My Horsesass.org post on a neighborhood meeting last night best described as a quiet riot:
Several representatives of what we ’60s types like to call The Youth of Today were there and gave the board an earful. Why were they holding a “public” meeting when they couldn’t represent the views of the public in their decision-making? What would it take to get the project shut down?
“We’re saying we don’t want this thing,” one high-schooler said. “We’d like you to tell us how to make it go away.”
City Club luncheon, Friday Feb. 20: “The Newspaper Business: Sunset or a New Dawn?”
I’ll go with “sunset” for newspapers, “a new dawn” for journalism.
University of Washington, Wed. Feb. 25, 6:30 p.m.: “Journalism on the Brink: Can Digital Save It?”
Journalism isn’t on the brink. The news business is. The issue is whether digital can come up with a pay model to support journalism, which done well costs actual money.
I’ve blogged on this over the years. Here are some previous posts at Horsesass.org, and my original “Who Are Your Gatekeepers?” post nearly eight years ago.
TechFlash gets online journalism
TechFlash, started by John Cook and Todd Bishop, former Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters, is a rarity: Professional journalists who truly get the Web. I’ve admired John’s and Todd’s work for years of course and was intrigued and surprised when they launched, given that most projos have resisted throwing their fates (and healthy salaries) to the vast ether of online journalism. But they quickly established that they know what they’re doing. When Todd asked if I’d be interested in contributing a guest post, I jumped at the chance.
My ultimate hope remains a Seattle-based, locally focused version of Huffington Post. The technology slice of such a publication would look a lot like what TechFlash is already doing.
My guest post looks at where Microsoft is headed with its foray into retail stores.
Good day to you. There are a lot of Paul Andrews out there. This is the one I am.
Career journalist and columnist for The Seattle Times, co-author of a biography of Bill Gates, and lifelong bike nut. I covered the environment in the 1970s, wrote Sunday magazine features in the 1980s and covered technology in the 1990s, starting a weekly column on personal computers in 1989 that continued through 2005. Along the way I’ve also written for US News & World Report, the San Jose Mercury News, Fortune magazine, The New York Times and other publications. I co-authored (with Stephen Manes) a biography of Bill Gates called Gates — How Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an Industry and Made Himself the Richest Man in America and wrote a book about Microsoft’s Internet “epiphany” called How the Web Was Won.
I began blogging in 2000, using Dave Winer’s UserLand Manila software. An early essay, “Who Are Your Gatekeepers?”, about the breakdown of publishing filters, got widely linked. It seemed obvious that the gatekeeping function of traditional media would disintegrate, which I thought was a good thing. I didn’t think as much about how Web journalism would get funded, which is a bad thing.
My first blog was called Hypodermia
Currently I do a lot of Web work but not always credited. I’ve written for Seattle blog HorsesAss and online news site Crosscut. I maintain several sites for my wife Cecile Andrews, author of Circle of Simplicity and Slow Is Beautiful, including her personal site and her Living Room Revolution blog.
Cecile and I divide our time between Seattle and Santa Cruz, California, where we are part of a co-housing community called Walnut Commons. My most active blog right now is BikeIntelligencer.com, mixing news, analysis and opinion on a variety of bicycling fronts. I’m an absolutely insane bicyclist and mountain biker. I go pretty much everywhere on bike in Seattle, because compared to car transit from my home near Green Lake I can match or beat point-to-point travel times to the University of Washington, downtown and most neighborhoods north of downtown. Most anywhere I’ve ever lived, including San Francisco, Palo Alto and now Santa Cruz, has been the same story. If a place isn’t within riding distance, I think hard about even going there.
Even snow can't stop me
For companionship there’s my bichon frise, Millie. All dog owners think their dog is the smartest, handsomest, best dog in the world. Only bichon frise owners are correct.
Terminally cute
Thanks for stopping by. If I’m not the Paul Andrews you were looking for, best of luck finding him.
Paul Andrews 