I’ve spent the better part of five days reading and thinking critically about Steve Buttry’s blueprint for the Complete Community Connection.

I also asked others to assume that the blueprint was the way to go and offer thoughts and ideas about how to implement it.

I went through the document myself and made notes about where I thought ideas needed to be modified in search of my own ideas on how to do it.

But I was asking the wrong question.

The how doesn’t really matter. That will come. What matters right now is this: What part are you going to do? What part are you going to take ownership of? What part are you going to task on?

Ideas are cheap. Execution and follow through are worth so much more. Obviously, we have to be smart in what we do, but failure is part of the process.

So what part am I going to take? I am currently working to re-envision a local news and information web site. You can keep track of the progress at NewsTribe.us.

I will make a commitment to what Buttry describes as community content opportunities and take ownership of the local knowledge and personal content and connection portions so they have a home on GazetteOnline.com.

Local knowledge – An important aspect of the Complete Community Connection will be to develop the place where people of our communities and perhaps across Iowa turn for answers to their questions about this state and its communities: databases, community resources, services, history, unique aspects of local life (attractions, institutions and events) and a user-generated encyclopedia of local knowledge.

Personal content and connection – A longtime contradiction of life in the news business has been that we ignore or downplay the biggest news in the lives of the people we serve. If someone in your family graduates, gets married, has a baby, dies or has a major illness or surgery, that’s the biggest news of the year in your family and often in a broader circle of friends and co-workers.

I’ll keep you in the loop on the progress. Again, what part are you going to do?