Making websites (and tea)
Hype, hyperlocal
A few days ago (December 8th, 2009), my good wife and myself attended the Derby Social Media Cafe at Deda in Derby. This event focused on hyperlocal websites and we had a talk from Will Perrin from http://talkaboutlocal.org and Philip John of The Lichfield Blog.
Will spoke a little about where he had come from, his stint in Number 10, his own involvement in early hyperlocal sites and his current role in Talk About Local. Will’s story about how the Kings Cross environment website came about was particularly interesting, as were the other hyperlocal sites such as Parwich. This was very much about the communities having ownership of these sites.
Philip then talked about The Lichfield Blog, how it came about, who runs it and how it all works. And very interesting it was, a shame I didn’t get chance to chat to him!
This got me thinking about the how important these sites can be within communities in providing information and encouraging dialogue. Particularly as “the community” has been in decline since the 1980’s, as has local newspaper production,circulation and the poor quality of some of the regional press websites. If these hyperlocal websites gain in numbers and popularity, will they help to mend broken society? I hope so.
Now, I’m currently working on building a hyperlocal type site at the University of Sheffield’s Department of Journalism Studies. This is to give MA journalism students, currently split over traditional disciplines of print, broadcast, web and magazines experience in working in online.
I know that some people will think “hey, journo’s keep your hands off” when it come to hyperlocal, but nevertheless, journalists are exploring the hyperlocal highways with serious vigor. But at the moment, there’s no money in it and no business model.
Personally, and from a technical view, I can see the benefits of using hyperlocal for news; being able to map news and giving the reader access to news where (exactly) they are. And giving me something to do in my day job!
What do you think of “Hyperlocal”?
3 Responses to “Hype, hyperlocal”
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Sorry we didn’t get to chat. Keep me informed about your hyperlocal project!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Philip John, hadders. hadders said: #smcderby #hyperlocal friends, my new personal website is here at long last with a few relevant posts http://bit.ly/62drxP [...]
great stuff – derby ripe for some hyperlocal action. keep us in touch at talk about local in case we can help.
for students tho i would get them to build it themselves on a self hosted wordpress install. basic tech skills that could be life saver if you are trying to make a living. bit like understanding how Linotype worked in the old days.
cheers
w