My 2012 professional resolutions with a focus on RISK; review 2011 goals

A year ago, I felt scattered. I wanted to focus in 2011, and I think, as a full-time employee of my own business with clearer goals and objectives, I have accomplished that.

As detailed below, I feel very proud of the success I had in meeting my professional resolutions for the year. So, it’s important to me that I do so again, which I also did below.

In them, I’d say the theme for my 2012 is RISK.

It’s time to risk fast or succeed for me professionally. I want to be more aggressive in business and outreach, now with a more stable company and clearer focus.

I’ll set goals to do so, but it’s also worth reviewing what has been a wonderful year. Here are some professional milestones not included in my planned resolutions below:

• January 2011: Launching Technically Media, a consultancy that publishes Technically Philly and launched that month a new blog strategy for the National Constitution Center.
• February 2011: Philadelphia magazine covered a multimillion dollar journalism effort at Temple Unuiversity and referenced that we at Technically Philly helped conceive of its structure. (I offered other strategy around the effort and wrote about a similar effort.)
• March 2011: I helped develop the strategy around OpenDataPhilly.org, an open data catalog built by Azavea and unveiled in April during Philly Tech Week.
• April 2011: I was invited to attend the Hardly.Strictly.Young conference on news innovation at the University of Missouri.
• April 2011: Addressing Philadelphia City Council, regarding Philly Tech Week.
• May 2011: NBC 10 listed me as among 20 locals who are worth following on Twitter.
• June 2011: I was invited to attend an intimate Aspen Institute roundtable on news innovation.
• July 2011: I spoke about technology issues on local NPR affiliate WHYY several times, like here, here, here and here.
• August 2011: Alumni magazine or not, I had my first glossy print feature published in the Temple Review.
• September 2011: With the generous support of the Center for Public Interest Journalism, I attended the national Online News Association conference in Boston.
• October 2011: I released a particularly large piece of journalism around a bottlenecked city data set.
• November 2011: Yes, I finally got a smart phone.

Below, see my 2012 resolutions and a review of how I did with my 2011 goals too.

MY 2012 PROFESSIONAL RESOLUTIONS

1. JANUARY: Hire a full-time employee  — We have continued to grow Technically Philly, and I am looking forward to announcing our first reporter hire.
2. FEBRUARY: Post here at least weekly — I want to continue developing thought and sharing my work here, ideally finding other like-minded individuals to grow something of an audience.
3. MARCH: Speak more precisely —  I’ve worked at this for years, but particularly having listened to dozens of recorded interviews this year, I want to strive to speak more precisely, ask and answer questions more succinctly and, as always, talk more slowly, particularly during source interviews.
4. APRIL: Social entrepreneurship — In an effort to grow the discussion around a Philadelphia regional distinction for entrepreneurship, I want to move the dialogue forward, including perhaps an Inquirer op-ed, an event series, and other ways to grow dialogue.
5. MAY: Impact local journalism community — Either attacking the new for bigger audience or better connected practitioners.
6. JUNE: Expand to a new market – It’s time to try risking in another place, and this will coincide with a new redesign and new branding for Technically Philly (and its network), in addition to a face-lift for Technically Media.
7. JULY: Regularly volunteer – I want to get involved in more service.
8. AUGUST: ONA national — Move forward the conversation to bring a national Online News Association conference to Philadelphia by 2014.
9. SEPTEMBER: eBook — I plan to be involved in the release of an eBook of some kind. I have a few ideas scattered and moving slowly, so I’d like to make something happen by next fall.
10. OCTOBER: Begin coding — Very crudely, I’m among the many who are going to dive in a bit on programming basics with Code Year.
11. NOVEMBER: Profit — Consulting work and Technically Philly should be in the black (and beyond), no excuses, and early revenue for our expanded market, through partnerships, events or otherwise.
12. DECEMBER: Reflect and plan — As always, I want to dedicate some time to plan for a bigger impact the following year, including potential strategy for expanding Technically Philly.

REVIEW OF 2011 RESOLUTIONS

1. JANUARY: Work full-time for myself — I am very proud to say I started 2011 as a full-time, salaried employee of my own business.
2. FEBRUARY: Post here at least weekly — I posted nearly 200 times here this year, and I have increasingly focused on developing strong ideas and sharing work I’m proud of, including some particularly strong ones here.
3. MARCH: Organize contacts — In preparation for my smartphone, I have continued to keep detailed contacts, which helps tremendously for sources and business outreach.
4. APRIL: Complete big journalism project — First introduced in October 2010, I led a small grant project for hyperlocal news site NEast Philly on embattled former state Rep. John Perzel.
5. MAY: Host major regional event — I helped lead the plans, strategy and implementation of the first ever Philly Tech Week and began plans for its second iteration next April.
6. JUNE: Lead major grant project – I introduced last year Transparencity, a large-scale grant project focusing on growing the conversation and coverage of the city’s open data movement, including some journalism in which I took great pride.
7. JULY: Regularly volunteer – I had a few starts and stops in the volunteering space, but I  did take an interest in mentoring a couple younger students with whom I had previously built relationships.
8. AUGUST: Have physical office space — I had expected that we at Technically Philly would need to get our own office space, but our relationship with Temple University has persisted, giving us great Center City office space.
9. SEPTEMBER: Monthly multimedia skill use — In addition to experimenting a bit more with Story Shuffle, I have continued to take a lot of video for my work with NEast Philly and play otherwise with multimedia, particularly with my new smartphone.
10. OCTOBER: Focus online presence — After a couple years of old WordPress.com sites, I deleted many and self-hosted though that mattered: including My Life to Do List, my senior thesis on the Philadelphia Republican Party and the writing I did while in Tokyo. I dumped some lame social media accounts and put greater focus on building audience @Twitter.
11. NOVEMBER: Business reorganization — For taxes and organization, I dedicated a filing cabinet drawer to my Technically Media business and focused our documentation.
12. DECEMBER: Update my print portfolio — I added a few online clips to a binder I keep around of my journalism work.