It's the human ecology stupid

Thanks to Will Perrin for pointing to a helpful piece by Matt 'Hyperlocalblogger' on 'what makes a great local blogger'. It's a solid discussion-starting list of nine points to help people succeed in local blogging.

Things you need:

1. Passion
2. Interestingness
3. Good Writer
4. Outgoing
5. Newshound
6. Honesty
7. Patience.

And two things you don’t necessarily need:

1. Longevity
2. Technical Skills and/or Money

I especially like Matt's note about not having to be a long-time resident. William is on record for some provocative tongue-in-cheek criticism of the very idea of blogging, but he picked up on the absence from this list of the notion of teamwork or collective endeavour, because it's a small team that helps him make the King's Cross site work.

I'm not a local blogger so I can't confirm from experience other than community development experience, but I'd have said that Matt's number 4, being 'outgoing', coupled with a new no.8 for building up a team of contributors, were really important.

And if you get 200 contributors and supporters together for your community website, as they did in London SE1, you can have a 10th anniversary party with a dramatic difference.

Apols if this post is a bit London-centric, but while I'm at it I ought to mention the lively active sense of bustle you get from Harringay Online. Useful reflections also from Lee Bryant and Martin Dudley on William's post here.

Postscript - David Wilcox has posted about Matt Collins's Localmouth.

Previously: Hyperlocal, ultralocal, local online

Comments

[David Wilcox]

Thanks for the mention Kevin ... I'm sensing a flurry of interest (OK, here in London) in the potential of local blogging, maybe linked to sites like Localmouth. Then there's the increase in hyperlocal sites created by news media, which may offer opportunities and will anyway raise levels of interest. Could also be tied in to the ideas and funding opportunities for training and supporting digital mentors http://socialreporter.com/?p=386

[Hugh Flouch]

Thanks for the mention Kevin. With almost 1,000 members (from a target area of around 16,000 - Harringay neighbourhood, not Haringey Borough) after just a year things are very lively. We're also chalking up some real successes both in terms of building social capital and being able to influence the local authority. So some great achivements in our first year.