My Next Endeavor – Circa

Recently I left Spot.Us. My original plan was to take some time and collect myself before hopping onto the next thing.

But the fates had a different plan for me. And when fate calls, you gotta answer.

Today I’m announcing the next project I’m going to dive head first into. It’s called Circa (www.cir.ca).

It’s in stealth right now. But I can say this much – it will start off as a mobile application and the goal is to create a consumer friendly product that keeps people engaged and informed about what’s happening in the world. The problem set is unique and as the details of it shape you’ll see how it fits into the history of my career thinking of journalism as a process, not a product. I’ll be the founding editor helping think through, from top to bottom, the process of consumer driven journalism.

Circa is an outgrowth of Ben Huh’s “Moby Dick Project.” Mr. Cheezeburger himself has made waves in the news industry in the last year bringing ideas that challenge many sacred cows. That speaks to me and aggravates others.

Ben is a co-founder and won’t be in the day to day but will continue to stay engaged moving forward. But here’s a view of the team I’m joining which is led by Matt Galligan who created Socialthing and SimpleGeo.

I’m excited to be back in startup mode. I’m even more excited that this time I’m joining an experienced team instead of going solo and trying to figure things out myself from scratch. In this next endeavor I’ll have the luxury to focus on content and rely on team members to be experts in their various fields like design or marketing (as opposed to Spot.Us where I had to be more of a generalist).

I look back at Spot.Us and I see it as a powerful statement about the need for transparency and participation in the process of journalism – specifically around the flow of money. I feel amazing to have had the opportunity to make that statement. But now I’m eager to make another statement. To help build a vision for how people can stay informed in the future. To create a process of news that is optimized for truth and stripped down to the basic elements of news topped off with consumer friendliness.

All this is a tall order. And just like Spot.Us I have NO idea what is going to happen with Circa. I just know that the larger journalism community and industry still has a long way to go and I still have something to say. I think the Circa team is poised to push boundaries in how media is organized and how consumers stay informed.

For the immediate moment the whole project remains in stealth. You can sign up for updates about Circa when it’s ready here. For those of you who have followed my career and cheered me on whenever I’ve dived head first without knowing 100% where the project will land, it’s time to strap in because another wild ride is about to begin.

Onward…..