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Q&A: Brad Flora, creator of WindyCitizen.com

Photo Courtesy of Twitter

Brad Flora founded WindyCitizen.com, a Web site that allows people to share their favorite Chicago news, events, and hot topics within the community.

According to the Web site's bio: Flora is a Chicago-based journalist and web developer who has written for Slate Magazine and the Carnegie Corporation. Prior to founding Windy Citizen he edited the Chicago Methods Reporter. He lives in Old Town with an ever-rotating cast of characters discovered on Craigslist.

His bio on newsinitiative.com is a bit more personal: Brad Flora is an Illinois-based freelance writer, producer, photographer and web developer. He speaks four languages, plays three instruments and spends way too much time online.

WindyCitizen has a unique aspect, like Digg.com, this social media tool allows its users to "bump" stories up or down based on votes and popularity. This creates a user-friendly and interactive site.

Flora, local funny guy and "Journalist-turned-hacker" according to his Twitter account, has great advice for journalists whether living in the online world or not:

Stephanie Bork: How long has it taken you/what obstacles have you overcome to reach your job at Windy Citizen?

Brad Flora: I created my own job with Windy Citizen. I've been working full-time on it for 18 months.

SB: Were you always interested in online journalism and what prompted the idea for such an interesting and unique site?

BF: I become interesting in creating online communities after a message board for summer campers that I started become popular. That got me thinking about how news organizations could be doing more interesting things online to bring people together. That was five years ago now I think.

SB: How do you feel about convergence reporting?

BF: I'm not too familiar with the concept. Is it the idea that everything's multimedia? I think that's pretty obvious. You use the tools and medium that will work best to tell your story.

SB: Do you believe there is an actual future for online journalism and the blogosphere/Twitter/social media?

BF: Of course there's a future. but how big will it be? Techcrunch.com started as a one man blog and now sponsors several events, employs about 20 writers and runs the conversation in tech. This will happen in other niches eventually.

SB: Is there one interview or article you are most proud of?

BF: Google for "Sarah palin naked portrait Brad Flora"

SB: What are the differences between writing a story for print and for online? Which is easier for you?

BF: You have to worry more about length when writing for print.

SB: Are there any specific people or events you can cite as inspiration for where you are today?

BF: Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, told me this was a terrible idea.

SB: What other reporting or editorial works do you write for?

BF: Slate.com, on occasion.

SB: How do you, as a journalist, use Twitter and social media?

BF: To promote what we're doing on Windy Citizen

SB: Do you have any advice for a young journalist who is interested in broadcast, print, and online journalism?

BF: Be aggressive and audacious. No one wants to see you succeed. You have to make your own career and take what you want to get where you want to go. Good luck.

Awesome author with spooky stories to share

Leaves fall quickly, flutter to the cold pavement. Quick bits of burnt orange and bright yellow foliage fly by as a young child huddles in a window sill engrossed in a spooky novel that will surely make him check under the bed before lights out.

What book, what author could possibly create smiles and goose bumps simultaneously? Why of course, RL Stine’s collection of creepy novels will definitely do the trick.

Robert Lewis Stine, a bold force in the literary world, began writing at age nine and continues to scare our socks off ever since. Stine has much to gloat about but a humble, poised man appears in a recent interview with Reading Rockets.

Stine, born in Columbus, Ohio, remembers his childhood truthfully and began writing funny short stories and comic books until his first scary novel Fear Street. Stine decided to continue down this scary road and produced his first Goosebumps novel in 1992. Goosebumps became a best seller for many years and catapulted Stine to fame. Spewing spooky tales onto page after page has paid off for this incredible author. Stine hosted his own TV series, aptly named Goosebumps and wrote for Nickelodeon’s Eureeka’s Castle.

Still, Stine holds onto his childhood and memories when writing, “having all these fears and being shy, it was hard. But it helped me out later because now when I write these scary books for kids I can think back to that feeling of panic, I can remember what it felt like and then I can bring that feeling to my books.”

As autumn sweeps in once more hopefully readers will be tempted to curl up, turn down the lights, and let Stine’s paralyzing paragraphs creep out and pull people in to each one of his mysterious worlds.

Chicago sighs

I could almost feel the depression seeping through the television screen. I sat in my mother's hotel room on Ontario Street, downtown Chicago, and watched as my beautiful city was eliminated first round in the 2016 Summer Olympics bid.



But, the darkness has faded, and life must go on. Hopefully Rio can tackle the infrascture, transportation, and economic difficulties the Olympics presents.



I am sad I won't be able to meet Michael Phelps in 2016 (when i'm 28?!) and confess my undying love, but I am praying that the money we would've spent does go towards school and transportation costs.

Keeping up with Copenhagen

The First Lady arrived in style. A chic black and white skirt suit complimented Michele Obama's confidence as she arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday to back the bid for the International Olympic Commitee (IOC)'s 2016 Olympics decision.

Madrid , Tokyo, Rio, and Chicago are the four remaining cities that have a bid for the Olympics.

The IOC will make its final decision tomorrow on where the 2016 Summer Olympics will be held. Copenhagen is the hub of Olympic activity through Oct.9 and has spent an estimated $9.1 million on its first Olympic decision event according to CBSnews.com.

FLYPPING OUT!

A dark, menacing webpage appeared the first time I visited Flyp. At first glance the site seems depressing and boring. But after a quick flip through their scrolling feature stories, neatly aligned in the middle of the homepage, the website that claims to be "more than a magazine" is exactly that. Not at all dull, Flyp is an organized online magazine that prompts interest in a variety of topics.


Unlike Time Magazine's website, which stuffs information down your throat from a jumbled homepage, Flyp is an online tool that is easy to read like a magazine and goes beyond dry, one dimensional webpages. This may have been the point of Flyp Editor in Chief, Jim Gaines, the previous editor of Time Magazine, "We aim to combine mediums in a manner that allows the stories we develop to make sense together as a package...but in a more dynamic and frankly, more realistic way, given how people consume media."

Once a story is opened it splays an intro video with sound and awesome graphics across your whole monitor. The graphics are bright and tight, there's an option to have music stream continuously, and pictures and graphs are so fluidly pieced together you barely realize how much information you're actually absorbing. The story itself has links and embedded videos that are creatively displayed; the whole event let's the user actively enjoy each story.

The home page not only links to readers' blogs but also offers a Podcast for the iPod or iPhone. Flyp is a great online experience and while its future is not certain, people are talking excitedly about this new media site. Flyp must find a mature and digitally savvy audience that yearns for a wide range of topics. Users must hold on to the meaning of the story and not get lost in all the flash and glitter of this appealing new journalism experience.

SOCIAL MEDIA MAYEM

Last night, September 13th, 2009 marked the annual MTV Music Awards. Maybe it's all a part of my maturing process, or maybe MTV really has mixed up too much to handle. As young adults in their 20s and 30s look back on Music Television (MTV) we reminisce about the time when music was actually played and only one anchor was necessary to inform us of which music was currently blaring from our old box TV sets. Amongst the yapping"twitter correspondant", the clueless fashion correspondant, and the two mellow fellows who were supposedly key anchors...I found myself dazed and confused!

(Oh, yes, almost forgot the idiotic guy backstage who had a hidden camera view and made creepy comments ).

That was just the preshow. I give MTV credit for attemping to infuse all aspects of social media into a large awards show but I anxiously await the next with high hopes of a more mature digital editing effect. Thanks again for the dissapointment, MTV. Come on people, let's absorb actual newsworthy information from the internet, TV, and phones AND create smooth medium mobility simultaneously!