http://www.swvoice.com/home/Blog/tredman We are all sipping lattes at the digital coffee house en-us http://www.swvoice.com/home/Blog/tredman/105 <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align="center">Our Global Coffee House</div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">We are all in the global coffee house.&nbsp;Over the past hour, I have received emails from four different people who in one way or another had reason to contact me&mdash;if I count the spam, then seven people reached out.&nbsp;We plug into the net to and automatically reach out across the city, or the world.&nbsp;Not just business as we know it would halt without the net or the Blackberry, but more importantly people will have to find other ways to stay in touch.&nbsp;By email, instant message and texting we keep the bond alive.&nbsp;Writing for a local newspaper, enables me to touch that part of my soul which demands I write, write something.&nbsp;Who is in the ultimate audience I do not know.&nbsp;A friend who writes books for children head a story about her book being taken to South America and given as a gift to a family there.&nbsp;Now that&rsquo;s reaching an unexpected audience.&nbsp;Perhaps this little blog will inspire some writer to invent a column nobody else imagined for our Southwest Voice.</div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">Creative minds have found a release online.&nbsp;With the blend of the Internet, modern publication techniques and the access undreamed of a generation ago, more people can contribute.&nbsp;My column was born when I saw friends publishing in The Northwest Voice and told myself that if they could do it, so could I.&nbsp;What angle do you have that I cannot imagine?</div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">Recent history has shown that the limits of the blogosphere are changing every day.&nbsp;Use one of the search engines and put virtually anything and there will be a series of links to it.&nbsp;The Voice is leading the way in citizen journalism&mdash;I mean nationally.&nbsp;Have some fun and write a piece that nobody else could write.&nbsp;I have to be honest; the downside is seeing those Voices lying on neighbors&rsquo; driveways.&nbsp;Sometime I want to stop and knock on some stranger&rsquo;s door and hand him the paper from his driveway and say, &ldquo;Read this, my column is in there!&rdquo;&nbsp;</div> <div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">Order another latte and do some people watching because this coffee house with more sites than even Starbucks can match.</div>