to improve my college news site?
While sorting through Evernote a couple of days back, I came across notes from a presentation by Steve Smith (of the Spokesman Review) I attended back in October. The subject was “Management vs. Leadership” in the newsroom during times of turmoil, and I thought the list of keywords we generated for each was worth sharing again. What follows are some of those notes.
Management is:
- patience
- organization
- supervisor
- budgeting
- delegating
- experience
- responsibility
- experience (skill sets)
whereas bad management is:
- arbitrary
- disorganized
- panic frequently
- vindictive
- indifferent
- incompetent
Leadership, on the other hand, is both related and unrelated to management. Leadership is more of a behavior style, and includes:
- not being afraid of smart people
- vision
- goals
- inspiring
- enthusiasm
- motivator
- standards
- ethical
- charismatic
- supportive
- team builder
- Does it all himself
- transcends the organization
- able to act, decisive
- assertive
A title is given in management, but not in leadership. Leadership isn’t defined by the position, it’s defined by the characteristics of the person. A leader can emerge from any level within an organization. The question that arises is: how do you deal with situations where leadership conflicts with management?
One last thought from Steve:
“The best planned newspapers tend to be the least burned out.”
Ultimately, it’s a matter of definition and efficiency.
Just to prove that I’m doing my job: Check out some ideas to get donations.
I’ve got this thing about Facebook: I really don’t like it.
I guess I just don’t see the utility, to restrict my interaction with it, I make it a rule to only friend people that I actually know and I let ‘em all know that FB is not a good way to get in touch with me.
But… I’ve had a few people (contacts, clients, etc…) that I’ve met through CoPress send me a friend request. I feel bad rejecting them… but I also don’t want them to be able to find me on FB. I guess I sorta view FB is as too much of a personal thing.
Thoughts? Am I just crazy?
… you might consider subscribing to the College Publisher Twitter stream, which includes such fine examples of frustration as this one. Just a thought.
Intersting alternative to 501c3 status: L3C. I think we might be too late to catch this boat (since we’ve incorporated in FL), but an L3C can operate as a for-profit and accept donations like a 501c3.
So, here’s the deal: per Daniel’s discovery. We’re gonna submit a grant application to ideablob. The possible prize is $10,000. That’s awarded based on the number of people that vote for an idea. Advantage — CoPress — it looks like 350 or so votes or so will win it. That’s totally achievable.
but… on to the point:
They ask for a long description of the project which can be only 700 char… not a lot. BUT, they let us embed a video. So… I propose we make a video that describes CoPress… it would be a really cool way to promote ourselves (probably should have been done anyway), and would be probably a lot of fun to do.
I propose that the core team and anyone who wants to, spend a few minutes in front of their webcam speaking on the following:
- who you are and what you do
- how you heard about CoPress
- what CoPress is
- what CoPress does for you
- where CoPress is heading
- which is more likely to save the world: CoPress or Superman?
These can then be mashed up into one video and used across the web.
While going through my harddrive on the long bus ride, I came across this text from the first splash page that Megan Taylor and I put together:
The coPress vision is to synthesize an open source, college and/or local news consortium around an online platform (or CMS) that easy to deploy, simple to use, and allows for varying degrees of customization. As crucial as the software is an eco-system of developers and innovators from our sector (i.e. student newspapers and possibly small local papers) that help to continually evolve the platform. One side effect of putting this together digitally would be to also create a comprehensive knowledge center for newsrooms that are interested in using the platform and joining the eco- system. We are currently collaborating on wiki and through a Google Group. Check back soon for more updates!
I think it serves as a good reminder as to the broader goals of what we’re trying to do, especially as I try to reformulate and synthesize the about page. Keep it up, guys!
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