Citizen Wausau

Welcome Citizens!

by Marcus Nelson on October 1st, 2007

Dear Everyone,

Welcome Citizens! Thank you for stopping by – as you see, Citizen Wausau is alive! I wanted to take a moment, and introduce ourselves.

First off, my name is Marcus Nelson. I am a native of Wausau, having grown up on the southeast side and attended Wausau East High School. But past is prologue, and now I am a husband and father of two, back in my hometown after many trips and homes elsewhere. Wausau is a special place, a place on the cusp of something amazing, and with Citizen Wausau I want to be part of that. So I am back now – having formed a design/technology consultancy – and am proud to be home again.

Citizen Wausau has been in the making for a couple months. During this time, I have had a chance to work with my friends Andy Laub and Dino Corvino. Andy agreed to take on the role of Creative Director and Dino as the Editor for Citizen Wausau. It’s been amazing to work with these guys, both in their attitude and ability to do anything I’ve come up with… “Hey, can we make this three columns, and blah, blah, blah?” Andy always says, “Sure.” Then quietly and expertly makes it a reality. “Dino, can you rewrite this post and make me sound coherent?” And with the wave of his Powerbook, it’s completed. Both of their involvement have been hugely instrumental, and I cannot thank them enough.

I’d also like to thank Emily, my enduring wife of nine years. I’m astonished she enables me to pursue these crazy ideas. She understands my creativity, even pitching in as administrator to keep things on schedule, allowing me to pour myself into this endeavor. She’s an amazing woman – if any you men could find a nice gal with half her graces, you’d be in pretty good shape. I love you sweetheart.

So, what is Citizen Wausau?

Check out our Mission Statement for a brief overview, but to put it bluntly, it’s “citizen journalism”: the idea that everybody has a story to tell; they just need the platform to do so. Wanting to use the technology that I love so much to provide a forum for this very thing, I am really excited about what has come out of it. This idea of giving voice to every person, providing a platform, building community… it’s all right here!

Wausau is a great place, a growing place, but with growth come the challenges of balancing lots of opinions and ideas, conflict and resolution, and all the rest. We hope to be a place where everyone can wrestle with these things openly – in a civil exchange. The Internet has been a place where tempers can flare, and people have acted out in ways that would normally not be replicated in real life. We ask that as a contributor you be responsible for your words. As a commenter, we ask that you not post something that you would feel uncomfortable saying in front of your real-life colleagues; people who know you as more than just a username.

We want that free-flowing idea exchange, but we want to provide a place that is about the idea, not the personality. With that, in extreme cases we reserve the right to pull anything we feel takes away from the civility of the forum. We have an Editorial Policy, but we should all know how to be polite, disagree without being disagreeable, and move ideas around the table in a constructive way.

This is post number one, and we make no apologies for being bit rough around the edges. This means we are going to be experimenting, making mistakes, adding things, and taking things away. Our focus will always remain on the contributions of our community. Contributors are the lifeblood of this project and we intend to support them, to give them opportunities, to put their ideas out there for as much discussion as possible. We hope you become one of those contributors, and we hope that you contribute often. So please allow for those changes, and we hope that even our missteps are interesting to watch. We’ll be down at Citizen Desk in case you’d like to stop by and say hello.

We have big goals ahead. Podcasts, videos, personal blogs, networking, all that stuff. This is our social media. I hope you take the time to stick around, enjoy the ride, and shoot me an email if you have any ideas for making this site a happier place.

Thanks.

Day 1, and we are proud of our work.

Marcus Nelson

publisher of citizenwausau.com