What the Heck is a Momspotter?

I saw a lot of tweets over the weekend asking "what the heck is this momspotting thing?"

People, I'm here to help.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an overview post on the Family Connections citizen journalism project here at BlogHer. The subject: Parenting in a digital age. We're embarking on something groundbreaking in citizen journalism. We've enlisted a group of 20 fabulous bloggers: the momspotters. We call them "momspotters" because they are our on-the-ground reporters, and their beat is their own family. They tweet three times a day, six days a week, about digital parenting. And let me tell you -- their tweets are good. Soon you'll be able to follow their tweets from a map on BlogHer that will light up as they send in their reports.

Why are we doing this? We're interested in how normal moms (or as normal as we bloggers can be) use technology to interact with their families, and how these moms protect their kids who are navigating a newly digital world.

The three Family Connections contributing editors -- Susan Getgood, Devra Renner and Gina Carroll -- and I (your faithful project editor) are watching the momspotting tweets (#momspotting) for trends. These insightful writers are using what they learn from our momspotters as well as their own insight to bring you three posts a week on parenting in a digital age. It's totally new, and it's totally different, and we're watching you, too, to see what matters to moms these days.

Please feel free to tweet us or tell us what's on your mind. I've set up a list on Twitter called Family Connections where you can follow all the momspotters. Or join our Family Connections group here on BlogHer. Stay tuned to see the Momspotters light up a map on BlogHer every time they tweet -- I think we'll all learn something.

Submitted by Rita Arens (view blog

) on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 8:04am

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I'll be watching...

Fun idea. I'll be watching the hashtag.

Susan (5 Minutes for Mom)

http://www.5minutesformom.com

http://twitter.com/5minutesformom

Submitted by 5m4m on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 11:25

Great program but...

When is this kind of work going to move beyond the parenting issue and to something relevant to those of us who don't have kids? It's a fascinating concept...but in execution is not really that interesting to me...even though I count members of the momspotting network in my network of social media and blog friends.

--- Genie, The Inadvertent Gardener

Submitted by theinadvertentgardener on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 14:05

I second that emotion...

This program would be so much more meaningful if the explanation read:

Why are we doing this? We're interested in how normal moms WOMEN(or as normal as we bloggers can be) use technology to interact with their families AND THE WORLD TO MAKE THIER LIVES RICHER.

As it stands, I won't be paying attention much to the tags or the program.

Debra A Stitch In Time Weight for Deb

Submitted by debra roby on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 14:09

Some other thoughts on Family Connections

Genie, Deb -- I get it. It's frustrating to see a project kick off regarding parenting when you don't have kids. Every parenting writer here at BlogHer was a woman first before she became a mommy. We haven't forgotten that experience.

I encourage you to follow the momspotters and Family Connections group anyway, because I've seen in the forum and in the tweets and posts that the conversation isn't just about parenting -- it's about communicating. Communicating with kids, certainly, but also communicating with significant others, friends, adult siblings, aging parents and other relatives. However, what you read and what you're interested in is totally your decision -- by all means, if you're not interested, don't follow. But please don't make that decision just because of the parenting tie-in without checking out what's being said first.

I'm excited about this project because it builds on BlogHer's mission to recognize the voices of female bloggers instead of just quoting the news media. While the news media brings a lot of research and high-quality journalism to the table, the face of publishing is changing. Individual voices are becoming more and more important to a well rounded story. Individual voices add authenticity, diversity, humor and personality that you just can't get exclusively quoting research and carefully composed statements to the media. Watching what our momspotters are interested in helps us identify trends before they are covered anywhere else. It gives us a true picture of reality for today's parents navigating in a digital world, and that's a subject that hasn't been covered yet on this scale anywhere else.

Rita Arens writes at Surrender Dorothy and BlogHer and is the editor of Sleep is for the Weak.

Submitted by Rita Arens on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 08:45

Thanks Rita! Following three other acts of
community journalism

Thanks Rita! Following three other acts of community journalism in politics and body image (see list below), just two of the two dozen topics BlogHer asks 80 editors to cover, I am thrilled to welcome these excellent commentators and highly qualified bloggers --you included!--to help us examine parenting on the cutting edge of technology.

This is one crazy human laboratory, where it's quite a challenge to decide who in my family is the more interesting lab rat. Is it my nine-year-old, who has decided he doesn't need to learn to write by hand because he'll type the rest of his life? The thirteen-year-old who treats words and communications tools so casually that he's just lost his fourth cheapo cell phone? Or me, the 42-year-old who ponders whether to videotape a last message for her living will, just in case someone decides to keep (heaven forbid) a vegetable version of me on life support which I completely oppose?

And a sidenote: At a time when women are blogging about every topic imaginable, it has been a great source of frustration to me to see the degree to which women who blog about parenthood have been stereotyped and dismissed -- the term mommyblogger has been used to diminish both the creative skills and influence of this group. #momspotting should help put an end to that; these bloggers make me think as often as they make me laugh. And that is saying something.

Here's the list of recent BlogHer community journalism projects:

- Election 2008 | Voter Manifesto, led by our omnipartisan team of political bloggers with a little help from the likes of First Lady Michelle Obama and Carly Fiorina

- Health Care Reform, with the Sunlight Foundation and OpenCongress.org and these legislators (tune in to hear from New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand this week! And the latest on the Stupak Amendment from American Princess and Jill Miller Zimon

- Letter to My Body, the brainchild of Community Manager Denise Tanton and led by a cross-functional team of contributing editors on gender, feminism, body image, health and life

Lisa Stone BlogHer Co-founder Surfette BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News.

Submitted by Lisa Stone on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 19:44

Thank you for the clear outline

Thank you, Rita! I spotted a couple of momspotter tweets and appreciate reading your full overview. It is a very interesting communication experiment, and I'm glad you're transparent about it.

Submitted by juliaschrenkler on Wed, 11/18/2009 - 08:38