Supertrampoline

That is the most famous poem of William Henry Davies, the son of a Welsh publican, who spent most of the first half of his life jobless, penniless and homeless. He wandered the streets from the Welsh Docklands to the backwoods of Canada, losing a leg jumping a ride on a train in Ottawa.

When he wrote his life story on his return to Britain, it became an instant hit and the hardcore hobo was befriended and lauded by leading figures of the literary establishment of the day. He was a member of the Beat Generation a generation early. He retired to the Cotswolds with his ex-prostitute wife (who was half his age) and died in 1940.

He called himself Super-Tramp, a name grabbed by an ancient prog-rock band I should probably not even admit to knowing about.

Davies is someone the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) would probably rather you didn't know about. They, you see, have just published a survey which discovered that most people idle away an average of three hours a day doing nothing much.

Standing and staring.

Mary Ann Evans apparently liked to stand twisting rubber bands - a relatively new contraption in her day. I love her for that. I also love her alter ego, George Eliot, but she unnerves me with all that insight and talent. Mary Ann is down here with us mortals.

The point about all this is that I have, in the words of the song, been busy doing nothing.

As an aside, my hours of doing nothing led me to discover that the song, which I was sure was a Disney cartoon piece, was from the movie A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court (1949) when it was sung by, wait for it, Bing Crosby, William Bendix and Sir Cedric Hardwicke looking like Sherwood Forest outlaws. I think the internet (particularly YouTube) can easily double for George Eliot's rubber bands.

The point the LSC survey misses in its Big Brother (Orwell as opposed to C4) attitude to relentless productivity is that downtime can be very productive. Put a problem out of your mind for hours, days or weeks and the solution often turns up from somewhere deep in your unconscious mind (as opposed to the subconscious - interesting area of debate there).

There's been some talk, even breast-beating, in our little corner of the blogosphere, about journalism, its relationship to blogging, why reporters don't write their own headlines, the role professional writers and interviewers may be forging (perhaps not the best choice of word) for themselves on the web, where reporters are best trained, blah, blah blah.

I feel at this point like echoing the words of John Laurie, the Scottish actor who played the undertaker in Dad's Army, namely, "We're all doomed!" Many of my younger hack colleagues seem to believe it. Laurie, in his younger days, old fogeys might like to know, was, I'm told, a brilliant Macbeth opposite the extraordinary Flora Robson.

I'm on record as saying I'd think about this role of the reporter in the 21st century. So I went away and, figuratively anyway, twiddled with some rubber bands. Then in looking at various culture initiatives (it's part of my PhD in rubber banditry) I came across this website. I've already posted about the Telford Culture Zone (TCZ) and some of the truly exciting things going on - I was just too late to tell you about last term's dance initiatives in primary schools, for instance. I was standing and staring, I expect.

The new site, created by students for students in conjunction with TCZ is encouraging young people in the area to get involved and voice their opinions and suggestions about arts and culture programming in schools.

The site is also set to include a news section, diary dates and information on events, ensuring that everyone who visits is aware of all the great things that are going on in the area.

The feedback received will contribute to the direction of the development plan for Telford and Wrekin's Find Your Talent pilot project that will launch across the UK in September. The programme aims to give young people the chance to experience a range of high-quality cultural experiences for five hours a week both in and outside of school (watch this space for updates).

The site was the brainchild of a group of Year 9 and 10 students from Abraham Darby School who designed and built the main TCZ's original website. This year, the group identified a need for an associated site especially for young people. The idea became a reality after a successful pitch saw them secure funding to develop the site.

The students are part of a school-based professional design and media company ORE Refining Design Group, which is supported by creative professionals from Pablo Productions and Born Communication and the TCZ.

Take a look round the site (I think it's terrific, btw). Note that this next generation of wannabe communicators talks blithely of podcasts, videoclips, webcams and the like. Nowhere is there a mention of printed material. These kids know where it's at, as we used to say.

Circulations figures for newspapers are in freefall, along with advertising revenues. Resources are stretched so thin that new ways of organising and pioritising news and feature coverage are constantly being sought by under-pressure executives who try to do the job with fewer and fewer people.

All I know is that the web and its as-yet undreamed of developments is where the future of mass and personal communication lies. And, 47 years into my career, here I am up IT creek without a paddle. Think I'll go and stand and stare somewhere now.