Posts FromOctober, 2008

28
Oct 08

Dept of Blogiology 101: Detroit

Posted by Nina in News — View Comments

This is our series where we explore top neighborhoods, blogs, and bloggers in cities around the U.S. In previous posts we’ve covered Ann Arbor, Portland, Philadelphia, Buffalo, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Boston.

This week we take a look under the hood of Detroit, or simply ’3-1-3′ to our man Ludacris. The headline highlights for this week include: ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick heads off to jail, Clint Eastwood’s trailer from Detroit shoot now selling online, and Kid Rock sets up a scholarship fund. Want more Detroit knowledge? Read on.

Bloggiest Detroit Neighborhoods:

Top Detroit Blogs:

  1. MOTOR CITY BLOG - music, arts, and other events around the Detroit area
  2. Motor City Rocks - extensive information on the Detroit live music scene including daily editorial content, podcasts, show listings, as well as venue, band, and neighborhood profiles
  3. Metblogs Detroit – making its name as a national weekly paper alternative, Metblogs features only the most local info. The Detroit site focuses on the arts, politics, and food.
  4. Handmade Detroit – the place for Detroit’s craftiest to connect and share
  5. Hamtramck Star – city council notes and thoughts on community in the historic district of Hamtramck

Up and Coming Blogs in Detroit (in no particular order)

  • D-Tales- a Detroit gossip blog
  • Detroit Army – news & reviews on downtown Detroit with a particular focus on development issues
  • Detroitblog – photo journalism at its best, this mysterious writer shares stories and accompanying images taken within the Detroit area

Most Talked About Stories:

Have your own Detroit Top 5 or want the Professor of Blogiology to come to your town? Raise your hand and we’ll call on you, or you can leave a note in the comments section.

Methodology: Our rankings track local buzz by analyzing a mix of variables including: total number of posts, location of posts, links from other sites in the community, and feedback from Outside.in members. Bloggiest Neighborhoods/Top Blogs, past 30 days; Most Talked About Stories, past 7 days.

24
Oct 08

We’re One of the Best Sites for Local Networking. Score.

Posted by Nina in General — View Comments

According to the uber popular Small Business Search Marketing site, we’re up there along with Facebook and Twitter as one of the best social networking sites that local businesses can use to find and attract customers.  

Sweet! Thanks to Matt for the shoutout. 

6. outside.in

You’ve probably heard about the benefits of reaching out and starting relationships with bloggers. outside.in is one of two sites I’ll mention that can help you find local bloggers. outside.in is a content aggregator; they show content from both traditional media and blogs.

outside.in screenshot

You can’t contact the local bloggers directly through outside.in; it’s just for locating them. You’ll want to visit the local blogs you find, start reading them regularly, leaving quality comments, and eventually introduce yourself and start that relationship.

[via smallbusinessem.com]

 

23
Oct 08

We got new servers

Posted by Cory in Announcements / General — View Comments

Notice something different on the Outside.in site? If you said faster load times, then you are correct sir!

A few days ago we migrated our servers to newer, faster hardware and added a bunch of ram all to bring you a much better (i.e. faster) experience while you explore the happenings of your ‘hood on Outside.in. 

You like? Give us a shout so we can feel a bit better about the 36 Cokes we had to drink to stay up during the migration. 

22
Oct 08

Speaking @ The Business Model Summit Tomorrow

Posted by mark in Events / General — View Comments

I’ll be speaking at The Business Model Summit tomorrow 10:30AM @ the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Stop by, or check back here later tomorrow for a recap.

This is a fantastic forum to hear new ideas about the future of online journalism.  Also speaking will be Jeff Jarvis, Dave Morgan (founder of TACODA),  Edward Roussel of the Telegraph, Samir Arora of Glam, along with a handful of other innovators in the publishing space. 

 

update [10/23/08]:

[via the News Innovation website]

“You can’t put a reporter on a pothole in the current market,” says Mark Josephson. But Outside.in is there.

Consumer demand is not being met because coverage stops on the zip code level. The “new local” has to get to the personal experience: The house, the school, the church, and that pesky pothole that needs to be fixed on your street.

Now that anyone can become a local reporter on the web, coverage has become both personal and portable. Thank God for Google maps. Although Josephson is big on the new GeoTag. Get ths: the GeoTag is attached to a story, so you get the story, the location and every other location that matters to you.

Now news not only goes with you, in some ways, the stories become a part of you. And it’s free.

