You all are! Once in Mongolia, I will be completing this project entirely on my own (with the help of locals) but until I step off that plane, anyone who reads or contributes to this blog is, in effect, involved in the project.  This project is ultimately for the public, and I feel that getting as much public input as possible shifts their role from purely consumers to participants as well.  I couldn’t do it without you all, so you’re just as much a part of the project as I am.

You see, as readers, your input helps me to figure out not only how to complete this project but also, to a certain extent, what the project actually is.  Readers help with the “how” by providing valuable advice on a variety of subjects, and they will eventually help with the “what” by providing input on what they would like to see the project become. From the very beginning, I’ve said that “the only two things about TME that are set in stone are that it must be in Mongolia and it must have a journalism component”.  The end product could be anything from a gallery show to a website about traveling in Mongolia to the beginnings of a Mongolia-based non-profit to a documentary film or even all of the above.  What TME becomes will be largely determined by two factors: what is possible and what people want to see.  Some day soon here, once I have the “how” worked out a bit more concretely, I will start asking folks about the “what”.

Stick around and be involved!

Just like this group of picnicing Mongolians, I'm hoping to take a group of disparate voices and turn them into a beautiful song, er, project.

[Photo by Chris De Bruyn]