Congratulations to Mayor Phillips!

Oakland Press Novmeber 9, 2005
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/110905/loc_2005110901.shtml

SOMETHING for EVERYONE

LESSONS

FOR

LIFE!

Blogging Indeed Is Here To Stay!

Blogging Is Indeed Here to Stay
October 31, 2005

By Chris Gonsalves

It was nearly a year and a half ago in this very space that my colleague Scot Petersen declared blogs "simultaneously mainstream and subversive" and, most assuredly, here to stay.

Though he wrote that "blogs have enabled the true democratization of the information age," I doubt that even he could have imagined how prophetic those words would seem at last week's BlogOn Social Media Summit in New York.

In fact, attendees—a collection of bloggers, blog management tool vendors and marketers dying to infiltrate the blogosphere—acknowledged that the blog alone is passé and the real interest is in the community-building nature of the new "social media."

Armed with a report showing some 90 percent of businesses surveyed say they want to incorporate blogging into their marketing efforts, BlogOn's organizer, the Guidewire Group, spent precious little time looking at where blogging has been and concentrated the discussion on where social media are going.

And where they're going is the mainstream, a place where social media are also finding some of their most passionate champions.

Old media insider Jeff Jarvis—a guy who has worked for New York Daily News, TV Guide and People; founded Entertainment Weekly; and now consults for The New York Times—is typical of blog converts and evangelists.

"The days of 'we own the community' are over," said Jarvis, taking a shot at the traditional media that employed him for decades. "We owned the free press for a century; now the people own it."

Jarvis made a point early on at BlogOn that became a theme for the show: the idea that marketers would be better served plugging into the blogging community rather than trying to control it.

"You don't own the community. You don't start the community," said Jarvis. "The very notion that you can start a community is ludicrous. A community is not a place where you go. Stop thinking you have a message to get out. Use the tools available to listen."

To leverage user communities, Bill Schreiner, vice president and general manager of Community Programming at AOL, also encouraged marketers to listen and to find the folks asking questions and sharing problems.

"Find out what they are saying, then talk to them," Schreiner said. "Those are your customers."

Schreiner, better known as the Love CEO for his leadership of Love@ AOL back in the mid-'90s, where he built the world's biggest online dating site, said it's the emerging technologies growing up around blogs, such as reader tagging and ranking, that are enabling communities to form.

Once you find them, Jarvis stressed, these voices need to be recognized for who they are, the influencers and thought leaders whom marketers claim to want to target.

Forget about who you know, he said. It's all about who they know.

"We think in old media terms, of an A-list," Jarvis said. "There is no A-list. Influencers are people who know people."

It's a little frightening for someone in the print press to hear a guy from the Old Gray Lady pushing alternate advertising, but Jarvis stressed his point by urging business attendees to buy ads on blogs "that are aimed at this targeted, passionate community."

Putting a finer point on it, Schreiner said key influencers within online communities often can be identified for the help they give others interested in a particular product or subject.

"Look for the people getting the thank-yous," he said. "Those are your thought leaders."

The comments at BlogOn match Guidewire's findings that "the next wave of adoption of social media tools will be driven by corporations who are adopting blogs for both internal and external communications at an increasing rate."

Or as Petersen predicted in May 2004: "The interactive nature of blogs gives bloggers and bloggees the sense that they are participating in something important and that they are making a difference."

City of Pontiac Leadership Discussion 11-3-2005

Leaders map city's strengths, threats
The Oakland PressPONTIAC -

Participants in a business round table Thursday morning rated Pontiac's main strengths as its "prime location" in Oakland County and the "people who care."

Other strengths rated highly include Pontiac's diverse ethnic groups, being part of the General Motors hub, having the rank of county seat, having a good health care infrastructure and its number of higher education institutes.

The round table was held on the mezzanine of Bo's Brewery and Bistro and was sponsored by the Committee of 50, a group of influential business and community leaders dedicated to assist in the revitalization of downtown.

Some of the innovative suggestions included one from the city's former Growth Group director, Frank Todd, who said city leaders should change Pontiac's name to "North Bloomfi eld." Todd said the name change would be part of an effort to improve the negative image of Pontiac that continues despite efforts to improve it.

He acknowledged there would be a lot of resistance to changing the name because people want to hang on to the old.

Todd also suggested all buildings downtown be given a face lift, even if they are empty, to make them more inviting.

Moderator Kevin Haezebroeck, president and publisher of The Oakland Press, asked participants to say what they saw as the city's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Both mayoral candidates - Mayor Willie Payne and state Rep. Clarence Phillips - were among those who contributed to the discussion. A list was made for each category and, at the end of the meeting, participants ranked them according to priority.

Ranked as the biggest weaknesses were economic issues, a negative perception regarding cleanliness and safety, voter apathy, vagrancy and homelessness, lack of jobs and the incomplete Strand Theater.

