by Andy Laub on April 3rd, 2008
Wow. So it’s Good People Day today, as Dino mentioned. I apologize for these coming at you so late, but we were late in finding out about it. But still, it’s an amazingly cool opportunity for us to step back and reflect on the good things we’re doing (or trying to do). Furthermore, we’re just two days past the six-month anniversary of Citizen Wausau, and so this comes at a time when I’m very excited about what we’ve accomplished so far.
It’s only fair at this point to follow in Dino’s footsteps and give a little thanks to the people who’ve gotten us this far. Stop me if this starts to sound like one of those hip-hop songs.
And before I get into it, Dino is the one who deserves the most thanks. He is a content machine, giving us things to talk about where before there were none. He also has my tremendous gratitude for dealing with my ever-changing moods on a daily basis; talking me into the good ideas and out of the bad ones. Without him, there’d be no Citizen Wausau. Thanks Dino!
Others include:
- Bill Coady the grandfather of Wausau Blogging
- Tom Neal, for his continued help and guidance
- Paul Farning, for getting me into WordPress
- Rob Mentzer, for his friendship and constant linking
- Wausau Daily Herald & The City Pages, for giving us some attention at the very beginning
- Gary Barden, Deb Hadley, & Mayor Tipple for taking the time to talk with us
- Abe Gabor, for being Abe
- Pete, Jason, Chris, Joey, Jim, Becky, John, George, Lisa, Kevin, Erik, Pat, Alex and many more for the positive words at one time or another
- The Users, for giving us a reason to keep going. Thanks to those who’ve contributed articles, comments, and blogs. This site is about discussion, and we couldn’t have that without you!
A huge thanks again to everybody! We’re looking forward to making Citizen Wausau bigger and better, but we couldn’t do it without you.
PS: I know this comes hot on the heels of Dino’s post, so here’s a link if you missed it.
by Dino Corvino on April 3rd, 2008
It is all over the internet today. People are posting videos, and podcasts, and blog posts, and ecards, and PayPal donations, and YouTube and Twitter and Pownce and Virb, and LinkedIn, and all of it. The tubes are burning up. People are out there follow the lead of Gary Vaynerchuk, and passionately thanking folks in their lives who have made them a success. So my good friend Andy encouraged me to get into this, and so we shall.
So much has been made and discussed about Citizen Wausau from our beginning, to the shakeup, to the nature of what we do. We just had to shoot straight, and come right out and thank some folks for helping us in this endeavor. Citizen Wausau makes no money, we do it because we love it, we are not staying up at night trying to sell ads or do this or that. We do this, because we love people interacting, and we love that we can offer a platform for people to talk.
So, I wanted to shoot some thank yous out to people, and hope they know we care about them very deeply.
Before I get into it, the premiere person is Andy Laub. I did not know Andy before this started, and now I hope to be an old man with Andy sitting on a TERRACE somewhere drinking a glass of juice and eating a hamburger with no vegetables talking about why my Ford Ranger is a bad idea, and when am I going to get an Xbox 360. It took no leap of faith for me to see that Andy was an unbelievable cool dude and I should tie my paltry wagon and small talent to his. Thank you Andy. Thank you so much.
- Kari Rasmussen. I have to say, that very few people have tempered my approach to this whole new format as much as Kari did. Suddenly one of my friends was in the game, and playing successfully, and as a result, I had to see some value in it. Along the way she talked to me, and brought me back from the metaphorical edge a few times. Showed me that it was not about me, but it was about us. It was about the bigger thing, and sometimes I needed to shut up and just let the big success happen. I used to fight with the perception that a lot of me was ego, but Kari showed it to me in a really cool way. I got to see just how much good was being done, and how much the public loved it. I truly got to see a behind the scenes person come forward, and God was it awesome. So thank you Kari.
