Last week I took a trip to Swindon to meet, chat with and later interview the managers of three community websites at CLIP Penhill, a UK online centre on the Penhill estate that has been delivering talk about local training.
My first interview was with John Saunders, manager of the CLIP Penhill Centre and Jon Allan. Between them they manage and train other members of the community to use the website This is Penhill – ‘a site made for the Penhill people to keep them informed about local events, news and information’.
As well as creating a focal point for the community where local people can keep themselves updated, John and Jon also hope the website can help improve external perceptions of the Penhill estate, which has suffered something of a bad press over the years, by telling positive stories. John and Jon plan to introduce and involve more people with the website at a Penhill Forum event on 11th September.
My next interview was with Vicki Farthing, Secretary of a committee campaigning to for a splash park on an desolate old play park in Seven Fields. Vicki built the sevenfieldssplashpark.org website over one weekend to support their campaign to rejuvenate the empty field.
There’s some brilliant use of film on the website with YouTube video creations from committee member Lorna Breslin – slideshows of what the park was in its heyday and what it one day might become with a little money and attention. By far the best though is the above slideshow of the sorry state it is in today, with a particularly apt soundtrack of Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me to Life’ – “Because that’s what we want to do, we want to bring this back to life.”
Last but not least is Peter Hansen, who created the community website The Cricklade Bugle during a talk about local training session in February. Peter, who volunteers one half-day a week to maintain the Cricklade UK online centre, has since built it into becoming ‘a community and news website for Cricklade in North Wiltshire.’
Peter is currently the sole writer on the website, updating it with information he receives doing community work with the local leisure centre, church building Jenner Hall, Cricklade Bloomers and other community groups. “I’m slowly incorporating them into supplying further content for the website.” The website has already been used by Wiltshire Council to consult the local community about issues such as refuse collection and redevelopment of the leisure centre.
When I told a friend I was going to Swindon for the day they responded rather harshly with ‘eugh’ – I suppose it doesn’t have a reputation of being the most dynamic of places. But I left feeling very excited and enthused by the people I met, who are all working hard to make their neighbourhoods better and happier places and expressing this brilliantly online with three very different but equally simple community websites, that help make all their organising and campaigning that little bit easier. I can’t wait to go back!
Pauline Sargent from Drimnagh, Dublin contacted the talk about local team in January of this year asking for advice on a new community website she was thinking about starting for her area, which we were more than happy to give her. Later in March Drimnagh is Good was born ‘to help Drimnagh shout about the good things more often’. Pauline used the skills and contacts she gained through her work on Drimnagh is Good to organise Drimnagh’s first Social Media Surgery on 18th May 2010.
From the looks of Pauline’s answers to our Ten Questions below, it looks like she has some exciting things in store for the Drimnagh community, especially its younger residents.
What made you start Drimnagh is Good?
Quick background: I got involved in community work when my son was about 4 (2005) and started looking around where I lived with new eyes. There was a lot that I didn’t like. From minor things like graffiti to major things like planning decisions being made on behalf of the community by a select few who believed they ran the area. My partner and I discussed moving for a while but fundamentally we liked where we lived. So I felt ‘well if we want a nice community to live in then I’ll have to get involved and be one of those people helping to make it good.’ From there I went onto several different committees over the years and started to realise how complicated and slow community work is. Communicating to all the people in Drimnagh was not easy and targeting the right people was even harder.
So from doing a bit of research I came across some hyperlocal sites in the UK and realised a one stop website could maybe go some way to being the answer. Then of course the excellent Digbeth is Good was my inspiration for the title and so many posts.
What do you feel the key local issues are for your community and how have you used your website to address these?
Unemployment. Drimnagh has above national average in early school leavers and young males out of work. The website would like to get more youth involved in the multi media aspect of the site and help increase their profile by displaying their projects. Efforts are underway with the local youth centre to see how the two can work together for mutual gain.
Anti Social Behaviour. If you were to listen to certain sections of the community and the media you would think Drimnagh has a high crime rate. However, police stats do not point to this. It would be great if the website could help eliminate the bad press Drimnagh gets and help sort perception from reality.
Planning & development. Drimnagh has a lot of derelict sites and although recently had a Integrated Area Plan (IAP) drawn it is felt the community was not fully on board. The website would like to help become a library for all the documents relating to the IAP. To post minutes, meetings, reports and to get feedback from residents.
What has been your favourite post or feature on your website and why?
My favourite post has been the TD contact details. As it was interesting to see how the display their contact details and an eye-opener to see 1) how difficult it was to get their contact details and that was with a computer and online access. 2) How few are using social media to engage with their constituients regularly. It is hoped to improve on that page and make it easy for people to see all their TD’s contact details in a user friendly format whatever and for whatever their preferered form of contact is.
What do you feel has been the most challenging story on your website?
The most challenging one I had I didn’t post as was to nervous of how to word it in an unbiased form. It was to do with the court case of the two polish men who were murdered in an horrific stabbing by local Drimnagh men. Also really not informed enough on reporting crime and the national media were covering the story also. Was thinking of just providing links to the story. But seeing as only new to blogging decided to leave it.
The one that I did post that was the most challenging for me. Was the alzheimers one. As in found the technology bit hard, the videoing and the interviewing difficult it was my first.
