I’m trying to figure out what to do with this blog. I intend to keep it rather dryly focused on economic development issues, but I have a couple of other ideas that I’ve started. The danger is that it all just goes nowhere.
I have started to set up a wiki but I’m not linking to it yet because it has only about 10 pages so far. My idea is to create an online collaborative document kind of like what myDedham has going on but less encyclopedic and more of a working document. I ran into some technical difficulties but at the risk of opening it up to being hacked…what I started is here.
Then I thought, I need a website for me, political me. Davewrites.com is a creative outlet and I don’t want to fill it with my broader progressive political ideology. So I registered daveatkins.org. The idea is to set up a website that provides the online infrastructure for network I will develop as I finally get off my butt and start doing something about the many, many things that need to get done. Several years ago, I blogged on a free blogsite about my days of youthful political activism as part of a very long-winded series of essays about what to do with my life, etc. I think, if it is possible to imagine, fewer people have found that blog than this one!
The immediate conclusion of that process was to recognize that what I need to do with my life right now is work at a job that, while not my ultimate purpose in life is positive and rewarding and pays enough money to support my family, and be there for my new and growing family. We have a 3 year old, a 1.5 year old, and, in February…one more! With what time is left I must find opportunities to engage in the political process.
What do I want to do long term? I feel like I will make myself sound like a nut to say it here, but my dream is to serve in Congress. I have a ton of ideas, but it’s not enough to read and write about them, I want to actually do something that makes a difference. I could start down the laundry list here, but that’s what daveatkins.org will be for.
What started me on this topic is that I was reviewing idealogically similar blogs like BlueMassGroup and all the links to other “left leaning” blogs and websites here in Massachusetts. But the thing about blogs is that so much of it is just regurgitation of news with some commentary. What purpose does that serve? It educates–absolutely–and it provides a forum for like minded people to start to get connected. But at the end of the day, it takes a lot of time to do all that reading and writing–when does the doing start? I know, I know…it’s offline. The people writing are activists; the blog is just the tip of the iceberg. But it seems to me we need to figure out a way to take the online medium to another level and really collaborate online. There is a good post along these lines on BlueMassGroup that just scratches the surface of the idea of the potential power of online social action.
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