Because People Matter is the progressive voice of Sacramento, California. For 17 years the bimonthly print version was eagerly welcomed throughout the region, offering insights into local politics and volunteer efforts, and opinion and analysis on national and global issues. But it was a struggle to maintain our volunteer corps, and in July, 2009, the last print issue rolled off the presses.
Our readers still want our news and analysis, and writers have analysis to share. Now we offer our progressive views to the world, and invite our viewers to share their knowledge and ideas. If you have a story to submit, please send you idea, or maybe the story, to bpmnews@nicetechnology.com . We can set you up so you can create your own posts, or, whatever you are most comfortable with.
By the way, our paper was printed for the last couple of years at Herald Printing in Sacramento, and moments after we ceased publication, they went out of business. I don't think it was us. Mass-produced Ink on paper had a good run, nearly 600 years since Gutenberg's "42-line Bible" saw the light of day around 1454. Note, he didn't start out with a cookbook or crossword puzzle book: modern printing started out by putting monastic scribes out of business. (Actually he may have started with Latin grammar books, and printing Church indulgences, but those didn't make much of a dent in the public consciousness.) Books printed with the new, mass-produceable type, on the new presses Gutenberg developed, were astoundingly cheaper than handwitten volumes or woodblock prints. This led to an expansion of literacy, which led to more books, and more demand by people for access to education to learn how to read. And write. It's been great. Great for the sharing of ideas. Great for democracy.
Terrible for the forests. Really. not. sustainable. So it's good for the planet that the printed page is becoming obsolete. And good for the sharing of ideas. Anyone on the planet (or even eavesdropping space aliens) can read BPM; anyone on the planet can write for us. At least, that's our plan.
