When I talk about CHS (when am I not talking about CHS?), the word ‘experiment’ comes up a lot. It is both an accurate description and an overstatement. A lot of stuff we do here is new journalism or new media or new community. But most of it is only the natural course of what is interesting, what is fun and what is necessary to tell the story.

So, here’s an, um, experiment to ponder. I will be out of town next week. Except for a few planned stretches of time, I will be online and updating the site from afar. That’s part one of the experiment. Part two of the experiment is what will determine the longterm success of CHS — the community of CHS neighbors is running the site.

It happens all the time already — I logged on last night to find three posts suddenly appear on the front page of what I used to consider ‘my site.’ Anybody can post to capitolhillseattle.com and I’ve given a wide range of experienced contributors the ability to feature the best posts on the CHS homepage. I’m just part of the team now. Kind of. I still write more posts and manage the site more, um, aggressively than others but that’s slowly shifting.

So, we’ll see how next week goes. I’ll do my best to keep the site up to date and informative. I expect the contributors to do the same (I know of at least one who will be traveling to India yet has pledged to make an update or two on her travels!). If you’d like to help, click Create to make a post or leave a comment or let me know if there is something you feel people need to know. You can reach me at jseattle at gmail or call me at (206) 399-5959. And, don’t forget, your CHS holiday gift is waiting for you here.