Greensboro 101 seems to be the on everyone’s blog radar these days as it’s turning into an effective model for community journalism a la Weblogs. They have about 50 or so bloggers, but even more importantly, they’ve got t-shirts. I say this not in jest as the t-shirts, snappy as they are, tell me at least that someone has decided to actively market the meme. (This may be something to think about for edubloggers as well…)
The site is basically an aggregator of local blogs, and it’s easy to add your own. A quick scan of the aggregated posts from the last few days shows a heavy emphasis on local events with a bit of world news and links sprinkled in. At this time, they don’t allow comments, though the talk is they will and they do have a discussion board built in.
Jay Rosen calls this “Open Source Journalism” which, when you take out the allusion to software means the journalism is really getting back to what it’s supposed to be doing which is using open sources of information. Add to that Online Journalism Review’s Citizen Media piece and it paints a pretty clear picture, I think of what 2005 will hold for journalism. I know I’ve said this before, but I just feel very lucky to be aware of this and watching it firsthand as it happens. My journalism teachers, who have subscribed to my Furls about journalism, are slowly but surely getting their brains around this as well. We are becoming more active consumers of news, becoming more engaged with the content and the process as we actively create that content as well. As more and more people understand the power of this, the more it will become a model for staying current.
Now it’s not a short leap to argue that our kids have to become more active consumers of the curriculum too…
Hi Will,
Thanks for the Greensboro101.com mention. I’m tickled to know that people are finding it inspiring. It would be nothing though without the content — the local bloggers who have something to say. They are the real stars.
There is no ability to comment on aggregated content (beyond the discussion forums) because one of the issues we’ve been kicking around in Greensboro is how an aggregator should balance the needs of the viewer with the desires of the blogger. Greensboro101.com is an effort to give visitors a comprehensive preview of what’s going on in local blogs, but without co-opting the blog content entirely.
The bloggers want an enticement for people to click through to their blogs, and rightfully so. Duplicating the comment features of the individual blogs on Greensboro101.com would, I think, go just a little too far in diluting the bloggers’ deserved ability to host a discussion on their writings. Some may legitimately see it differently, but it seems like a good balance for all involved here in Greensboro.