"It is not the parts that matter, it is their combination." Vladimir Nabokov

"To interest is the first duty of art; no other excellences will ever begin to compensate for failure in this, and very serious faults will be covered by this, as by charity." C.S. Lewis

"There is a moment when every work in the process of being created benefits from the glamour attaching to uncompleted sketches. 'Don't touch it any more' cries the amateur. It is then that the true artist takes his chance." Jean Cocteau

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Samuel Beckett

Jay Rosen makes it official and so the era of "networked journalism" begins. First up, congressional earmarks. Jay asks "Why is this project a significant marker in Web journalism?"

It’s trying to bring new facts to light: “which members of Congress sponsored the 1,867 secret spending earmarks worth more than $500 million in the Labor-Health and Human Services appropriation bill now before Congress.” That information is a secret right now.

Get involved or, in the least, follow the project. Share the following link with your news shop and favorite news hounds. Bravo Jay! More here

"To succeed sooner, fail faster." Martin's Third Rule of Innovation. One of the best practices of innovation being put to work in Chicago by a pubcaster. Chicago Public Radio's Torey Malatia greenlights a new approach to radio programming - excellent coverage by Margaret Lyons writing at Time Out Chicago...

“What if we had no shows? With no packaged components?” Malatia asks, describing how he came up with the strategy. He and vice president for programming Ron Jones hammered out some more ideas about ways to radically change the sound, content and essential qualities of public radio. He tapped a small group of CPR employees—producers, marketers, a fund-raiser—to get the ball rolling. “It seemed kind of unworkable when I handed it off,” Malatia says. But his group is now in the final process of making this unworkable plan a website, a radio station and a community.

“You won’t hear typical hour-long programs,” says Josh Andrews, a producer for CPR and team captain of what’s about to happen to 89.5 FM. As far as Andrews is concerned, we won’t hear typical anything. No one really knows what you’ll hear on 89.5 FM come April 2007 (if everything goes according to schedule, which is a big if).

Congrats and kudos to Torey, Ron and all involved. Read the entire article, Making Waves, here