Urban Jacksonville

This weeks Folio features an article called Heavy Meddle, A Downtown activist gets too active for City officials. The article discusses the exploits of Kevin Conner, better known as Jax Investor, of the Metro Jacksonville message board. Basically Kevin makes requests for public information then he contacts people listed in the documents and asks them questions. All in an attempt to make the City accountable for their actions. Sounds OK, right?

Then this happened. Ron Barton caught wind of what Kevin was doing and got all pissed off:

I have now learned that Kevin Conners[sic] is calling people that he picks up in my emails, represents that he is a reporter and is inquiring as to their business with the City/JEDC. He is way out of bounds and beyond the pale on this one. I am going to ask the Office of the General Counsel if he has broken any laws.

What rights does a reporter from a local newspaper or TV station have that a citizen of this city does not have. Apparently they are not allowed to access public documents and ask questions about the information contained in those documents and they are not allowed to say they are “a reporter”. It seems if you are a citizen reporting the news you are held to a different standard and any other news organization in Jacksonville.

This city needs to wake up and realize that WE ARE THE NEW MEDIA. WE the bloggers of Jacksonville, WE the people who post comments on message boards and more so, we members of this community have a right to expose what is going on behind the curtain. I am talking about all of us, the citizens of this community. We have a right to report, publish and comment on any story that is news to us.

And guess what? We don’t have to play by YOUR rules. We are not the sanitized version of the news put out by the Times-Union or The Local Station. We don’t adhere to political pressure or old-school bureaucracies because we aren’t looking for a recommendation for our resume or a back scratch from a politician. We don’t have to watch our mouth for fear of offending someone, we say what the fuck we want.

Our news staff is 500,000 strong. We are the citizens of this city, we are the media. I wish our elected officials would pay the same attention to their constituents that they pay to one reporter from the Times-Union.

tags: jacksonville, citizen media

Newspapers must publish weblogs to meet the changing expectations of readers – Jay Rosen

So lets answer the question,
Is the Times-Union a blogging newspaper? By all accounts I would have to say no. What makes a good blogging newspaper?

Newspapers must take blogging seriously.
The Times-Union mentions the word blog on its homepage one time, at the bottom of the page under special interests. The best blogging newspaper in the country, the Houston Chronicle, mentions the word blog on its homepage 7 times and links to over 80 blogs right from its homepage.

Newspapers must have a main page for weblogs
Compare and contrast blog homes: Times-Union | Houston Chronicle
The Times-Union has a main page for blogs, but they get it all wrong. If you go to blog categories you may think Wow, there are 39 people blogging about the Northside. No actually there are 39 posts that have been categorized as Northside, but 90% of them are about sports and written by 1 person, dchapman.

What the Times-Union should do is list dchapman as a blogger and describe what he writes about. The Houston Chronicle has 60 blogs written by newspaper staff they are categorized by topic like TechBlog, ShopGirl, SciGuy and MedBlog. They also have 25 reader blogs that are about a specific topic.

Newspapers must support blogging conventions like comments, permalinks and archives
The Times-Union gets two of the three correct, but there is no archiving of posts. The Times-Union does offer links at the bottom of blogs to additional pages, but what happens when the results reach 200 pages?

The Times-Union makes a good attempt at getting started, but it was not well thought out and it seems there was little or no planning when they threw the blog section together. This goes back to taking it seriously. For someone who reads a lot of blogs and writes for two blogs their first attempt at blogging is juvenile at best.

tags: jacksonville, times-union, houston chronicle, newspaper, blogging

Critical mass photo set

We showed up at the critical mass meeting spot about 15 minutes early and it wasn’t looking good. It was me, Philip Ramsey, the organizer, and another girl.

Right around noon Riverside Avenue started teeming with bikers. Single-speeds, bmx, mountain bikes and cruisers all represented. It was like they started coming out of the woodwork.

We rode through Downtown, San Marco, Southbank, the Stadium District, the Eastside, Springfield and back to downtown. It was a bit unorganized, more like critical chaos at times. As the event grows so will the organization factor so it didn’t bother us. Stay tuned for info on the next critical mass.

tags: jacksonville

Tune in or set your TiVO’s on First Coast News tonight at 6:00pm. We just wrapped up an interview that is supposed to broadcast on the 6:00 news. Make sure and watch as Urban Jacksonville answers the reporters questions in smooth-butterlike tones. Look for the backwards mouse and lots of fake typing!

We will try to get a copy of the news broadcast for posting in case you miss it. Also we had someone record the whole interview so you will get the exclusive out-takes. This is going to be so embarrassing!

tags: jacksonville

Metro Jacksonville posted this story Thursday evening:

The public system that was established by the Mayoral office to allow for greater public access to public emails has now been abolished. Reportedly, when asked point blank about why the administration is ending access to city emails via the internet, Susie Wiles had no comment and only goes on to say that Our administration is dedicated to constantly improving public access to public records.

How is Wiles enhancing this greater public access you may ask? Well, silly…what could provide more universal access than a single terminal located in the bottom floor of City Hall in downtown Jacksonville that will be open from 7:30am to 5:00pm.

This administration’s plan to limit public access to City emails is a slap in the face to freedom of information and freedom of the press. It is obviously an attempt to stem the flow of information out of the Mayor’s office and into the hands of the people. Susie Wiles’ claim Our administration is dedicated to constantly improving public access to public records. is a complete joke, this is why:

How can her statement be true when they are restricting access of Mayoral emails to a single terminal in a city building; during the same hours many of the people who access this system are at work or school? This policy excludes a myriad of people who have no other way to access this information EXCEPT through the Internet, such as the elderly or disabled. How is this action any different from adding speed bumps to a City Hall handicap ramp because people in wheelchairs actually began using it? By doing this they are actually descreasing access to public records.

This is a sad day in the history of information access in Jacksonville. This is an obvious attempt to control access to public information because people actually started using it, people like Urban Jacksonville and the Metro Jacksonville message board. We feel like this is a deliberate attempt to block our access to this information. (Stomach churning sound…)

Related:
Metro Jacksonville Press Release on this subject
JBJ: City to restrict access to internal e-mails

tags: jacksonville

So you followed the instructions on using JAXCAT only to discover the book you want is not in the library system at all. Interlibrary loan, or ILL for short, will come to your rescue.

Interlibrary Loan offers Library customers the opportunity to request and receive books that are not owned by the library. Through ILL, you have access to the circulating book collections of all the library systems in Florida, as well as universities and public library systems throughout the United States.

That is a damn fine service you provide public library!

ILL services are available to anyone holding a valid Jacksonville Public Library (JPL) card and there are three ways to do it:

1. Online. Requests for books can be placed at the Main Library or any branch via WorldCat on FirstSearch. (Ask your librarian for help)
2. Mail or Fax. You can mail or fax ILL request forms directly to the Special Services Department
3. Telephone. To place your request by telephone, call the Special Services Dept. at (904) 630-2986. (We can only accept 3 requests by telephone at one time.)

Jacksonville Public Library’s Interlibrary loan page
Interlibrary loan FAQs

tags: jacksonville, main library

JAXCAT screenshot

Going to the Main Library to check out a book, only to find it either isn’t available or someone else has checked it out is a real bummer. Well no more! Get smart and start using JAXCAT.

JAXCAT is the online card catalog that allows you to search for library titles without leaving your kitchen. No more riding Downtown only to find someone from Mandarin checked out your copy of Cell.

Note: JAXCAT works with any library branch.

tags: jacksonville, main library