A VC - Latest Comments in Blogging In The 'Burbs

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

johnmccarthy — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:38:02 -0000

As a regular reader and commenter on WestportNow.com , one of the local blogs mentioned in the NYT article, I can verify the power of a local news blog to shape and influence the local public debate. It is a great vehicle for getting people aware of local meetings and issues; we used our comments on the blog as one of our main tools to get 300+ people out for a public hearing on a local neighborhood zoning issue. I am also a member of the local legislative body (Westport RTM) and WestportNow.com serves as one of the tools many of us use to let us know what people in town are thinking.

Unfortunately, as the blog is owned and controlled by the town's First Selectman (Mayor) issues covered on the blog are oftentimes influenced by local political choices. When politics don't rule the agenda, it is a great tool for the community. When politics do influence editorial decisions, the debate does suffer.

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

fredwilson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:27:15 -0000

Typepad won't support that. We've asked for it but they won't/can't do it

So we are using google's webmaster tools, sitemaps, etc to get google to
realize that avc.com is now the primary domain

It will take time, but I think it will work

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

Liz — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:05:37 -0000

I realize to a lot of people small town life is paradise. I'm just a fish out of water. But I think you're idea of locally focused blogs is intersting. Some local newspapers are already hosting discussion forums, this is the logical next step.

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

fredwilson — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:36:06 -0000

Different strokes for different folks

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

Liz — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:27:47 -0000

I'd blog about life in Morris County, NJ but it's all about real estate prices and soccer game schedules. The descriptive words I'd use are affluent and sleepy. The most exciting thing that happens is when the MidTown Direct is delayed or there is a car accident in the Starbucks parking lot. But it seems like a lot of people prefer pretty & dull to urban & stressful (both good & bad stress).

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

ebrittwebb — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:11:50 -0000

I'm pleased to see this attention to hyperlocal/place blogging. On a related note, I'd like to point out what Social Capital, Inc. is doing above and beyond this to organize local community programs, connected by a website, not only to facilitate hyperlocal/place blogging, but to actually engage people through both physical and virtual activities to rebuild the "social fabric" of our communities. SCI currently runs flagship programs in Woburn, Dorchester, and Lynn, MA. I'm helping them to create a new one in Newton, MA.

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

Eben Thurston — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:29:30 -0000

Fred, do you have a plan for migrating pagerank to the new URLs? It looks like the old URLs still resolve to blogs.com. I think you'd need to put 301 redirects on all the old URLs in order to transfer all the juice.

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

Andrew — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:00:33 -0000

I think placeblogging has a lot of potential but it does seem like a really tough nut to crack. Perhaps these blogs need to be injected into community related sites in order to reach more readers. Like we've discussed, every Homeowner Association should implement a section for placeblogging news. Sort of like a community newspaper dropping off the weekly in everyones mailbox.

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

Greg Clayman — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:09:25 -0000

I'm a huge fan of the hyper-local blog. I probably spend as much time on http://brooklynheightsblog.... as I do anywhere.

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

reelspit — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:24:06 -0000

thx 4 sharing. Nice 2 see NJ representing well in the hyperlocal blogging scene from the times article. The movement makes total sense 2 me, think locally, act locally. Our town of Maplewood, NJ has a decent on-line bulletin board & i could see that being used as a foundation placeblogging out here. Gives me a bit of inspiration. I look 4ward 2 seeing how the trend continues 2 grow. peace

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

kidmercury — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:00:34 -0000

a service that enables professional and profitable placeblogging is IMO needed -- something that will enable placebloggers to intermediate local transactions, and earn a decent income with a relatively small audience. this is why i think placeblogging is so exciting; the economic implications are epic. though i think we need some innovation in blog CMS's before we can really embark down this path.

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

centernetworks — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:26:38 -0000

gotcha

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

fredwilson — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:06:07 -0000

I have to get google to move my page rank/juice from avc.blogs.com to
avc.com before I can think about switching from typepad to wordpress or
something else

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

centernetworks — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:03:03 -0000

what are you using? if you wanted wordpress, why not switch when you relaunched the site?

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

Pawel T — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:48:35 -0000

It is possible that this can push also the local business into internet as well as change the way that people acquire information about their neighborhood. It is easy to use Internet global reach, maybe this can be the way to use its local reach as well?

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

fredwilson — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:45:06 -0000

That's cool

One more reason I wish I was on wordpress

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

billerickson — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:39:46 -0000

Someone recently sent me a link to GeoPress, a Wordpress plugin for geo-coding your posts: http://georss.org/geopress

It's an easy way to add GeoRSS to your posts, which will get them picked up by outside.in.