Updates and Plans for the Week - 18 February 2008

Well folks, here is what will be going on with The Courtesan Connection this week -

Posts - There will be one additional post later today (Monday) which will be commentary. While The Courtesan Connection is under my care, the goal will be for one commentary post a week, updated on Sunday nights for your Monday morning viewing pleasure. Also on Mondays, there will be a Updates and Plans post to keep you informed of where we are on link updates, format changes, and the adoption of The Courtesan Connection by a Sex Worker Organization. Other posts and commentary will be as time allows.

Updates - For the near term, my focus will be on updating the format, categories and links on the Wordpress blog. The Blogspot edition of The Courtesan Connection will be updated with the Updates and Plans posts, but for the moment, not for Commentary. Nor the links on the Blogspot post changed or updated. Again, as stated before, this is not due to any problem or deficiency on the work that went into creating the Blogspot edition. It simply is I am somewhat more comfortable with Wordpress, and with my limited time, will make that the focus of my effort for now. My hope is eventually both blogs will mirror one another in content and links.

Format - This week, I am going to be going over the Categories for the Wordpress blog to see what similar categories are used on other sites, and attempt to bring them in line with common usage. Past experience has me believe this relatively minor update actually will eat up a great deal of time and effort. However, it will pay off in keeping the blog organized, updated, and current as things progress.

Links - I hope to begin reviewing and updating all of the links starting on Monday, and coming close to having all currently listed links reviewed and updated by the end of the week. New links will be added in as identified, but will not be the primary focus until next week. In the meantime, please leave a comment or send an email with any link you may wish to point out or make me aware of.

One last note on links. While I hold the Blogger who ran The Courtesan Connection for most of the past year in very high regard, I differ with her on including blogs from non-sex-workers as part of the blog roll. This is not because those blogs are any less worthy of attention. Many of them are exceptionally well written and offer an interesting and provocative perspective on many of the issues around Sex Work. However, my belief is the Community of Sex Workers is a voice that far too often goes unheard on the discussion of Sex Work, and regularly is drowned out by the more aggressive and numerous blogs, media, review boards, and on-line groups of the Hobbyists/Clients, Academics, Anti-Sex-Work Individuals and Organizations, and others with their own political or reactionary agenda. To have one, or even a few places that focus on the ideas, opinions, needs, and stories of Sex Workers alone, seems not an unreasonable approach. Also, with the limited time I have to maintain this blog, attempting to address and keep updated those blogs would be more than I could reasonably be expected to accomplish. As such, I will not be including as part of the blogroll sites by authors who are not or who have not been providers. However, my long term intent and goal (subject to the adoption of The Courtesan Connection by an organization) is to include as providers, but with their own sub-category, phone-sex and cam-sex bloggers, exotic dancers/strippers, masseuses, models, and sexually explicit media actors and actresses. While these people may not all face the same issues nor have the same needs and goals, they are doing a type of Sex Work, and may find they have information and points of view that compliment and compare to others in the Sex Work Community.

Finally, regarding the adoption of The Courtesan Connection by a Sex Worker Organization - I will be working on a rough draft of an email I wish to send to the Organization I’ve been informed may be the right fit for this blog, and sending it to my contact today. I expect that will allow me to formally address this matter with this organization by the end of the week. Once that is done, I will post with any other updates as they occur.

For those of you that have remained loyal to this blog, keeping it on your blogroll, feed list or just checking in for updates, thank you once again. For those of you just dropping by, and finding yourself annoyed with the dead links and odd formatting, please be patient. Changes are afoot, and there is hope on the horizon!