I haven’t blogged for, what, three days now. Which is fine. Sometimes the posts come thick and fast, sometimes there’s a gap. I don’t feel I need to blog with any particular frequency; and anyway, the few weeks right after August 8 were pretty intense and, I think, fruitful for the blog.
These past few days I’ve been doing some other things. Some things with my beloved Quaker meeting, which is always good to do because it keeps me grounded. Some thinking about longterm strategic directions for the blog and myself. More on that below… And a few things connected with the next big development in my family/personal life: which is the arrival (G-d willing) of my daughter Leila’s first child– our first grandchild– in early November.
Leila and her husband Greg live in New York (Brooklyn), so I’m hoping to be there with them as much as possible in the first weeks of the newborn’s life. I am completely thrilled they’re having this baby! It’s bringing back a lot of memories of when I gave birth to Leila and her slightly older brother, Tarek, in Beirut in the late 1970s. Back then, my sister Hilly came from England to help out. And okay, my then-husband and I had a wonderful live-in nursemaid, too. She made the post-delivery weeks a lot easier than they are for most young parents in the US or other western countries.
Having a baby and dealing with all the adjustments involved are huge challenges. The endless chains of broken nights are what I chiefly recall. Those, and suddenly this sense that, as the mother, you’re basically in servitude for a period of time to this small person who can’t even articulate her or his needs or desires… So scary! So as the parent, you suddenly need to learn all these completely new skills of ‘reading’ your baby’s needs… It’s quite amazing that any of us ever survived this process (as parents or, long before that, as babies.)
But my experience of having done this, like that of just about all the parents I know, has been truly amazing. I have learned so much– about the world, about the human condition, about myself, about relationships in general, about what is truly valuable in life (and oh, also, I suppose about baby-care and childrearing)… Simply by having hung in there and raised these three young people, now aged 23-30: all of them compassionate, well-grounded, talented, and a huge amount of fun to be with.
American society doesn’t give anything like enough support to the parents and caregivers of young children. Compared with anywhere in Europe, the situation here is brutal. I imagine that even in many low-income countries, women get more support from society as a whole. For example, Leila is a teacher in the New York City school system, where the teachers’ union is quite strong. But even with this allegedly “strong” contract the union has won for them over the years, she’s not entitled to any paid maternity leave. And children’s (cash) benefits, such as many European governments give to mothers as a matter of course?… Or the services of a home-visiting ‘district nurse’ or health visitor in the crucial post-partum days? Fuggedaboutit. We are truly in the Dark Ages here. No wonder that in some American inner cities, the infant and child mortality rates are on a par with some very low-income countries.
… So I’ll be in New York quite a lot in the weeks after the baby arrives. Obviously, the babe will make her/his own decisions about the timing. Before that (I hope), I’ll be on the west coast for much of October, doing various events to promote my Re-engage! book, and I have a couple of events on the east coast (New Jersey and Delaware) later in September. Check this page on the book’s website for details of those.
Meantime, I’ve been doing some thinking about future directions for, in particular, this blog. You know, I’ve been publishing it for 5.5 years now… A total of nearly 3,000 posts… Some of them, in retrospect, still really good, some of them somewhat scattershot or idiosyncratic.
To some degree, the whole blog has been idiosyncratic from the very start… From the day in early January 2003 when Tarek said, “You know, mom, you really ought to start writing a blog;” and I said, “A what?” … And he got me started reading Josh Marshall’s blog, which has gone from strength to strength since then, and Juan Cole’s blog, and, and, and… And a couple of weeks later he got me started on my own blog… ‘Just World News’: nice name, huh? We started out with Blogger software; he shifted me to Movable Type (where I found I’d picked the same template as Jonathan Edelstein)… and I’ve been married to writing JWN ever since.
So now (drumroll… ) I’ve decided to try to take JWN to a whole new level.
You know, for just about all these past 5.5 years I’ve thought of JWN as “something on the side”, or “a drafting notebook”, or something a little like (ghastly word, this), a “hobby”. But really, for a long time now, it’s been a whole lot more than that. It has become an important part of my professional and personal identity.
Bloggo ergo sum, as Descartes would have blogged if he could have torn himself away from contemplating dripping candles and inventing dualism.
Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But not wholly.
So now I’m going to think about ways to become a whole lot more intentional about what I do here on JWN. I think I want to invest in a re-design, and I know I want to think harder about getting some different kinds of quality content up here. One thing I’m definitely thinking about is interviews with interesting figures in the policy world.
Bill the spouse says I should have photos, videos and audio clips, too. Videos I totally can’t envisage posting (unless I hire someone who can do that for me.) But really, it’s not my comparative advantage. Audio clips maybe I could manage. In conjunction with the interviews, perhaps? And the odd photo or whatever.