 

21
Oct 08

Dept of Blogiology 101: Ann Arbor

Posted by Nina in General / News — View Comments

This is our series where we explore top neighborhoods, blogs, and bloggers in cities around the U.S. In previous posts we’ve covered Portland, Philadelphia, Buffalo, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Boston.

This week we hone in on Ann Arbor, otherwise known as “The Deuce,” as we’ve recently learned. The headlines this week: getting all sorts of dirty at the Mudbowl, toting guns to the park to prove a point, conflicted Profs and Facebook, and tough choices about stem cell research looming near. 

Bloggiest Ann Arbor Neighborhoods:

  1. Central Area
  2. Bach
  3. Wines
  4. Burns Park
  5. Southeast Area

Top Ann Arbor Blogs:

  1. The Ann Arbor Chronicle - An internet-only daily news site that views everything through an ultra local lens and reflects and embraces the energy, oddities, and character of the Ann Arbor community.
  2. Mark Maynard - A political blog from a writer bearing the same name, uncovering social injustices and inequality both locally and nationally.
  3. Vacuum - A love of the neighborhood library and awareness of local school news, political happenings, tech updates and the occasional recipe make this eclectic blog a must read. 
  4. Get Downtown - Hints, tips, opinions and current trends relating to commuting to downtown Ann Arbor and beyond.
  5. Arbor Update – coverage of local politics, community events, meetings, and voting.

Up and Coming Blogs in Ann Arbor (in no particular order)

  • Burns Park Elementary PTO – A site run by the parents of children attending Burns Park Elementary School who strive to provide support for both students & teachers, publicize school events, and raise funds to support school activities. 
  • Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice - Information about events and news on local movements to increase awareness for human rights, disarmament, hunger, global warming and other heady issues. 
  • Ann Arbor Real Estate by Martin Bouma - A no nonsense place to find info on local events, read in-depth neighborhood profiles, catch real estate trends, and of course, review property listings. 
  • Aadl.org – The Ann Arbor Downtown Library’s history blog, with oodles of factoids, pics, and event annoucements tracing the heritage of the city. 

Most Talked About Stories:

Have your own Ann Arbor Top 5 or want the Professor of Blogiology to come to your town? Raise your hand and we’ll call on you, or you can leave a note in the comments section.

Methodology: Our rankings track local buzz by analyzing a mix of variables including: total number of posts, location of posts, links from other sites in the community, and feedback from Outside.in members. Bloggiest Neighborhoods/Top Blogs, past 30 days; Most Talked About Stories, past 7 days.

15
Oct 08

We got Dugg. Yay!

Posted by Nina in General — View Comments

Check us out, all shiny and popular.

Courtesy of a story in ars technica about how Radar integrates with Mozilla’s new Firefox 3.1 beta.

13
Oct 08

Dept of Blogiology 101: Portland

Posted by Nina in General — View Comments

This is our series where we explore top neighborhoods, blogs, and bloggers in cities around the U.S. In previous posts we’ve covered Philadelphia, Buffalo, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Boston.

This week we investigate Portland, the “motherland” of micro-brews,  progressive citizens, and home to a thriving music and arts scene.

Bloggiest Portland Neighborhoods:

  1. Pearl District
  2. Downtown
  3. Old Town
  4. Buckman
  5. Chinatown

Top Portland Blogs:

  1. The Vanguard Blogzone - the blog of a college run newspaper, providing full coverage of local sports and other happenings.
  2. Neighborhood Notes – a community site covering stories on neighborhood events and news.
  3. Bike Portland – a site dedicated to everything velo.
  4. Our PDX Network – a group blog, with discussions around local eats, neighborhoods happenings, and local politics.
  5. PDX Pipeline – the place to hear about upcoming parties, music & comedy events, and catch local news.

Up and Coming Blogs in Portland (in no particular order)

  • Burnside Blog- discussions on the city’s development, architecture and urban design.
  • Ultra - stylishly covering fashion, design and culture.
  • The Water Blog – a fascinating look at water usage and conservation in the Portland area and beyond.
  • Portland Architecture- up and coming architects, analysis of new construction, and coverage on the latest architecture exhibits.
  • Portland Food and Drink – unabashedly honest reviews of local restaurants.

Most Talked About Stories:

Have your own Portland Top 5 or want the Professor of Blogiology to come to your town?  Raise your hand and we’ll call on you, or you can leave a note in the comments section.

