We want to ensure that ET continues to develop as a site that covers a broad range of topics, appealing to the interests of a wide audience, encouraging members to contribute through comments and diaries of their own.
I think that this is a great site because it is open to a more heterogeneous mix of ideas and thought. The strength of this mix is vertical and horizontal. That is, it a mix of topics with mix of depth. Let me qualify that: frivolous subjects are avoided it seems by self editing of the diarists.
How do you attract more participation? How the hell do I know? In the site(s) that I run that is where I have been least successful. But I can build viewership like a house afire. So I have concentrated on writing my own editorial material and building the page view count. In the endgame it is all about page views anyway is my opinion. If you have enough page views you can get guys like Keith Olberman to write for free because it has a vested interest for their endeavors. Viewers and participators it appears are different creatures.
In the end I have come to dimly understatnd that the key to understanding the "community participation" issues have to do with "branding" and "editorial focus."
This is all an new place. Cyberspace. We are really making up the rules as we proceed. alohapolitics.com
ET is simply a potential new delivery system for such explanations. As a medium, cyberspace, the noosphere, collective consciousness or networked empowerment or whatever you wish to call it, is largely still confined by the rules of the old media - in the same way that WWI was tragically fought according to the old rules. You can't be me, I'm taken