Maybe.
But all that stuff takes time. Time that, mostly, I would rather spend writing, thinking, reading, and talking to people. Face it, I’m fundamentally a words person. That’s what I am. But I can make the words better organized, more intentional, more interesting and thought-provoking, more useful, and better displayed. That’s what I want to do.
I also want to figure out a way to have this baby blog generate a bit of income for us. I don’t need a lot, but some would be nice.
So readers and admirers of JWN, here is your chance to have input into helping to revision JWN. I am still right at the start of the process. Please tell me, either privately or in the open comments section here, any thoughts or suggestions you have on:
- * What changes you’d like to see regarding the content of the blog;
* Ditto, the visual or organizational design;
* A good, affordable web-designer I could work with on the re-design;
* Your reactions to my suggestions on the blog, above;
* Any ideas you have for potential ‘strategic partnerships’ I might explore between JWN and institutions or individual philanthropists (yourself? anyone you know?) who might want to support the blog financially, or sponsor it in some other way…
Your comments and suggestions will be great. This whole revisioning thing may take a bit of time. In the meantime, JWN will continue to be the opinionated, generally well-informed, visionary, but often quirky blog you’ve come to know and (I hope) love. Watch for some more political posts tomorrow.
Some of us are still on dial up via the telephone and all thse photos etc take a long time to download so words only are better for us. We also have limited hours per month to be connected to the internet. After all, some of us do not have lots of money to spend on broad band or it may not be available.
HI Helena!
Maybe we will be calling you Sitti/Teta Helena? Congratulations-H, have you checked out NowLebanon? They have an excellent format, which you might wish to consider as a template. Here is the link:
http://www.nowlebanon.com/
H, will you be writing on Africa further in the future? Any thoughts on the elections in Angola?
Finally, as there is much discussion in Lebanon right now about the disarmament of Hezbollah, what is your take on this matter? Do you see a process occuring which encompasses this issue? What are your thoughts about this?
Kudos!
Kevin
Tanti auguri, Helena, for your approaching grandmotherhood! Let us know when the great entrance happens.
As for the future of your blog, in my opinion, it’s always content, content, content. The best blogs are those that deliver red meat, news or news groupings that can’t easily be found elsewhere, like yours, MoA, Juan Cole, missing links, Glenn Greenwald, Chris Floyd. Places like Open Democracy, Antiwar, or TomDispatch that deliver information in a non-blog format are also important.
Personally, video, podcasts, etc. unless particularly funny or unusual I ignore. They’re too slow. I’ll almost always read a transcript, if available, rather than play a video or mp3. But that just me.
I’ve found that some sites, such as firedoglake and dkos, have lost some of their focus by being too inclusive and drifting towards purely partisan politics. Unfortunately, our political choices in the US move in extremely restricted boundaries. Reality lies elsewhere.
Thanks for your efforts, they are appreciated.
-Dick
Ms. Cobban, you hit the nail on the head with these comment…
“But all that stuff takes time. Time that, mostly,I would rather spend writing, thinking,reading and talking to people. Face it, fundamentally,I’m a words person.”
“JWN will continue to be opioninated,generally (ALWAYS) well-informed,VISIONARY, but”…
IMO, that’s all you really need.
I first learned about you from reading Juan Cole’s blog. Several years ago, both of you were in a group discussing what the U.S. strategy should be in Iraq. You recommended immediate and 100% withdrawal.As usual, you were right.
From you, I picked up China Matters. Anything to do with Pakistan, China Hand is the man, althought for all I know, he could be a she. You brought him to my attention and highly recommended him/her. And you were right.
Cole hasn’t made many changes to his blog.
Henry, the first poster,spoke about dial up being slow on the photos and “words only are better for us.”
He has a point.Limited time means the words count the most, by far.When something happens, people like me want to find out what it means to people like you, C.H. and Juan Cole.
WORDS COUNT THE MOST.
Those words give people like me the background to form my own opinions.
And Ms.Cobban, that’s what you’re best at doing.
My $0.02…
Dear Helena,
Your idea to move up and ahead is unavoidable by your standard.
But as we observe almost all who moving as you suggest loosing ground and touch with what was the initial idea.
Helena people need you and your sharp and truly objective blog,I am sure that many,many people read your blog even they don’t participate in writing,so I would suggest please keep going in your present form and way,as we do honour and respect you as you are,I am sure I speak the language of many.
Sometime on the line there will be a generous philanthropist who would support your idea and then you can try open new JWN in sophisticated form but please don’t let your readers down for cause of technology as out there are many Henri’s in Middle East and around the World.
