Get ready for January '09

Come January '09 I hope you'll be hearing a lot about (and from) athensi.com.

First, a bit of background. athensi.com actually started out as actv7news.com, shoveling content from the student-produced newscast, ACTV-7 News. Then, in February 2001 the site became more of a portal page for Athens-based media. When rss technology came along a few years ago we completely changed how content reached athensi.com.

Now, as athensi.com approaches its eighth anniversary, I've come to realize that the site -- along with the Internet itself -- is just starting to reach its potential to be a real marketplace of ideas. But it can reach that potential only if you, dear users, decide to participate not only as consumers but as producers in the marketplace. Here's how you can do just that.

BLOGGING:

Start a blog and send me the address (stewartr@ohio.edu). If you feel shy, check out what other bloggers in Athens are saying on their blog.

If you are part of a community organization, start up a blog for that organization and pass the address along to me (again, stewartr@ohio.edu). We'll add it to the community section on athensi.com.

If you are a business and want to reach buyers and other members of the community in Athens, start up a blog and write about your business, your products and services, etc., and we'll add it to our business section. Cool, huh?

ADD PHOTOS:

You also can add pictures to athensi.com's photo gallery. Just set up a free account on flickr.com and tag your photos "athens, ohio" (make sure to use the quotation marks so that your tag will be athens, ohio and not just athens and ohio, which won't work).

The reason that I'm excited about January '09 is that I'm teaching a course in the JSchool that will work specifically on getting the word out about athensi.com. Students in the class will go out into the community to teach individuals and organizations that want to have their voice heard on athensi.com how to blog, how to upload photos, etc., so that those blogs and photos can be included on athensi.com Then, and only then, will athensi.com be all that it can be for the community of Athens, Ohio.