Become a Whereblogger!

Where is looking to add some new international flavor to our blogging team. We're looking for bloggers based outside of North America who are interested in contributing posts about urbanism 3-5 times a month. If you're interested in becoming a Whereblogger, send a quick email with a bit of background info: who you are, where you're based, what you do, why you're interested in blogging for Where. But first, please read the following:

Two important qualifiers: to be considered, you must be able to write in reasonably clean English. Knowledge of Chicago Style or AP or what-have-you is not needed, but we like to keep language consistent around here, so unfortunately that rules out posts written in otros lengues. You must also actually live in a city. Small cities are ok (though as a general rule, bigger is better), and ultimately the quality of your writing is more important than your personal geography, but writing well about cities requires regular interaction with the urban environment. In other words, Farmer Brown-types need not apply.

Also, while there are several spots to fill (there's a max of 10 contributors, myself included, at any time; currently there are six of us) selectivity will be exercised. Building a strong team requires looking for quality over quantity, so there's no hurry to fill the roster for the sake of doing so. Ultimately, we're looking for people who can answer the question "Can you consistently produce well-written, thought-provoking blog posts?" with a confident "Yes." (And, of course, with whom we agree on that point.)

And while we're on the topic of contributors, I'm pleased to introduce you to another Chicagoan who will be joining the team today:

Drew Austin (Chicago) plans mass transit for a living and passes through his favorite Chicago building, the Merchandise Mart, five days a week. He grew up in Indianapolis but has since moved on to larger Midwestern cities. In addition to transportation, he's fascinated by public space, good architecture, bad architecture and urban morphology. He once wrote about those topics on a short-lived blog called The List of Dorms. His favorite grid-based city is, of course, Chicago, and his favorite grid-based game is Scrabble.

So, to wrap up, here's that email again if you are interested in joining the team Hopefully there will be a few more introductions to make over the next few weeks. Perhaps one of them will be yours.