Small Initiatives

Happy New Year! Now can we put an end to all the "milestoning" already?

You know what I mean. The changing of a year provides a far-too-easy opportunity for writers -- journalists, opinion leaders, you name it -- to look back or look forward any of these tired ways:

• Reviewing the past year. News media love this trick, because it fills space or time when news is usually slow (assassinations notwithstanding) and staffs are usually thin.
• Predictions for the upcoming year. Bloggers love this trick because (a) it lets them say whatever they wish about search-optimizing rich keyword combinations, and (b) it lets them come back at the end of the year and crow about what great prognosticators they are.
• Proclaiming the upcoming year "the year of [insert company name, sociological trend or technology term here]." If I'm to believe what I see, 2008 is the year of scale, the potato, the spaceship, creative destruction, frugal travelers, free, the frog, the small idea (hey, I may have a leg up on that one), and European cultural dialogue.

Golly, I can't wait. Couldn't we consider some alternatives? For instance ...

• I wish local media would take whatever time or space they apply to year-end milestoning and use it instead to organize and distribute a categorized, detailed calendar of every public event they are aware of through the coming year. Town council meetings, ham and bean dinners, concerts, school dances -- everything. If your local paper did that, don't you think it'd be much more a keeper edition than a rehash of what you already know?
• I wish bloggers would run out more if/then scenarios than predictions. If I follow, for example, a technology blogger, chances are I am most interested in understanding potential impact to me or my company if something happens. I'm less interested in somewhat educated guesses about what might happen, that come with no what-to-do advice if it does happen.
• And I wish the media and public relations fields would simply stop labeling years that haven't happened yet, especially when the trick is used as a publicity stunt for one cause or another.

I issued predictions once, a few years back, and in hindsight they were wastes of pixels. Then I did the bloggers' trick of following them up a year later. Even less useful.

So you will find no more milestoning here. Maybe I can start a new trend. Maybe we can work together to make 2008 the year of ... um ... never mind!