- Bill Coady. He is the grandfather of this. The originator, the innovator, the Little Richard of Wausau blogging. He started with a vision, and a tool, and it all went from there. So big ups to you Bill. You made content just for you, and you just kept going and going and going. I have to say thanks.
- Tom Neal. My guardo camino. My real Rabbi, the teacher, the mentor, the guide. Tom has been around me for nearly a decade I think, and has helped me in just about all the step of my personal growth. He has brushed me off when I have made mistakes, and never once judged me. Or pushed my foolish head away. So thank you Tom. Personally, none of this is possible.
- Katie Rosenberg. It is simple because she has a blog that makes us raise the game here. She does it for real, and you have to respect that. Just when I was concerned that this internet was a lot of pretend content and links and little original thought, I meet Katie (through Kari mind you) and she drops real science on me. It was amazing. Thank you Katie for making me think.
- Her Dad, Jim. I hate to admit it, but I gotta thank Jim. He taught me one thing, a substantiated allegation is far more heavy than an unsubstantiated one? He taught me to ask questions take discipline, discipline to hear the answer and not know what it is before it comes.
- Pat Peckham. Very few people in my life are just as calming as Pat. I simply feel better being around the guy, and I think it is because of all the people I know he is the most even keeled. And he is a great writer to boot.
- Eric and Gary. It is not fair to lump you together, but you both remind me everyday that I need to be more visual.
I can go on. But, it really comes down to you. Everyone one of you who has sent us an email, or sent me an email, posted a comment, challenged us in the beginning to get our crap together, begged us to not let it die, bought us a drink in a bar, or gave us tickets to a choir concert. OldWoodChair, Moose, Liss, dwescott, wausaujon, and so many more, this is all for you really. You are all good people. You deserve a holiday, and we want to say thank you.
Cats like Jess and Carlson and my buddy Tom Jordan who read what I write, and tell me that I am chickening out. That I am not going to far, that I am too timid. Thanks, I feel timid, and I hope to make you proud.
Out there in the web world, I want to thank Bob McChesney for his influence in teaching me about FCC reform, and access issues and getting me into this fight in general. Pete Tridish and Andy Gunn for giving me a platform to speak from. Norm Stockwell in Madison for teaching me to solder properly. Tara Hunt for being a girl with a unique voice that makes me smile.
I could go on, but I won’t. Thank you all Good People. Your efforts to make this website a success are something that we are not overlooking. You are truly Citizen Wausau, you make this happen.
I think that my good friend Andy has something to say. Look for his writeup in a few.
by Andy Laub on February 5th, 2008
Ah, Charter. Oft-maligned, and for good reason: they pretty much suck at life. And yet, we still rely on them to provide our teevee and interwebs, a decision that I rarely question unless there’s a problem. And boy, is there a problem.
It’s expensive! (more…)
by Dino Corvino on January 1st, 2008
As I sit here on this New Year’s morning, lost in the love of my keyboard, I am faced with questions, and answers, and predictions, and more questions. So I thought I would jump in the pool first, and be the first idiot to take on our virtual Polar Bear Plunge of 2008. A veritable cacophony of randomness brought on by long hours of no work, loss of mental stimulation, and overall sitting still for way too long. (more…)
by Andy Laub on December 21st, 2007
I suppose it’s time for me to chime in on this meme that’s going on. This list represents the hardware/software that brings me to my optimal productivity. (more…)
by Marcus Nelson on December 18th, 2007
In the spirit of the Season – we are continuing to share our favorite online tools and all around geek-ness. As previously mentioned, yes – we are all fans of the little ol’ fruit company from Cupertino. You don’t need to be a hater about it, just appreciate Apple for its innovations if nothing else. In addition to Dino’s list (exception being the Blackberry mention), here’s my quick list: (more…)
by Dino Corvino on December 16th, 2007
The founders of Citizen Wausau (Marcus, Andy and me) are all what you could safely call “technology guys”. We’re Apple guys, brand evangelists, proud watchers of keynotes, and enthralled with gadgetry in general. And because Citizen Wausau was born partly because of this obsession, we thought the three of us would put together a list of gadgetry that we couldn’t live without. We know that the world is turning to this sort of thing, so off and running we go. We would love to hear from you about the things that you guys use on a daily basis, and what they do for you. I’ll kick this off, and I’m sure the other two are already hard at work on their lists.
