Here’s a rundown of what I have planned for this site during next weekend’s Decatur Book Festival.

Decatur Metro will employ both short-form and long-form reporting formats for this year’s festival.

The short-form will take place in a post that will be “stuck” to the top on DM’s main page.  Some people in-the-know refer to it as “live-blogging”.  The window will look something like this.

As you can see, this software will look and act a lot like AIM or any other chat software.  All you’ll have to do is type up a comment and hit “submit.”  It’s just like commenting on DM – no registration required.  It can be used to post short reports/observations/reflections and I can even your pictures (if you email them to me).

But because an unmonitored internet isn’t a pretty sight – just ask the AJC – this live-blogging software is moderated.  That means if you submit a comment, it’ll be sent to moderation first so I can approve it.  However, there is a way for you to get around the moderation and this is where the “recruiting” comes into play.  The platform allows me to submit up to 25 email addresses of people that are automatically given unmoderated access to post in the “Cover It Live” window.  The software calls these folks “panelists”, but for this event I’d be more inclined to call these folks “reporters” or “the DM team of excellence.”

So, if you’re attending the Decatur Book Festival next weekend and would like to provide updates from the field during the event (so far the software seems to work quite well on PCs, Macs, and most mobile devices), send me an email with your name and what sort of events you’ll be attending over the weekend and I’ll add you to the list of 25.  And just to be clear, even if you don’t want to be on the list, you can still post, I’ll just have to approve your comment first.

The long-form reporting will take the more traditional blog format.  These individual posts will be more in-depth pieces about DBF events.  I’ll of course will be writing in this format through the weekend, but for the first time I’d like to open up this opportunity to all interested readers and writers out there.

On average, DM now averages over 1,600 readers a day, so I’m hoping people who enjoy writing as much as reading will see this as an opportunity to communicate with a larger audience and (if they want) get their name and/or business out there.  If interested, just email me your reports from the field at decaturite [at] gmail.com, and I’ll give you your own post.    (In your email let me know the name you want to go by and whether you have a website you’d like me to link to.)  Obviously, I can’t promise to post everything, but if it’s good and thorough, I’ll put it up.

And yes, I’m making this up as I go.  Let’s see how it works.