For the past three years, I have been taking classes at night in order to get my master's of communication at the University of Southern California, where I also work.

As a matter of fact, I created LeimertParkBeat.com as part of a final project in the first class I took in 2007 with Professor Elizabeth Osder, who had worked at Yahoo, New York Times and others.

I am one class away from my degree. But first I need to finish a research paper for my sociology class with Professor Dmitri Williams, who is an expert in the social and economic impacts of new media.

Throughout the last year I've been taking two classes a term with such New Media pioneers as:
• Karen North, who worked with Al Gore and now oversees the Annenberg Program on Online Communities at USC.
• Clint Schaff, new media director at Roll International, makers of Pom and Fiji water.
• Michael Overing, who has been involved in some of the precendent setting legal cases involving the Internet.

And I interned at Public Matters Group, which supports many important community projects and where I created their latest communication tool. Of course this in addition to working full time and overseeing LeimertParkBeat.com,
UniversityParkFamily.com, as well as the creation of
EchoParkOnline.com.

I am using the research paper not just for the class but to learn more about LeimertParkBeat.com. So please consider filling out this survey. It is confidential and takes less than five minutes.