Say Hello To The New Donklephant Writers
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in BloggingToday is Donklephant’s 4th anniversary, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate then inviting some new writers into the fray to help build the community and make the conversations more diverse. Specifically, I’ve invited 4 daily bloggers and 3 guest bloggers to join.
Most of the new authors will be starting immediately, but some might chime in a bit later in the month given vacation and other commitments. However, my guess is that the number of posts you’ll see on Donklephant will almost double in the next month, which means now you’ll be even less productive at work. :-)
So then, let’s meet the new writers!
Daily Bloggers
- Byron Tau of Heartless and Brainless will cover freedom of expression, intellectual property and first amendment issues, as well as anti-nanny state news and the ins and outs of the political process.
- Solomon Kleinsmith, formerly of New Nebraska, is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Public Administration, with an emphasis in nonprofit management. He’ll be blogging about politics in general, but don’t be surprised if you hear him talk about ways moderates and centrist/mainstream independents can gain a greater foothold.
- David Anthony Hohol of Relativity Online has lived in Dubai the last six years and during that time has also spent time in Syria, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Sudan. He’ll be giving us an insider’s perspective on issues facing the Middle East and beyond.
- The blogger who will be known simply as “Jacob” joins us from outside of the day-to-day blogosphere, and brings to the table a sharp wit and a unique voice. He’ll be blogging on the weekends with longer form editorials and roundups of reader comments that were made throughout the week.
Guest Bloggers
- Jill Miller Zimon of BlogHer’s Writes Like She Talks is a well known moderate blogger who has appeared on CNN and is running for City Council in Pepper Pike, OH. She’ll be joining us from time to time with thoughts about issues facing women and politics in general.
- Nancy Hanks of The Hankster is a true political independent and will be covering news and opinion for independent voters.
- And last, but certainly not least, Tully D. Blogg (yes, Tully from the comments section) will be mixing it up on any issue you can think of. But be forewarned, if you’re looking to debate him you better bring your A-game and a whole mess of statistics.
Also, in the next few months you’ll see a brand new design for the site that will feature dynamically gathered news, a more attractive design, threaded comments, the ability to sign in with your various social accounts and much, much more. I’m VERY excited about it and my hope is that you will be too. And if you want to hit the tip jar to help out a bit, well, I won’t complain. :-)
By the way, many thanks to all who applied. It was great getting a chance to talk to you and I look forward to continuing the conversations on this blog and elsewhere.
That’s it for now. Hope you enjoy all the new voices!
This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 13th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Welcome gang – I look forward to your posts…..
July 13th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Welcome and congrats! Looking forward to reading your posts as well.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Glad to be here, and happy to see Nancy Hanks joining up as well! Been following her weekly updates of independent related news for a while. Should have my first post up in a bit here.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Hello (Justin told me to say it!)!
July 13th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Having debated Tully on here before, I look forward to his own posts (no doubt they will be A-game material with plenty of sources). I also look forward to the other posts from the other authors.
Last but not least, I look forward to wasting more time at work!
July 13th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I did indeed EI. I did indeed.
July 13th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Thanks, Justin — Donklephant will be bigger an’ better’n ever! Looking forward to working with all of you!
Nancy
July 13th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Thanks very much to Justin for the invite – I’m excited to join in. Justin, do you remember how we met? lol I think you came into a live-blog I was working over – maybe a Dem primary one or something? Gawd that seems so long ago in a blogs-life! And congrats/welcome to everyone else too.
July 13th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Geez, use a couple o’ smart-ass fill-in responses when registering with facebook and it follows you forever…it’s just Tully. Unless you know me f2f, and then you can choose from a variety of names!
Justin won’t say so, but actually he got me drunk and is now threatening me with the videotape if I don’t post occasionally. ;-)
July 13th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
From hearing all of this… I really hope I disagree with Tully on some things :)
July 14th, 2009 at 1:52 am
Jill, yep, that’s how we met. CoverItLive I think. I actually knew OF you from TMV before that day.
Tully, I won’t show people the videotape of you if you don’t show them the pictures of me. :-)
Great to have you all aboard!
July 17th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into things and hope I can bring a new and refreshing perspective of the region I’ve called home for several years now. Currently, I’m on my annual leave from the deserts of Dubai. My wife and I are currently enjoying the Canadian Rocky Mountains, but I will be back in the Middle East come August and Donklephant will become my second online home soon after. See you around campus…