At the top among opportunities were community reinvestment programs, city and school partnerships, the Silverdome, Phoenix Plaza, the Strand Theater and partnerships with Oakland County.

Threats to revitalization that must be dealt with were cited, according to priority, as homelessness and vagrancy, lack of free parking, the perception that projects are not completed and the perception that the city is dependent on the auto industry.

Pontiac Northern High School senior Jeffery Triplett, the youngest person involved in the meeting, said many students today are required to do community service work, and he suggested they be called on to help as volunteers in the revitalization effort.

The committee will use this input as it continues with its work to help revitalize downtown, said the Rev. Doug Jones, chairman.

"We've got to make sure we keep the focus on it and make it happen," Jones said.
Haezebroeck said the ideas brought up at the meeting will be used because, "If it just dies on paper here, we're just wasting our time."

ROSA PARKS / A FITTING TRIBUTE TO A TRUE PIONEER FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

NEVER FORGET

and

GOD BLESS

Detroit Free Press / October 31, 2005
http://www.freep.com/index.htm

Photo Gallery's
http://www.freep.com/index/rosaparks.htm

http://www.freep.com/photos/2005/parks1024/index.htm

http://www.freep.com/photos/2005/parks1027/index.htm

http://www.freep.com/photos/2005/parks1028/index.htm

http://www.freep.com/photos/2003/bus_012703/index.htm

YOUTH AND THEIR FUTURE SUCCESS DOMINATES TOWN HALL DISCUSSION

CITY RESIDENTS CONCERNED ABOUT KIDS
Oakland Press Article / October 25, 2005
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/102505/loc_2005102502.shtml

Community in Action / Studs Terkel / NPR Radio
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4963443

Students Say They Can Help Solve Racial Issues
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/race29e_20051029.htm

Terry Poling, Micheal Roblee & Kent Roberts

Pontiac Cafe facilitators with Meta Dynamics and the Civility Center respectively.

Coming soon the collective wisdom of their efforts gathered from the meeting on October 11, 2005


NEW!

Pontiac Cafe Dialogue 10-11-05

Session One – Round One

What are the strengths of our community?
Location
People
Strong sense of community
Service and organizations
Diversity of people
Diverse service organizations
People are relentless –They care
Sense of safety
Sticking together
Faith-Based community
Strong infrastructure
City with a heart
Senior strength
Secure Pension Fund
Diverse Housing stock
Growing economic development
City experiencing rebirth
GM Power Train HQ
Home Ownership
Business Diversity
Ethnocentric Pride
Successful community events
Silverdome Property
Crystal Lake Property

What is working well in Pontiac?

Session One – Round Two

Why are these strengths?

Why does it work?


Session One – Round Three

What are the common Themes and Patterns we see regarding our Strengths?
People
Diversity
Faith Based Culture
Location
Reputation
History
New Housing and Growth

What is working?


Session One – Round Four

What’s important about what we are hearing in terms of themes and patterns?

Session One – What’s Next?

Each one bring one youth and one senior to the next dialogue gathering on November 15, 2003
Communicate the outcomes from this October 11th gathering
Bring people from low and moderate income groups and other stakeholders
Must build trust between all assembled
How do we build trust?
Pull elected officials together to help development and implement action plan to improve the school district
Encourage leadership with great vision (align arrows)
Continued enlightenment and developing learning tools
Increased skill sets
Social Responsibility to share
Bring a friend
Get sponsorship
Need Money
Identify more resources
Continue this process throughout the entire community to help change the Pontiac Culture (encouraging people to share the same mind set and purpose)
Develop global and local projects using the dialogue process
Engage more people encourage more perspectives in the room
Young people must at the table
Build trust
Create an environment where its safe for all people to express themselves thru dialogue and implementation
Focus on positive and engage all stakeholders
Bring people together to get beyond “bickering”, “murmuring” and “complaining”
Increase involvement and perspectives
Hold dialogue sessions in all of the Districts and with all the different stake holders
Host a dialogue session with all of the candidates, elected officials and key stake holders before the general election
Touch and talk to those who can’t necessarily do anything for you
Share the rules of community engagement

Where do we go from here as a community?

What’s the Glue?

Faith-Based Community and the Churches
Desire & Passion for Pontiac
Family
People working together willingly and independently
Challenging the Status Quo
Rich Traditions
Children and Seniors

OUTCOMES

Learn how to better understand and respect each other’s perspectives
Recognize that you cannot build bricks without straw (there must be substance and meaningful outcomes)
Be willing to hear each other’s thoughts and ideas.
Be willing to agree and disagree and not be disagreeable
Give everyone a voice
Build a broad shared view of issues facing Pontiac
Understand where we go from here
Be committed to the process
Everyone matters