The news never stops, huh?  Now we have to deal with more furloughs, another Furlough Package and Partnership bidding situation.  It just doesn't end!

A few days ago, I published a request for information regarding our being able to jumpseat on cargo carriers.  Almost immediately I began to receive responses with excellent information that I plan on publishing shortly.  I was amazed at the speed and amount of valuable information I received.

This got me thinking.  I mean, really got me thinking about this web site and its future.

To put it simply: Jumpseatnews needs to be more interactive, and have more of a community.  There is no way in hell's high water (is that even an expression?) that I can keep up with the current requests for information to publish on this site.  I'm weeks behind on answering e-mail as it is, and falling behind (again) on the general maintenance of this site.

So, along those lines, I've recently been pondering a few ideas in an effort make this site a more collaborative flight attendant effort.

It does intrigue me to have an area where many individuals with years of experience can share knowledge back and forth.  Actually, there has been a group of flight attendants doing this for quite some time on their own discussion board.

I've always had concerns and hesitations with adding a discussion board or similar interactive area to Jumpseatnews.  Some discussion areas are good, some are not so good; while others are little more than rantfests.  I was visiting a technical board the other day, and saw the members over there being truly nasty and tearing each other apart over some archaic piece of computer software they were discussing.  It was pathetic.

Yet, I've also seen them work very well as effective communication vehicles.  It would definitely be interesting if one were done right; that is, using the proper technology and usability--as well as properly organizing the structure of the information being presented to the visitor.

Regardless of a discussion board, or any other alternative method of electronic communication, Jumpseatnews has grown to the point where it must now evolve.   The days of static web sites are drawing to a close.  Sites are evolving, and that usually means being dynamically updated---many times by teams of people!  I'm always open to suggestions, as I've always considered this site to be a flight attendant-owned resource.  I'm sure that we'll figure something out to make it work  We always do.