This is an editorial/message on my blog. This blog is a student project examining social networking's relationship with politics. So please visit www.networkingpolitics.com and sound off on what you believe in.
A unique daily source for politics and economics. Networking Politics
When I began this blog, I outlined some personal goals that I wanted to achieve by the end of the project. First, I want NP to reach 10,000 unique viewers between January and June. Thus far, the site is on pace for at least that, and may greatly exceed my expectations. Second, I want the number of comments I receive to exceed the number of posts that I publish. Obviously I am falling short of goal number two. Third, I want to identify with and understand my audience. Aside from friends and family, I know absolutely nothing about the hundreds of regular followers this blog has attracted in five short weeks.
To this point I have exceeded my expectations as far as what I have put into this blog. I have worked daily attempting to make this a more enjoyable and informative site. However, no matter what I put into this, I will take nothing away from it if I fail to hear from my audience.
An interesting fact about NP - the average visitor spends 10 minutes and 15 seconds on this site, and in that time he or she typically visits about 3.5 pages per visit. Now, my hope is that every reader takes something out of each visit. We all have opinions and we all believe in something. So, I want to hear about it! I want to know what you think about important issues like health care, jobs, or the environment. I want to know what you think is fair or unfair. I want to know what you think we should do to fix the problems in this world. And, believe it or not, I am not the only one who wants to listen! As much as I love to express my opinions and hear myself talk, this blog is not for me alone, this is a public forum. The tagline of this blog is "a sociological experiment in democracy," and I aim to achieve that ideal.
This is my open challenge to everyone – just write. Write about what motivates you, or what is holding you back. Write about how things used to be, or how things ought to be. Write about justices or injustices. Just write. This is your forum, and if you are here you either care about politics or you know me. Either way tell me what is on your mind, and I’ll share it. You don’t have to use your name, and you don’t have to write like Hemingway. Just write. You can comment on posts or write formal editorials. Either way I promise to provide you with a forum for free speech. Also, send me pictures, videos, links, and whatever else you think shouldn’t be overlooked. But please, just write.
Because this is a public forum, this blog belongs to you, so think about what you would like to see, and what you would like others to see. Help me make this blog everything that it can be. This is a medium that can allow you to reach anyone in the world, so take advantage of it! The site is growing a bit more each day. Thank you to everyone who has helped thus far. I will continue to expand the concept and explore new ways to better serve the NP audience. In the meantime I hope to hear from all of you soon.