Umm... OK, here's the deal in the form of a mini-manifesto

We're a small team of media professionals who believe passionately that media need to do things differently.

Big, isolated media companies need to open up to new voices and new ways of doing business. People need to speak up and take even more of the lead.

At the same time, we feel people too easily discount traditional media and forget that these are the folks doing important work for society.

The ideal world is one in which all voices flourish, where persuasive ideas can be aired and the good things grow. And to this we are dedicated.

We believe deeply in communities and we're optimistic, idealistic, sometimes outraged, often amused and, we hope, creative enough to help you do things in new ways.

At this point we've got too much on our plates to provide staff profiles. We'll get around to that eventually. Not today, though. Besides, we feel the focus should be on you, not us.

However, while we do a lot more than typical social media sites, we know we shall be inevitably compared to a few others. And to the extent that we have an ego, we feel compelled to point out a simple fact: our fearless leader, Bob Cauthorn, launched what is widely believed to be the first shared news media site in the world way back in 1995.

It allowed people to post stories of interest, front page stories were promoted based on user votes, it allowed comments, creating new editorial content, all that good stuff. And that was 12 years ago.

So yes, we've been doing this for a while now. It's part of our DNA.

And in this regard we urge both the public and news organizations to engage actively in this space. For the public the benefits are obvious. It's the best way for the public to take control of its own media life. Stand up and speak your piece!

And for traditional news organizations it's the best way to return to your roots, rediscover your soul and forge new ties with your community. Modern news media has drifted too far from the things that made them great -- this is part of the road back.

We think this is so important that we're going to give you links to other sites to use if, for some mad reason, you don't get the CityTools vibe. We know, it's a strange thing to point people to alternatives -- but this is just the way we roll around here...

But if you do decide to use some other folks, do check back with us from time to time, we've got some big new things coming.

Here's the list of alternative "social news" sites. We like our direction best, but hey, we're all about being open at CityTools.

• www.digg.com They're the 800-pound gorilla in this realm, heavily financed, closely watched. Digg is very strong on tech news, in particular.
• www.netscape.com Netscape is trying hard to play here. We feel the vibe is way too corporate to have a real community feel. But that's just our view. You might love it.
• www.pegasusnews.com Pegasus News focuses primarily on Texas and if you live there and don't want to participate in the CityTools Texas sites, give these folks a try. We like these folks and wish them luck.Plus, Pegasus believes that local matters -- just like us.
• reddit.com Cute name -- "read it," get it?
• www.fark.com Fark is one of the longest coninuously running social news sites. Parental advisory: things can get a little racy there.
• www.newsvine.com Too corporate for our tastes and smacks too much of big-media, but if it floats your boat, then go for it.
• www.flickr.com the grand poobah of photo sharing sites. In its own way, it's just a perfect thing.
• www.youtube.com more peculiar video than you can believe.