Civic Diary 4/9/2016 – Community

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

So my latest Civic Diary is on community.

As I document my experiments in being a better citizen (which I haven’t exactly defined, but we’ll learn along), I wanted to share my latest finding on community.

My local writer’s group needed me to take over a writing event as the person running it at the time had a change of schedule and wouldn’t be doing so for quite some time.  I took over out of a desire to help out – it’s a good group that focuses on getting together and writing.

At that point I suddenly thought about my other activities in communities.  Helping at a museum.  My video gaming group.  Movie nights for another club.  All those little things (remember when I mentioned the power of weak links?) that create alliances and bonds.  I saw how important they were.

All these little bits of community involvement are important as community is important.  Community ties us together, community helps us connect, community builds something bigger than us.  If you want to be civicly engaged, building some community, virtually any kind, is important – and lets you use other interests to do good.

Some community seem trivial?  That Steven Universe fan group could also let people network to find jobs.  Your anime club can do charities.  Your doll collector group might be a place where you can offer your skills in accounting to someone with tax questions.  Multiply those opportunities over a lifetime and you can see how important community -any community – is to being a citizen.

Obviously, I think we need to consciously think what kind of community we should build. I will doubtlessly go on about that more in the future.

A few more thoughts on community building:

  • * Real community is built by real people – be it face to face or with your real name, yu need to connect as human beings.
  • * Functional community is integrative, not divisive.  A community ma address a problem, but it does so with a larger purpose of bringing people together.
  • * Community should be connected to the “big picture” even if the big picture is “man we all have hard days, let’s have a movie club every Friday night.”  Insular communities have a way of being very non-civil.
  • * Community has some kind of identity. It needs to know what it is.

So there’s my thoughts.  What’s your community?

– Steve

Civic Diary 4/7/2016

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

So remember my post on Citizenship? Where I’d post monthly or so on my experiments in being more civicly engaged? Taking it in a slightly different direction.

Welcome to the Civic Diary.

I figure as opposed to a monthly roundup, I’d share my experiments sort of whenever. That way I can get feedback and ideas and it may inspire others to do likewise on their attempts to be more engaged citizens.

(I also figure it adds structure to the whole endeavor).

I should note this is not an attempt to show off – nor should it be for anyone. This is more chronicling a journey to see if it helps anyone – but it is a journey, since I’m not there yet.

So what did I learn since last time:

  • If your town/city or whatever has a Twitter, Facebook, newsletter, or RSS feed get it. A lot happens locally that can affect our life and the lives of others, and there’s often many chances to get involved. It also keeps you aware of issues from the bottom-up. Here in Silicon Valley just one week into following my town I already feel more educated.
  • A lot of citizenship seems to be about the power of weak links (just like networking) – many small, not really strong connections that you leverage when needed or that add up. In the case of citizenship that combination of friends, RSS feeds, retweets adds up. No one little bit of citizenship-connection is going to be The One that makes you some epic civic wonder – its having many options and inputs.
  • Libraries – if there’s a local library get their newsletter, check their page, etc. Libraries provide a lot of social services – you can find a class, keep up on community news, or even do presentations or each.
  • Keeping up on news is invaluable to citizenship – on all levels. That seems obvious, but when you’re thinking “how do I be a better citizen” regularly (say, in making an effort like this) you see how valuable the news is.
  • Everyone has their own “news rhythm” that keeps them informed. Maybe you check once a day, maybe regularly, whatever. Just develop one.

Finally, I also find keeping a civic diary like this helps me think about how to be a better citizen. So hey, why not try your own.

– Steve

Sailor Moon Book Update 4-5-2016!

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

So where are we with the Sailor Moon Book?

Editing the hell out of it.

So right now, Bonnie and I are in the final editing run before it goes to editor.  I just finished mine, and it’s her turn now.  We’re doing these as separate runs as it’s a lot easier.

Our big issue is actually chapter structure, and we found that there’s really two kinds of chapters in this book (and one or two that are fusions).  Some are narratives, others are lists.  The former look at a common story or pattern in fan’s lives, the other is about related phenomena that aren’t necessarily linear.  The show’s “wow” impact is a narrative, the impact on hobbies and careers is about non-linear phenomena.  Now that we see this I think we can sort out the structure of the one or two troublesome chapters.

After this at the end of the month, the book gets wrapped up into a prepublishing document.  Essentially its a document ready to publish – sans page-break formatting – that goes to the editor.  Then it goes to the editor (and contributors).  That’s a two-month process, though we’ll see how it goes as I wouldn’t be surprised if this editor gets through it quick – it’s not a huge book.

We’ll then take a month or so to integrate the edits and get ready to publish.  We’re still targeting September.

I will be speaking at Kraken-Con and hope to speak at Fanime with Bonnie as well!  We’ll be revealing more as we head towards publishing.

– Steve