Aug 28, 2020Finally finding time in the pauseIt’s taken three years, but it’s time to take that breath — I walked onto the plane in Birmingham for the first leg of my flight to San Jose on August 22, 2017, as an emotional wreck. Right after I’ve composed myself, a woman I knew from my Sunday morning coffee habit saw me on the way to her seat. …Journalsim4 min readJournalsim4 min read
Jan 1, 2020Thoughts on presence in 2020Sharing my framework for approaching life in the New Year — The gift of presence is something Amy frames well in her piece for MyScoop earlier today — and something I hold in high regard in my life. It’s part of what I meant when I said, “I didn’t get here on my own and I can’t stay here on my…Life2 min readLife2 min read
Nov 25, 2019Networks as Family and CommunityRemarks from my SRCCON:LEAD talk on networks and leadership I was asked to give a talk about networks, both known and unknown, as part of SRCCON:LEAD, a “mini-conference” organized by OpenNews on November 19–20, 2019. Below is the text I prepared for the talk. …Life5 min readLife5 min read
Published in The Lenfest Local Lab @ The Inquirer·Jun 26, 2019Prototyping beats guessing: A process that can remove doubt from even your largest scale experimentWhat a Philly Tech Week presentation taught the Lab about its own processes framework. — When we conduct experiments in the Lab, I often wonder how others approach the iterative process and how they explain it to others. Recently Faye Teng, the lab’s UX designer, and I attended a talk during Philly Tech Week, a 10-year-old innovation festival in Philadelphia hosted by local online publisher…UX6 min readUX6 min read
Published in The Lenfest Local Lab @ The Inquirer·Feb 26, 2019Finding insights along a SEPTA transit route that may lead to local news product innovation in PhiladelphiaTo build products that are better at meeting people where they are, you can learn a lot by going where they are. — I visited Historic St. George’s United Methodist Church on a Sunday morning in early December where I met a woman named Cheryl. When she asked me if I’d had any time to explore the city yet, I told her I had, but I knew I’d barely scratched the surface. She…Transportation7 min readTransportation7 min read
Published in The Lenfest Local Lab @ The Inquirer·Nov 27, 2018How we plan to share our process (and show our work) in the Lenfest Local LabWe believe that in order to create lasting change in journalism, we need to prioritize explaining the benefits of our process over celebrating the success of a single experiment. — Who are we here for? Serving the existing journalism ecosystem means recognizing the differences within. For example, a newsroom product manager may be interested in learning about the tools we used to launch an experiment while a veteran editor wants to read about how a brand new idea in journalism still aligns with traditional reporting…Journalism6 min readJournalism6 min read
Published in JSK Class of 2018·Jun 22, 2018Resilience and vulnerability: Necessary tools for the future of journalism (& life)I’ve absorbed much of my lessons from this past year on Stanford’s campus outside of the classroom. As such, I’ve found it hard to capture them in a way that’s helpful for me and others. …Journalism4 min readJournalism4 min read
Dec 20, 2017Look outside the box… and journalismIt’s time to talk about where we should look to for inspiration as we prepare to transform journalism… again. — I arrived at Stanford for my John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship in late August after spending thirteen years in Birmingham, Alabama (and 24 years overall in the southeastern U.S.) wondering about the state of regional journalism. …Journalism4 min readJournalism4 min read
Dec 8, 2017Three Months In: Do I Feel Fine?Maybe. Lessons embraced on the West Coast — “It’s the End of the World as We Know it (And I Feel Fine)” was playing on repeat on my phone as we sat on the tarmac waiting for the plane to take off.Life4 min readLife4 min read
Nov 10, 2017A space to play games, learn and informEditor’s note: This post was originally published in 2011 on my urban issues blog, Urban Conversations, but relates to much of what’s on my mind. I found myself eating lunch with Amanda Hickman — most recently of DocumentCloud (among other things) — in Bryant Park on their Southwest Porch back…Journalism5 min readJournalism5 min read
