Innovative, creative living is the theme that connects the eclectic ramblings of this blog. To create a resource with broad appeal, but passionate focus, I've decided to organize around a set of key content categories. Content--whatever media form it takes--e.g. blog posts, articles, podcasts, video shorts, etc.--should be relevant to and help answer questions I believe people like me are asking around these topics:

• Sustainability - How can we favor conservation over consumption? We join CSAs, set up rain barrels and recycle, and look for many little things to do to make the world a better place. We also long to find ways to solve bigger problems like world poverty and are inspired by the example of social entrepreneurs like Muhammad Yunis. But we are not mindless slaves to "green living" faddism. I think there is a long, rich thread to be explored talking about how we can work sustainability--as a form of social justice--into our lives so it is not just a marketing play or big ideas we can only contribute money towards...by telling the stories of many things people are doing, I believe we can inspire others to action.
• Parenting - I feel more practical than most of what I read. When I talk--to other dads, at least--I get the sense that we are all just muddling our way through. Generation X is different--supposedly, we were latchkey kids or something and now we make parenting a bigger priority than our parents did. Not true for me; my mom stayed home until I was 16, but the point is I think most of us are not really interested in reading about Manic Mommies and don't relate to people who are so absorbed in their parenting that after putting the kids to bed, they go blog about it. Nothing wrong with that, but it is a saturated field these days. Here's a less manic mommy blog that does a great job of covering a broader spectrum of experience. But, while I think stories of Equally Shared Parenting and the great comment thread it inspired on Penelope Trunk's blog, are fascinting, I want to hear stories from parents with perspective and ambivalence. Generation X may be rewriting the rules of parenting, but the great stories are not the lists of urgent things to do to make your kid better or heartfelt stories of daily life, they are the honest stories of parents who describe how parenting is a different kind of hard. I have not written that post completely yet; it is a difficult tightrope to walk, because there is a fine line between ambivalence--holding strong, conflicted feelings and opinions on an issue--and uncaring or selfishness. I want this site, this resource to have the guts to go there.
• Community - We want to be a part of where we live but we don't have time. How do we make the time? I've blogged about this here and even created a separate blog, WestwoodBlog, as part of an effort to get involved. Part of the story here involves talking about social media like I've done for facebook, twitter, and wikis. But that's only a start. Most of us are not going to start a town blog or wiki. I've seen my town blog was valuable, but not exactly as I hoped--I have still not achieved the participation level I hoped for like what Brian Keaney did with myDedham.org but I think people in town want to read the blog and found it useful during town meeting. I'm also working to set up our Community Access Television station and perhaps that will "fit" the participation level of more people. But regardless, just getting the information out there is valuable. If this site can tell stories of how creative people are engaging with their communities--with or without technology--it will help us all think of ways to be involved.
• Active - Exercise should be recreation. I think we want to be active, not just as a chore to keep fit but because we love riding bikes, hiking in the woods, running and being outdoors. People ask how I find time to exercise and I don't; I've made it a part of my life. Stories of creative life have to include stories of adventure and active living. We don't need to scale Everest or prove anything, but it is a part of a complete life.
• Career - the bottom line is that we want to live first, work second and we choose careers in an online/connected world that helps us achieve that. Or we start our own businesses. But we are not workaholics anymore. Career is a part of a blended life. This site will leave the advice to the professionals, but tell stories of those who are taking control of their careers to provide for the lives they want to live.

That's my list for now. There are plenty more things that could be on the list...like Art, Entertainment, Technogadgetry, Relationships...but I don't have the passion, expertise, or interest to go deep in those areas yet. If I were truly assessing the market, I would probably be driven there, but I think these topics are enough--they are what's on my mind anyway and I think I'm not alone. The site doesn't have to be comprehensive, it just needs to cover some key areas to fulfill the mission of: Often useful, usually relevant, always interesting.

What next? Enough thoughts for tonight. Perhaps I'll talk about media types tomorrow.