First off, welcome to my personal home page (in case you’re looking, @Morisy’s my Twitter account). This website does not represent the views of anyone but Michael Morisy, unless clearly attributed.

These days, I stay quite busy and don’t update around here too much, particularly since the server is creaky right now, but a updated rundown is overdue. I run one of the web’s largest professional IT communities, occasional contribute reporting and other work to the Nieman Lab, co-founded and run the critically acclaimed FOIA tool and news site MuckRock, am the web producer for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, am on the board of directors and am the web developer for the non-profit Spare Change News, help organize Boston Hacks/Hackers and can be frequently spotted running with my dog around Cambridge and Somerville.

Here be old stuff

I am currently the community editor at ITKnowledgeExchange.com, one of the web’s largest question-and-answer resources for professional IT users. I write for ITKnowledgeExchange’s community blog on general IT issues, as well as manage the 30 or so independent IT bloggers hosted there, plus help manage, troubleshoot and advise the 40-odd blogs written by TechTarget editors.

I also do some community management and outreach, and consider myself strictly a journalist, in case you were wondering, even as I stretch that definition to its limits.

Because all that still isn’t enough online journalism for me, I volunteer at Spare Change News. Spare Change is a street newspaper; in other words, it is a newspaper run largely by and for the benefit of homeless and impoverished individuals. Spare Change vendors are primarily homeless individuals who keep 75 cents for each issue they sell, and the editorial focus is largely progressive/activist news about these and related under-served communities.

It’s incredibly short staffed as far as IT goes, so cut me some slack on design and let me know if you’d like to get involved.

How @Morisy uses Twitter

My tweets are a blend of personal and professional related messages. This isn’t a mix everybody enjoys, but I don’t particularly want to share the travails of my every day life and few people care about the same so I hope I strike a good balance. If you don’t follow me, I’ve long since moved past being offended and I realize that for some people, 5 tweets a day is excessive while for others less than 20 posts means you’re not really using the service. I usually end up somewhere in between.

I also frequently use Twitter’s search as a way to locate possible story sources, particularly when I want an unfiltered perspective that isn’t pre-screened by PR types (no offense to my many PR followers, but that’s just my methodology).

I use Notify.Me to update me to any @replies sent my way on IM (I highly recommend it, particularly to you on again, off again Twitter-ers), so even if I’m not using Twitter, it’s not a bad way to grab my attention. I tend to be less responsive to direct messages, though I try to get back to people in due course.

As for clients, I like TweetDeck alright and highly recommend it as a starting place, getting used to managing and using searches for stuff you’re interested in for example, but do yourself a favor: Use Firefox, install Greasemonkey, and then install @Troynt’s Script. It’s as if Twitter’s developers started caring about the user experience and added neat features like threaded conversations, @reply buttons and embedding pictures and videos when people link to them. It’s really the cat’s meow.

Contacting me in general

I’m a relatively irregular Twitter user, although I’ve grown to be a fan. I read maybe 5% of my Twitter stream, so if you’d like something to come to my attention, your best bet is to e-mail me (see sidebar), instant message me (Just “morisy” on GChat, “MMorisy” on AOL instant messenger), or call 1-857-488-3081.

My preference is actually that order: E-mail for initial contact and so I have it as a reference, follow up via IM, and then, for something that’s more complicated or urgent, phone. If we don’t talk often by AIM, please identify yourself and I’ll try to add you to my buddy list.

Back in the day

To strengthen that claim, I will mention I was formerly a news writer for TechTarget for the following sites:

A few of those sites also have associated blogs at which I posted with varying frequency:

Before that, I freelanced for various spots like Cornell Alumni Magazine and Business 2.0, and a piece I wrote for the New York Daily News won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing as part of a 10-piece series, God’s honest truth. But more on all that other stuff over here.

Coda

Thanks again for checking out my blog. Sorry if this was a bit dry, but it’s semi-work related. The rest of this site, I promise, is not, and feel free to explore the somewhat varied postings on journalism, media, technology, and other odd bits that please me. Feedback is always welcome.

Revised: August 30, 2009