Write for SCAN!

We are inviting guest contributors to share good practice, success stories, cautionary tales and thoughtful discussions from urban sustainability efforts around the world. If you think you might be interested, read on for answers to contributors' questions:

What should I write about?
Anything about urban sustainability. We mostly focus on the positive, so where possible posts should be framed in terms of either good practices that other cities should copy, or mistakes from which we can collectively learn. Theoretical discussions are welcome, but we want the bulk of posts here to be about projects that are currently happening. We are especially interested in projects that touch on multiple aspects of sustainability: environmental impact, social justice, lasting and shared prosperity, and engagement of the public.

Who is the intended audience?
Broadly, people who are interested in sustainability and urban design & policy. We don't assume that our audience has deep technical knowledge or will be familiar with jargon and acronyms, but we do assume they have some ideas about urban sustainability. We also want this blog to be as usable as possible for people speaking English as a second language, so please try to write at an 8th grade reading level.

How much do you want me to post?
Overall, we're trying to get this blog stable at anything from one post per day to one per week. It's up to you how big a contribution you make to that - if you only ever submit one thing that's still useful. Each post should be short enough that most people would read it in one sitting - if that's not long enough for you to explore an idea properly, consider breaking it into a series of posts.

Should I include images? Do you have requirements for these images?
Images are not required, but they often explain things better than a long string of words. Images do not need to be print-quality, and they don't need to be your own, but you must have permission to use them, and if they are not yours you must credit the owner clearly. We want readers to be able to assume that everything not explicitly credited is the author's original work.

What are the guidelines for talking about politics?
Sustainable Seattle advocates for sustainability, but we are not a political campaign group, and as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit we are not allowed to endorse political candidates or parties. Don't shy away from discussing political issues, but we don't want this blog to be a place for advocating for particular politicians or parties, or for posts that are primarily about politics.

Who owns my posts?
The author of a post retains ownership, but anything you publish here will be covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 licence, which allows others to republish your work for non-commercial uses as long as they credit you as the author.

How will I be credited?
Every post by a guest blogger will have a line like "Guest post by Marco Polo" added, and be tagged with the posters name, so that you will have a URL that lists all of your posts in one place, like this one.

How do I start?
Email us with a bit of information about yourself, and an idea of what you would want to post about. If we think it fits, we'll ask you to send a first post in. At first, we will ask you to email posts to us for approval - after the first few we'll give you an account to post directly.

What if I have more questions?
Please ask more questions in the comments to this post, or by email. Your questions help us refine our ideas.