Regina Lynn: ”I could not possibly stay on top of it all if it were just me.”The beat of Wired News columnist Regina Lynn is unique in several ways – not only is she using a smart mob to do her reporting, but it’s one she is also part of. And Lynn is carving out new ground in use of the Web to cover her beat.

At her own site, reginalynn.com, Lynn hosts the Sex Drive Forum, where several thousand people talk about everything from favorite sex toys to bondage and responsible STD tests while awaiting Lynn’s queries. She opened the forum more than two years ago to provide people with a safe place to discuss sex and technology. Nowadays she credits her “smart mob” with helping her stay informed and up-to-date. “It’s a vast subject, and I could not possibly stay on top of it all if it were just me.”

I interviewed Lynn about how her forum keeps her on the beat. The Q&A is below. If you have other questions you’d like to ask of Regina, send her an email. If you know of other journalists whom we should interview, let me know.

Question: When you found out about NewAssignment.net, you told Jay Rosen that you have been a pioneer in community journalism unknowingly for the last few years. What did you mean by that?

Regina Lynn: I couldn’t do my job thinking I know everything. I write about sex-tech; anything that involves technology and romantic or sexual relationships is in my beat. That ranges from health/biomed to gadgets to social networking and online dating … it’s a vast subject, and I could not possibly stay on top of it all if it were just me. I have to tap into what other people are doing and find out directly what things are harming and helping them.

Over the last few years I’ve developed a social network of people online who also enjoy discussing the intersection of sex and technology. The community lives at the Sex Drive Forum, which I started in may 2004.

Question: How did the Sex Drive Forum start?

Regina Lynn: The community I work with now started when Comcast ended my program, Wired for Sex, in May 2004. There were a lot of people who I chatted with on Sex Drive Forum TechTv’s message boards and I didn’t want to lose touch with them. I had only five minutes to put together an interim measure, so I set up a yahoo group and posted the address to the message boards. Yahoo! was an easy choice because subscribers are asked, “Are you an adult? Click yes.” The community still lives on the yahoo group today.

The group is made up of people who like to talk about sex and technology. Anyone 18 years or older is welcome to join. Today the yahoo group has 2800 members and grows by about 20-30 people a week. Fifty members of the group contribute the most by posting links, sharing information, and personal stories. The 50 really active community members change all the time. When our active contributors leave, someone else always takes their place. Also, a few people have left because there was too much traffic.

Question: How do forum members help you write your column?

Regina Lynn: We have an ongoing conversation about sex and technology.

A lot of times conversations start when I post an email. The exercise of posting an email to the group really helps me with my thinking. I’ll draft the email and then analyze it. Does it expose too much? Have I left anyone out? Have I been very heterocentric? Then I rewrite the email. I go through this process several times before posting to the group. It really helps me clarify my thoughts. If I’m on deadline, I’ll always let them know. If I’m looking for quotes, I always warn them that I’m looking for quotes. “Let me know if I can quote you by name or if you want to be anonymous.” In response to my post community members tell me about their experiences, people they know, and new products.

I’m always learning new things, getting new leads. I am not sure how in traditional journalism you’d get all those leads except that you’d have to do it in person. The nice thing about doing it over email is that our conversations aren’t just archiveable, they’re also searchable.

Question: Do Sex Drive Forum members expect that you’ll use their suggestions?

Regina Lynn: I remind them from time to time that I might not use their suggestions or comments in anything that I publish. Or that I might use it in a year and a half in a podcast or in a blogpost. Whether or not I use it in public, I’m always thinking about what they tell me. Not all members want to be quoted publicly, and being quoted certainly isn’t their reason for joining the forum.

I also check out members if I’m going to quote them about anything other than their personal opinions. One of our members, Dr. Kris Gowen, is a psychologist who also teaches workshops for adults about “what teenagers are really doing on the Internet.” She’s done a lot of work in the intersection of sex and the Internet, and she’s also a forum member. Before I trusted what she said, I researched her. Like everywhere else, I don’t think everything is above board. You still have to do the background checking writers do all the time by verifying it elsewhere. What the forum offers is a handy group of people who are open to the idea that talking about sex and technology isn’t evil and they’re there because they’re willing to talk about it.

Question: Other than talking about your columns, what else do forum members discuss?

Regina Lynn: People talk a lot about new products. For example, “My wife told me she’s interested in doing bondage. Any recommendations?”

Question: Why is your community so helpful to you? Is it you, the topic, or both?

