#60616d; font-family: 'open sans', sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">You may have noticed that posting here has been sparse lately. I've been on a vacation and have recently returned. You will see things picking back up again over the next few days. I'll have a little to write about from the vacation, notably about Amtrak and where they are going, along with a narrative of taking the Lake Shore Limited, and how that particular train is going.

I'll be poking myself in here from time to time with rambling discussions of what is happening at Wis.Community, observations, and things you may or may not find interesting. This may at some point become a podcast. Or not. Bear with me. Call it a blog. Call it the musings of a quickly-aging guy. It's an experiment.

As you have probably noticed, life on this web site has slowed somewhat the last few months. Those of you who know me personally are probably aware that we're dealing with serious family health issues at Cruiskeen Lawn, and that has made it difficult to get a lot of work done, much less make long-range plans.

You may have noted that postings have been slow recently. I am off in Chicago at the LION Publisher Summit at Columbia College. This is always a great experience for learning the latest in technology, strategy, and everything else about publishing local independent news.

You may or may not have found yourself sitting on the porch on a beautiful summery/fallsy day like today, and asked yourself "How can I help out that nice Wis.Community site?" Well, maybe not, but the fact of the matter is that I'm going to tell you anyway. 

It's been there for a while, but I thought I would point out the Chippewa Valley Tweetstorm on the front page at https://www.wis.community. It brings together the tweets of lots of people in the Chippewa Valley and across Wisconsin.  Go take a look!

In preparation for tonight's Planning Meeting, I've put together a slideshow about some of the goals for this site, where we've been and where I hope we are going. I'm putting up a copy of the slide show to give you some idea of what the first half of tonight's meeting will be like and  what the current plans are.  We're hoping that members of the community will show up tonight and give us their ideas. We will be meeting at 6:30 at Lazy Monk Brewery in Eau Claire.

We're working on incorporating a few more collaborative tools into the site. One has appeared on the front page this afternoon.  There is a "what we're reading" section on the front page. This is a test at setting up ways for people to contribute more content.  We will be inviting some of our editors and contributors to mark articles on the web that they have found interesting, and to contribute them into our team collection of interesting stories.  

We are sponsoring our first Wis.Community community film showing. We hope to do more of these in the coming months - films that enlighten and entertain, and that will not show in local theaters otherwise.

LOOK & SEE is a cinematic portrait of farmer and writer Wendell Berry. Through his eyes, we see both the changing landscapes of rural America in the era of industrial agriculture and the redemptive beauty in taking the unworn path.