This month’s Carnival of Journalism is themed for the holiday season.

THE TOPIC

With it being December, we thought we would adopt a Christmas theme for this month’s topic – and pick something, in keeping with being hosted by a Developer blog, that we could ask of both technologists and journalists.

If you are a journalist, what would be the best present from programmers and developers that Santa Claus could leave under your Christmas tree?

And, correspondingly, if you are a programmer or developer, what would be the best present from journalism that Father Christmas could deliver down your chimney?

This is easy: I want surprises from developers and programmers!

Not bug fixes or tweaks or enhancements or incremental improvements or iterations.

I want a solution I didn’t think of to a need.

I want a solution to a need I didn’t think of.

More than I want to admit I am a prisoner of the paradigms of my profession, my industry, the culture of my company, and the work flows and tools I have at hand.

I’m lucky to work with a few that do come up with ideas that amaze me.

To make it happen, I think developers have to have blocks of free work time scheduled in. Google’s 20 percent time program is one company’s well-documented effort to encourage this.

Give me the creative side, the artist within, the where-did-that come-from.

So, surprise me. Awe me with the wonderment of a wide-eyed four-year-old.

And, oh yes, you don’t have to wait until Christmas. Anytime is just fine.

I think you will find the other Carnival wish lists somewhere around here within a few days.

(The box of chocolates is from Blackberry Creek Confections.)