lokalgood » Localism

Local blog summary

lokalgood — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:16:41 +0000

Another good local resource to share is the growing collection of Alexandria/Del Ray blogs recently summarized at a good one from this blogging bunch, gwslepthere. In addition to the ones listed here, I also like the helpful health related info at the blog from Neighborhood Pharmacy.

Lots of different topics covered, missions pursued, but in all cases helpful deposits in the community information account here in Del Ray. Comment here if you have other good ones to highlight.

Sort-of localism

lokalgood — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:07:36 +0000

A few weeks ago I wrote about this idea of hyperlocalism – that folks want local news to be really local, from their neighborhood, development, right around them. And that most news beyond that – at the county or regional level – falls into a dreaded middle ground we don’t generally care about as much. Thus, for this and other reasons, the surprising demise of regional news outlets in places where the number of would be news consumers is rising rapidly, a la Loudoun county. I read about this trend to the intensely local in an article in the Washington Post. Sort of funny then that, at least at first glance, the Post seems to be skipping toward that same deadly ground in between with its new service Washington Post Local.

I’m going to investigate further but on first blush, the chipper introduction I get from my virtual tour guide doesn’t seem to point to anything more local than the Capital Region. Rather it feels more like a way to shift my news around so that my front door to the Post leads me first to all the rooms with “local” news from DC, MD, VA and the close-in environs of the beltway…. Then deposits me in the back rooms with all the national fare. (If I want I can also reverse the order and leave the local bits til the end.) Call it My Washington Post on steroids. But so far the vibe is much more personalization of existing content (not a bad thing in itself) than it is serving up new/different content more personally relevant to me where I live.

Certainly feels like a general nod to the rise of whatever’s local. Just not sure it actually goes anywhere new under that banner beyond moving existing news merchandise around on the store shelves. We’ll give it a whirl and see.

Add a local resource, or comment on this one.

Hyperlocal: How local can you go?

lokalgood — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:31:09 +0000

This blog is all about the idea that what’s right around you, I mean right in your neighborhood, is interesting and useful. And that, despite being right under your sniffer, all this good stuff is largely unknown and thus worthy of chronicling in ways we don’t do today.

I see myriad nods to the notion all the time… that fruitless web search for a close by home theater advisor, the then hit or miss poring over listserv archives, only to come upon a post done 2 years ago. The cool art exhibit or community center reading you hear about after the fact. The unease you feel from maybe plunking down big bucks on a built-in cabinet project with a guy you found in the yellows (web search didn’t get you far) but can’t get any takes on from local folks who’ve used him. And there are tons of others…. services, events, teachers, interest groups, vacation rentals, doctors, etc. All resources right near you that you either didn’t know were there or don’t have any context on if you did know they existed.

We want them and we want them close. For a lot of reasons… time, gas, reference, convenience, belonging, etc. In the same moment that distances are rendered somewhat meaningless by the web… they’re also being magnified by it. I think because we’ve started to get a taste of just how rich and powerful local info and context from others like us can be in living better, choosing better. Listservs, bulletin boards, local search – incomplete and sometimes frustrating as all these are – they speak to what’s near, what can be participated in, effected.

Here’s a great example, in this case through the news lens. From a recent article about the disappearance of media outlets where I grew up, in Loudoun County, VA. Why is that happening? Think about it, one of the fastest growing and richest counties in the land, yet sources of “local” news are dropping like flies. This article says maybe it’s because we want more than just local, we want “hyperlocal”. I.e. I don’t want to read about what’s happening in my county… I want to know what’s happening right in my neighborhood, my subdivision, my corner of the development. Regional newspapers, even small ones, can’t do that with the immediacy and context that the local listserv, or community site can. (We’ve got great examples here in Del Ray, like LesDunBelle Diary, a blog dedicated to the news on 3 streets). As the title asks.. the question for media in a sprawling, fast growing county like Loudoun is, “How local can you go?”

I’m sure there are lots more reasons for this trend… which I hope slows (my mother is a reporter for, you guessed it, a Loudoun County newspaper). But at a minimum, this dying off speaks a little more to this increasing need we have for what’s near. And to the idea that we get it best when information is shared and amassed from the community up (not from national service down)…….hyperlocal.

Let this Del Ray experiment in hyperlocalism begin.