Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Friday we’ll be over in Orlando to talk about Hyperlocal blogging, and how social media can connect (or re-connect) a geographical community, and help them to become active participants in neighborhood decisions.

Hyperlocal - Moving On

Leader - Tommy Duncan, Tampa, FL - Sticks of Fire

Last year Tommy Duncan of Sticks of Fire helped out with a session on hyperlocal. Tommy will be back again this year, and hopes to focus on using blogs to strengthen geographical communities.

BlogOrlando is an unconference, so I am sure we’ll have plenty of questions on the possibilities for hyperlocal coverage. Here are a few of the highlights I hope to hear about:

• Connecting with your neighbors - Social media makes it easier for like-minded neighbors to meet and join together for all sorts of activities - community yard sales, excercise groups, block parties, crime watch, and more.
• Teaching and Learning - Using the collective knowledge of many, so that many others can utilize that information easier. Think bargain prices, shortcuts to work, neighborhood-friendly politicians.
• Experts in one field, Opinionated in many – Local news outlets like pigeonholes. They try to slot both writers and readers. What if a music critic wants to opine about the environment? What if the sports fan has a question about health issues? Social media allows us all to easily engage in conversations across the board, no matter the specific topic.
• Activism – Activist leaders used to network to find like-minded folks, and workk hard to inform them on specific issues. With a website, not only can these possible allies find an appropriate organization, they can immediately add to the conversation, and the action.
• Neighborhood information - new residents and possible residents can get a feel for a neighborhood simply by visitng a single website.

Again, this is just a suggested list of topics. I’m sure the participants will help shape the conversation, but I’d love to hear your ideas.

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