Electric Fishwrap has moved

Google engineers spend 80 percent of their time working on assigned projects and 20 percent of their time on their own projects. Is it any wonder that Google is such a good company?

What if reporters did it too? What if reporters devoted 10 percent of their paid time to their own projects?

That’s the question Mindy McAdams asks in her Teaching Online Journalism blog. Mindy points us to the Fleet Street blog, where the blogger reports that the BBC is already doing 10 percent time in newsrooms:

All of the designers, developers, project managers at BBC Audio and Music Interactive are allowed to spend 10 per cent of their time working on their own pet projects — anything they like as long as it is work-related and benefits the Beeb.

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Yesterday I went to speak at a high school journalism class at Sedro-Woolley High School. First off I really hate public speaking but I also like spreading what I know and helping when I can. So when the journalism teacher there, Bridget Heffele, asked me to come in, I felt I had to. I don’t know many people in every district so I figure it’s good to get in some face time when I can.

I introduced myself and gave a bit of my background, and then I asked how many of them read a daily newspaper, either online or in print.

Nothing. Not a one. One girl asked if MSNBC.com counted. I revised my question and asked if any of them read news sources. Only about five in a class of 15, and four of them read MSNBC.com (for story ideas for their paper) to the BBC (one student seemed to want a world perspective).

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I’ve been incredibly busy. Shopping for various family members, working ~8 hours a day, trying to fit an hour in the gym every day, and spending time with Eric really cuts into my blogging time. Eric’s on break now, so that means he’s home all the time for a while until he goes back to grad school. Considering normally I only see him about 3 hours during the week (while he’s awake anyway) this is a bit more important than blogging occasionally.

I’ll have another post Saturday about my recent trip to Chehalis though. Chehalis and surrounding areas were devastated by a huge flood after 14 inches of rain and a massive log jam. It was really incredible seeing all of the damage. Hard to describe and I’m sure I’ll have a time of it today when I write the story for Saturday’s paper.

Decided to change the name of the blog from “The Snark Report” to “Electric Fishwrap.” There are several reasons for this, mainly because nobody at work seemed to know what “snark” meant (it’s a combination of cynicism and sarcasm). Also, this blog isn’t meant to be snarky, I just thought it was a clever name.

So welcome to Electric Fishwrap, a name that a friend of mine suggested (thanks Meddik). I thought it was highly appropriate, considering newspaper is often called (and used for) fishwrap. And it sounded better than “Daily Birdcage Liner.”

Last night was a letdown, not because a measure I was in favor of didn’t pass, but because voting is changing.

Snohomish County had an all mail-ballot election. I understand this saves lots of money over a polling place election. Call me old fashioned, I really, really like going to the polling place.

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