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What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

Also on: Google+ https://plus.google.com/112267111862487912857/posts

I am "retired" from 30 years in the newspaper business.

I occasionally blog about the state of that industry at News After Newspapers and at Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab. I'm particularly interested in how the practice of journalism is changing, and in new business models for local news, whether they are hyperlocal news startups or "legacy media" morphing into enterprises that are sustainable in the Web 2.0 world. The new model will need to include strong collaborative features such as wikis, blogs, social media, etc.

I do marketing and PR work for Strolling of the Heifers, and am the coordinator of the annual Slow Living Summit, both in Brattleboro VT.