TechNewsLit Explores relaunched
29 July 2025
We're continuing our TechNewsLit Explores essays, now posted on the Write.as publishing engine that links to the Mastodon and the Fediverse. Write.as is a simple, no-frills platform that also supports visual storytelling.
TechNewsLit social media update
29 Jan. 2025
Summary: We're making changes in the Technology News and Literature presence on social media. Our posts are now found on Fediverse sites Pixelfed and Mastodon, as well as BlueSky, but no longer on Facebook. However, we're continuing on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Making local media more viable
1 Jan. 2025
Summary: For local news media to enjoy true press freedom, they need to be independent financially, with support from their communities. I'm supporting an intern at two weekly newspapers in Iowa to help make that happen.
Freedom of the press is a fine idea, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. While press freedom is often talked about as a legal issue, the idea remains hollow unless the media are stable financially and not beholden to whims of benefactors.
Back to the Future: It's Time for a Classified Advertising Comeback
Updated 20 May 2024
Summary: With users losing trust in online commerce and social media from scams, security risks, and privacy breaches, local publications can make a strong case for classified ads as a safe, secure, and easy-to-use platform for doing business. But publications need to take steps to deliver on that promise for readers.
Local publications, print and online, may be overlooking a lucrative revenue source, whose time has re-emerged after years of decline: classified advertising. After three decades of search engines and two decades of social media, many people don't know or have forgotten that classified advertising -- want-ads as we called them -- are a simple, secure, and effective way to do business, particularly on a local level. And with scams, security threats, and privacy violations increasing across Internet commerce, classified advertising can make a strong case today to local businesses and consumers.