What’s going on — BIG and small:

• Updated the blog to WordPress 3.0 (Beta-1). Sure, it’s beta, but the next beta should be out within a few days, and the final version should be ready by the first of May.
• Updated the theme.
• Working on a list of bloggers to contact regarding their ideas, suggestions, support, and input.
• Working on a business model that will (ideally) make the co-op self-sufficient, and provide some modest compensation to contributors.
• Working on an editorial model that will allow staff and reader content to be submitted, edited, and available for use by the blogging community.
• Developing the list of categories for stories we will cover. A separate post on those will follow soon.
• Looking at the best options for licensing distributable content.
• Spreading the word. This may seem small, but it is probably the biggest thing that needs to be done.
• Whatever else needs to be done.

If you have ideas or suggestions, please comment here, or email info@blognewscoop.com

There is a new website for the project: http://project2996.wordpress.com/

Please go by and sign up to honor one of the victims of that awful day. I encourage my fellow bloggers to please help spread the word as well.

Let me pull some “background” and “needs” from two earlier posts:

Bloggers should be a natural resource. Why?

• There are thousands of us. We are in every part of the country and many parts of the world.
• We have a wide spectrum of backgrounds, interests, and areas of expertise.
• While nearly all bloggers work at something other than blogging for their 9-5, not all 9-5’s take place from 9-5, if you know what I mean.
• One thing that most bloggers have in common is that they like to write. That doesn’t make us all good writers, but it’s a start.
• If all goes according to plan (once there is more of a plan than what exists now) we will be able to cover a wide range of topics, stories, geographic areas, and more.

and

Many things are needed, but a few stand out.

1. More than anything we need writers to submit original articles for use by other bloggers. If you have a story that you are interested in sharing be sure to sign up for an account and submit your article.
2. Editors. We would like to identify some authors who are willing to help polish and finalize submitted works.
3. Researchers, fact-checkers, photographers, illustrators, anything and everything that will help us find, follow, and report the stories of interest to other bloggers and readers.
4. Starting out I would like to find someone who is willing to create a more appropriate image for the top of the page.
5. I would also be helpful to hear the ideas that you might have. Please leave your comments and let me know what we need to do, and how we can do it!

Oh yeah, spread the word.

Look for my email to you soon.

Here’s a small banner. I’ll get a better one out this weekend.

BNC

• Finalist Announced – December 25
• Finalist Logos Available – December 25
• Finalist Voting Page Available* – December 29
• Finalist Voting – January 2 through January 10

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