WE NEED YOU AND WORDS CAN SAY IT ALL!
Thank you!
Sergi
Content is what we blog readers are searching for. While an ID photo is nice for someone you are interviewing, more important is the short biography of their role and the context in which the interview took place. And, to re-enforce Henry and others, MANY people are on modem only and waiting to download a favorite (such as Juan Cole) only to find that it was a video that you can’t view is a frustrating experience not to mention a loss of 10 valuable minutes. Please don’t do it!
I keep forgetting how backward the US is.
We gave up using modems years ago. I am looking forward to my 25 Megabits line next year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2702474/Superfast-broadband-could-cost-the-UK-29bn.html
This might be part of the list of things that I might suggest to Helena
spending on Infrastucture in the US not wars all over the place.
Ditto to all the comments above emphasizing words over photos and videos. Your current graphic format is fine –the type is large and easy to read. Beware the urge to copy someone else’s new look, unless you have a specific marketing purpose in mind.
The one functional change that might be worth doing is that which allows bloggers to “file” their post under various headings listed at the end (like “Georgia”, “UN”, “Ban Ki Moon”, etc.). This I believe is part of having a searchable archives. Some bloggers (fabiusmaximus, e.g.) commonly end their post with links to earlier writings on the same subject. This could also be useful, although I admit I rarely use it. Readers seem to value blogs more as a virtual water cooler, a place to hear themselves speak on a topic du jour, rather than an opportunity for academic research.
I’ve waited to chime in on this to see what others might say. I join the sentiment here that what you offer us in your writing is of paramount value. Though I am currently enjoying broadband internet access, the realities of a fixed income in the current (and foreseeable) economy make dial-up access a real option (or necessity) for me in the future; thus I have strong sympathy for those of your readership who are currently so restricted.
There are a few things that occur to me that might be ways forward:
1) A graphic ‘redecoration’ of the site could liven up what perhaps has come to feel somewhat stale to you. The relatively graphics-free style could be maintained for speed-of-download reasons.
2) If inclusion of significant photo content, and audio and video really become attractive to you, it should relatively easily produce a site which would offer two feeds – one ‘fully-featured’ and one text-only.
3) A third way could be a middle path between 1 & 2 above, with limited, minimal pixel images, with as many links as desired to more photos, audio and video materials, etc.
Most web publishing applications have a tool that allows you to estimate the download time of a given page based on various access speeds, and testing out several design strategies could give you some insight on the way forward.
Depending on the extent of a new design and the complexity of it’s production and support, it’s quite possible that you may be able to have some or all of that work donated in solidarity. The same could apply to the tasks of researching photographic and audio/video content pertinent to a given post’s subject. As to fundraising to offset some of your costs for JHN, I recommend using a PayPal donation account, and in particular provide the option of automatic monthly contribution.
I’ve waited to chime in on this to see what others might say. I join the sentiment here that what you offer us in your writing is of paramount value. Though I am currently enjoying broadband internet access, the realities of a fixed income in the current (and foreseeable) economy make dial-up access a real option (or necessity) for me in the future; thus I have strong sympathy for those of your readership who are currently so restricted.
There are a few things that occur to me that might be ways forward:
1) A graphic ‘redecoration’ of the site could liven up what perhaps has come to feel somewhat stale to you. The relatively graphics-free style could be maintained for speed-of-download reasons.
2) If inclusion of significant photo content, and audio and video really become attractive to you, it should relatively easily produce a site which would offer two feeds – one ‘fully-featured’ and one text-only.
3) A third way could be a middle path between 1 & 2 above, with limited, minimal pixel images, with as many links as desired to more photos, audio and video materials, etc.
Most web publishing applications have a tool that allows you to estimate the download time of a given page based on various access speeds, and testing out several design strategies could give you some insight on the way forward.
Depending on the extent of a new design and the complexity of it’s production and support, it’s quite possible that you may be able to have some or all of that work donated in solidarity. The same could apply to the tasks of researching photographic and audio/video content pertinent to a given post’s subject. As to fundraising to offset some of your costs for JHN, I recommend using a PayPal donation account, and in particular provide the option of automatic monthly contribution.
Sorry for the duplicate post, friends. I kept getting an error message from Movable Type so I assumed I needed to keep trying. Apparently it went through once and in it’s wisdom MT decided lying to me was the perverse, and thus optimal, thing to do.
I think your blog is invaluable, and doesn’t need fixing, but I trust your judgment.
I agree with Dick above that I’d rather skim through a transcript than play a video.
And I’d be happy to respond to periodic fund raising appeals.