Regina Lynn: Part of it is my doing. I have eleven years experience in building online communities. One online community I founded, a discussion list for professional women writers, is 11 years old and it succeeded at a time when the Internet was all about porn. I worked at TechTV as a producer of its website and did community development. I also did a lot of community building for Oxygen Media when Oxygen first launched. I’m an active member of a few other groups, like “San Francisco Women on the Web” and “Web 405.” I also participate in a few online writing groups.

I don’t believe a forum like this can exist as a democracy. It’s a benevolent dictatorship. I’ll kick anyone out for flaming or if I think they are being inexcusably rude. I also steer people back topic by making a joke about my position. I’ll say, “I’m putting on my dominatrix boots. If you don’t focus on this and that, then I’m going to ban you all.” It works. The forum is a safe place because I don’t let people be mean. And what’s very cool is that I don’t recall ever having a serious problem with anyone. This is a group of intelligent, creative, funny, and articulate people. I have the greatest respect for the forum members.

If you’re willing to massage the forum, answer emails, guide members, and appreciate people in public, then this works. I don’t know if I just lucked out, but there are some amazingly smart people in my group. There are inventors, geniuses. That is partly because there aren’t many places for people working in the development of sex and technology to converge.

Part of it is also the topic. People who want to talk about sex and technology need a safe place, especially if they’re going to talk about their personal experiences. I live in San Francisco and Los Angeles, both of which are places where people can talk openly about sex. San Francisco’s also a place where people talk about technology. For people who live in smaller, more conservative towns, it’s not as easy. The forum is a place to find out answers to questions like ‘What is the best vibrator’ and ‘I’m in love with someone I met online but I’m in Florida and he’s in Australia, and we are trying to decide whether to get into teledildonics, what do you all think?’”

When I met Jay he talked about the fact that you can’t just have a community and expect them to help you. Because anyone can publish today, no one is going to join a group like mine just to see their name in pixel. They do it because they feel that they’re helping a cause, even if that cause is “we’re reviewing the latest ipod.” They feel that they’re doing something worthwhile and feel appreciated.

Question: What is a recent column or project that wouldn’t have been possible without the community’s help?

Regina Lynn: That is hard to say because we’re always talking. It’s an ongoing discussion that’s part of my constant thinking and analysis. I got a lot of help from forum members when I was researching my book, SexRev2.0. I did an article for Complete Woman, a national women’s magazine about why men love cybersex and what women can learn from that to improve their sex lives. About a dozen men from the forum volunteered to be interviewed, which made it possible for me to speak with people all over the country.

Question: You mentioned that some forum members are real innovators in the field. What inventions are Sex Drive Forum members responsible for?

Regina Lynn: The inventor of the Happy Kitty is a forum participant. The Happy Kitty is a device named after the inventor’s girlfriend, whose name is Kitty. It has a sort-of tapping motion to stimulate the clitoris. It also has a soft little cylinder that would form a suction if you got the angle just right. The idea behind the device is that some women are too sensitive for vibrators. There’s also Q-Dot, who has worked a lot on creating devices that your far away lover can control via your computer. The author Dr. Libby is also in the forum. He’s written one of the few books out there for teenagers about sexual pleasure.

Question: How do people find out about the Sex Drive Forum these days?

Regina Lynn: I promote it in my column and there’s a link on my website. I don’t promote it that often, just periodically. If I quote from a community member in my work, I usually write, “A sex drive forum member told me….”

Question: Do you think journalists covering other issues could follow your lead and create a forum for people who want to discuss, for example, politics? Are there topics that are a no-go?

Regina Lynn: I have reservations about creating community with the specific intent of pulling participants into citizen journalism or open source media. I think you need to think about ‘how can I give,” not “what can I get.’ In my case I wanted to give people a place where they are safe and wouldn’t be judged for their opinions on a controversial topic. Everyone in the forum can listen and learn.

I like what you’re doing with NewAssignment.net because the people who join will want to be a part of it. But for Wired News, Slate, or the New York Times to try to create communities specifically to harvest ideas or to assign people to perform certain tasks, I think we have to be very careful. People like to be part of something, and to create and build and make things happen. But they don’t like to feel like they’re being used. Communities build themselves but they need a solid foundation, and lots of support and nurturing especially in the beginning. And then the community will dictate where it wants to go, and how — the publication can nudge and shape, but it can’t control.

Question: Do you have advice to journalists about using the Internet to connect with people who share their passions and interests?

Regina Lynn: If community building scares and confuses you, don’t dive in all the way by trying to start one all on your own. Go find a community you like. Join it, give to it, participate fully, and then see what happens. We can all build our own communities, and the more experience you have in online interaction the better your chances at creating a space where people want to spend time.