[Air-l] Location specific blogs

[Steven Clift]

> On Sun, 17 Dec 2006, Zukin, Sharon wrote:
> 
> > Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 19:15:53 -0500
> > From: "Zukin, Sharon" <SZukin at gc.cuny.edu>
> > To: wellman at chass.utoronto.ca
> > Cc: "Trujillo, Valerie" <VTrujillo at gc.cuny.edu>
> > Subject: Question for listserv
> >
> >
> > For work that I am doing with Prof. Sharon Zukin on creative cultural
> > producers in Brooklyn (New York), I are looking for studies of blogs
> > that originate in, and identify with, specific areas of cities.  How
> > common are such blogs?  

They are out there, but it is quite rare that they:

1. Identify first with the locality versus an individual writing primarily
about a specific community - perhaps you are including both

2. Take a more neutral point of view

I am interested in how a Northfield.Org style of community blog might
complement our active "Issues Forums" model <http://e-democracy.org/if>.
See: http://northfield.org also, http://locallygrownnorthfield.org

Note the commercial Metro Blogging network: http://www.metroblogging.com

Also, is this StarTribune initiative considered a local blog to you?
http://www.buzz.mn/  They do use Drupal.

I should note that how you define a "blog" might be very important.  Our
Issues Forums generate RSS feeds automatically and get sucked into
Technorati's blog search engine. Does that make our Issues Forums
technically blogs?  

As far as I can tell, if we simply added "pinging" when new topics are
created (not commented on) and perhaps a bit stylist window dressing to the
first post in topic, an active forum isn't really any different than a
multi-editor blog.

So you may want to include local online forums in your analysis.



How is it possible to identify blogs
> > geographically?  

Combine target geographic search terms with blogging terms. 

Check out:
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=32&aid=83453
Specifically:
http://local.blogdigger.com/

Also note the "related blogs" results when you type in a place name:
http://blogsearch.google.com


Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org

And what is the sociological research out there on
> > such blogs?
> >
> > Please contact Valerie Trujillo vtrujillo at gc.cuny.edu
> >
> 
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