Methodology: Our rankings track local buzz by analyzing a mix of variables including: total number of posts, location of posts, links from other sites in the community, and feedback from Outside.in members. Bloggiest Neighborhoods/Top Blogs, past 30 days; Most Talked About Stories, past 7 days.

9
Oct 08

The Future is Here: outside.in Radar Now Powered by Mozilla Geode

Posted by john in Development & Features — View Comments

Two days ago Mozilla Labs announced a cool new plugin for Firefox named Geode. Geode is a simple tool that makes your Firefox browser location-aware, allowing it to know where you are at any given moment. Mozilla built Geode to fit their vision of the future of web browsing, which they describe like so:

You’ve arrived in a new city, a new continent, a new coffee shop. You don’t really know where you are, and are looking for a good place to eat. You pull out your laptop, fire up Firefox, and go to your favorite review site. It automatically deduces your location, and serves up some delicious suggestions a couple blocks away and plots directions there.

We at outside.in thought that sounded like an exciting idea, so we decided to integrate Geode into Radar to complete the other half of that picture. And now it’s done, live on the site, and the future that Mozilla imagines is here. As of today when you use Firefox with your Geode plugin installed, Radar immediately picks up your location and plops you in that exact area, showing you the latest headlines and stories around you.

Now you don’t even need to know where you are to get the news around you.

Love that web – keeps getting better and better. We’re looking forward to more great stuff like this from Mozilla.

You can download your Geode plugin here.

8
Oct 08

GeoToolkit News: StoryMaps for Sidebars

Posted by Nina in General — View Comments
Great news! Today we updated StoryMaps to work better in your site’s sidebar. Instead of opening a wide bubble when you click on a place marker, maps under 300 pixels now show the stories in a list view that’s cleaner and much more user-friendly for narrow sidebars.

If you already have a StoryMap that’s 300 pixels wide or smaller, it has been automatically updated with our new release. If not, check it out! Sign up for GeoToolkit and grab the code to put a StoryMap on your site.

Want to see StoryMaps in the wild? Check out: http://www.riverwestneighborhood.org

7
Oct 08

Dept of Blogiology 101: Philadelphia

Posted by Nina in General — View Comments

This is our fifth in a series of posts where we explore top neighborhoods, blogs, and bloggers in cities around the U.S.  In previous posts we’ve covered Buffalo, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Boston.

This week we investigate Philadelphia, most famous for the Liberty Bell, Fresh Prince and home to our friend, MC Blame the Kid. And for a bit of geeky history: did you know that Philadelphia is where the first ever online transaction took place? Mr. Phil Brandenberger, who lived in Philadelphia, bought a “compact disc” (remember those?) from the Net Market Company, based in Nashua, New Hampshire (via PhillyWired).

Bloggiest Philadelphia Neighborhoods:

  1. South Philadephia
  2. Center City
  3. Callowhill
  4. University City
  5. West Philadelphia

Top Philadelphia Blogs:

  1. Philebrity -  a media, nightlife, and gossip blog for discerning livers of life in the Philadelphia area.
  2. Phillyist –  the Philadelphia installment of Gothamist.
  3. The700Level – two rowdy fans’ sports site in Philly, covering the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and local college teams.
  4. uwishunu – an insider’s take on Philly music, eating & drinking, shopping, and general local happenings.
  5. Foobooz - Local dining, drinking, and gossip news.

Up and Coming Blogs in Philadephia (in no particular order)

  • Phillies Nation – a site for fanatical Phillies fans to rant and rave about their favorite team.
  • roberta fallon and libby rosof’s artblog – a unique blog focusing on art openings, events, and artists in the Philly area.
  • Young Philly Politics –  a fresh take on local and national politics.
  • Farm to Philly – the place to find info about growing, buying and eating locally grown food.
  • It’s Our City Blog – part of media a loop including TV and radio, this site fosters civic engagement through sharing of local information, with a focus on politics.

Most Talked About Stories:

Have your own Philly Top 5? Tell us about it. Leave a note in the comments section.
Bonus points to anyone who can name in which neighborhood Will Smith, err, his Freshness grew up.

Methodology: Our rankings track local buzz by analyzing a mix of variables including: total number of posts, location of posts, links from other sites in the community, and feedback from Outside.in members. Bloggiest Neighborhoods/Top Blogs, past 30 days; Most Talked About Stories, past 7 days.

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