So here’s the thing. I wish I was an expert on everything — Byzantine history, jump-rope, sedimentation — but I’m not. Consequently, I’m always looking for people who are better-informed than me to help with stories I’m working on.

Earlier this year, I was trying to brainstorm ways to meet people outside of my areas of expertise. I decided to make my friends a standing offer for 2012: I’ll take you out for coffee in exchange for the names of three interesting people in Edmonton who know a lot about something.

I’ve already had one person take me up on the offer. We had a lovely breakfast, and I learned who to talk to about technological savourism. Now I’d like to open it up to anybody. That means you!

Media types, environment types, and queer issues are all easy for me. Pretty much anything else goes, though. If you know someone who has been collecting highway signs for 20 years, I want to hear about them. Your eccentric neighbour who can answer any question about girls’ basketball teams in town? Let me take you out for a bevvie so you can tell me all about them.

This pairs somewhat well with a more public project I’m working on for the Multimedia & Multiculturalism project in town. We’re working on a database of resource people from under-represented ethnocultural communities in town, aimed at journalists. If you’ve got people in mind for that project, I’d love to hear about them too.

Give me a shout if you’re interested, and in the meantime have a look at the Community section, where I’ve added details about some upcoming dinosaur talks, a new job posting for a bike workshop coordinator, and the Coming Out Monologues.