Everything for me revolves around the calendar. I have an insane desire to manage my time, and make sure I can get to the things and places I want to get to. I somehow think this control leads to freedom, but I do not honestly know. So lets take a look. (more…)
by Citizen Wausau on November 26th, 2007
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking the last few days about Community. For example, what does that mean – really, what is it specifically, what does it look like and why do I crave it? There has got to be reason this void forces me to drive on and create it wherever I can.
In 1996, my brother and I initiated what would eventually become RockWater. Teens were looking for something relevant to do in the city. It was straightforward — we saw the need for Internet, music and a place to hang out — but that was a distinct target market.
The Citizen Wausau experiment is much more fluid. Our target is dynamic and opinionated, even more so than teenagers.
So here is where I’m struggling: the Citizen Wausau project is elusive and free; it can spike with participation or dry up with silence, seemingly on a whim. No one has the ability to control it – and that freaks me out a bit.
At the same time, it’s exhilarating to watch this site take on its own personality. It’s an organic experience, one that can only be compared to child rearing. In this case, it really is going to “take a village” to raise this baby.
As parents we should discuss things about our baby. How are we going to raise it? What do we want it to do and how shall we go about getting it there? Those sorts of things:
- Should it be just another “news-y” sort of discussion?
- Who’s going to collaborate in contributing to its content?
- What is the sole purpose of CitizenWausau.com?
These are pretty important conversations that need to be wrestled with – we’re only six weeks in and content is only being driven by a handful of people. So maybe this is the time to discuss where we should go from here.
- How should we diversify content?
- Have micro-blogs on topics like Politics, Food, Reviews, Events?
- Who should should take ownership for these pages?
Let’s mull over this idea. Assuming only 20% of our signed up audience participates, that’s about 60-70 people. We could get a lot done with that many people helping, don’t you think?
The idea of taking this online offline seemed to suggest several ideas (and we still fully intend on doing that). Before the first of the year we’ll have a calendar in place to list new events and activities – just like we talked about before; game nights, concerts, poker, computer training, hacking and probably some more parties!
These too take time and effort to create, so we all have to work together. Many hands make for light work (as the saying goes), and Citizen Wausau has got to be a collaborative effort if it’s to form into an actual community site.
So, we should probably get more organized, which is why the calendar would be a useful tool.
Another useful tool we could start using immediately is Twitter. It’s a messaging tool for short form blogging. I’ve created a more thorough explanation on my blog, but I think if we can get people talking, both here and online – that would be a good step to growing this online community.
So let’s talk.
- What would you like to see?
- What part would you like to play?
- What other ways could you contribute?
by Andy Laub on November 5th, 2007
A little over a month ago, Citizen Wausau was introduced to the community. We weren’t sure what kind of reception there’d be, or what kind of trials we might face. All we knew was that we wanted to reinvent what community in Wausau could be. There have been some definite ups and downs so far, but CW came out swinging and has been surprising all of us. When the curtain closed on October, we were left with over 4,000 visits and 15,000 pageviews from 13 countries. We’ve been immensely pleased and we owe all of our contributors a heartfelt thanks for sticking with us and helping us grow.
Now it’s time for the next step. (more…)
by Marcus Nelson on October 11th, 2007
I know we’re just getting started here, but I thought it might be nice to introduce some ideas about this new little community of ours. Perhaps it would be important to lead off with this:
The World Is Changing.
That’s what I find so compelling about this medium of social media. As an example, check out the City Pages from last week — there’s a feature announcing this website. Yeah for us! (more…)