What obstacles have you faced with your website, and how have you overcome these?
The biggest obstacle is time & probably next to that is know how. As in writing technique and technology (inserting photos and videos). As a mother of two young boys, it is really difficult to be consistent with posts. Also I am trying to work and earn an income so the website is not getting the true attention it deserves. I am looking at getting some other people to contribute and hopefully by September the site will have more hands on deck.
What do you think it is that attracts readers to your website?
From the comments I have received to date it appears the need to know whats going on in the community. I think the opening times of the local swimming pool has had the most hits. Also the smarter travel project has received comments from people as to have we heard any updates. I truly believe people want to know what is going on in their community. But they do not want to spend half a day trying to connect with someone in the council.
What’s the most absurd thing that has happened on your site?
Nothing absurd as yet.
What changes would you like to make to your website over the next few months?
My wish list for the site would be? (Good question)
A techie person like me to help with all the background stuff.
Some new plug ins.
Better SEO
Make the About page less personal and less about me and more about it being an online newssite for Drimnagh people with x amount of contributors.
A weekly social media surgery dedicated to hyperlocal news to help attract people to getting involved on the site.
A daily post.
More reporting on council meetings/TDs/planning/& community groups events
Where do you see your website in a year’s time?
Increase in a regular readership. Perhaps a 100 daily viewers???
What one thing would make managing your website even more rewarding than it already is?
To see some of the young/not so young using the site to gain experience/respect/hope and to realise that Drimnagh is not a kip and that there is a lot of opportunities to be got from managing/working on a hyperlocal site and talking your area up.
Whilst I was enjoying a weekend break in Westport, County Mayo last month I took the chance to meet Anthony Hickey, the manager of the Mayo Today website, which has gone from strength to strength since it started just 5 months ago in February 2010. The blog actually grew from a Twitter account Anthony created for the area, @Mayo2Day:
From there I decided to set up my own local blog, Mayotoday.ie. It’s been very enjoyable and very successful.
Its focus has been very much keeping the county connected with local news and an upbeat outlook:
It’s local news basically, it’s a community news website and I put as many pictures on as I can…and local photographers, they’ve been very good to me, sending me photos. Community news in terms of just what’s happening locally in meetings, drama groups….I try to keep a positive slant on things.
'Family moment at Ballina Heritage Day'
Although the front page has news for the whole of Mayo, Anthony ensures the site works on a more localised level. Readers can filter down the news stream for just ‘Your Town’, thanks to the site’s use of categories, and there will often be a local town bulletin post, such as this June ‘Ballina Beat’. The website also includes lots of useful listings information that benefit residents, the businesses and in turn, Mayo Today itself:
I have dedicated pages. I have the local cinema listings, local arts, local museums, I update those listings weekly. And that’s been good because I’ve linked in with those people and their reaction has been very positive too and some have linked from their website to Mayo Today, which has been good for me.
I think that’s an interesting service that I can provide because ‘.tel’ is optimized for mobile phones and I think the mobile web is going to be very important. You can also get Mayo Today on your mobile phone. The local directories, it’s business community phone numbers. That’s going down pretty well too, there’s some interest in it. It’s something I can manage myself. Its cheap, doesn’t cost me much. No hosting cost and it’s very easy to update. Even I can do it.
Although Anthony has created a wonderfully useful and professional-looking website at minimal cost, the demands on his time for its upkeep means he is looking for a way to gain some sort of income from it.
That’s the problem, how do you monetize your website? Time-wise, it’s time consuming. I’ve tapped into a lot of PR agencies, a lot of community groups, the Local Authorities, I cover some Local Authority meetings myself and I have to write that up. I go to local events and festivals and do reports, take photos. You’re talking about certainly 7 days a week, can be 10 hours a day some days, if I want. And how I make a living out of that, that’s the question?
'Kenny donates Parliamentary Debates to Mayo County Library'
Despite there being no obvious answer, Anthony is positive that a solution to this well-discussed issue will present itself.
I think it’s something that’ll probably resolve itself, in time it’ll evolve. The answer will come as the site becomes more of a niche and gets a solid following and we’ll see how it goes from there, but as of now it’s a bit of a mystery alright.
Anthony is finding he’s started something of a trend in hyperlocal websites in Mayo, and sees some opportunity for Mayo Today to work with the smaller community sites that are emerging:
I’d like to link into community groups. I see a lot of smaller communities now are setting up their own community websites, like even down to parish level and little villages and towns and sports clubs. I’d like to link into those and possibly, maybe I could be a hub or a portal for a lot of those and introduce other people to those websites.
And where those websites don’t yet exist or are in need of a helping hand, Anthony is looking to offer his support:
I’ve learned a lot in the last year, in terms of using social media…maybe I could link into those websites, the people who run those websites, help them out and see what I can do there.
When I returned to the UK I had a clumsy first attempt at an audio slideshow from an evening I spent at Ballinrobe Races, which found its way onto Mayo Today’s dedicated Videos page of locally relevant online films.
You can listen to my recorded interview with Anthony below.
As if I wasn’t already busy enough trying to capture what’s happening in Bournville on the hyperlocal website I edit, I’ve now committed to managing the website for my running club, Bournville Harriers. I though it worth sharing here how we work the online stuff, which makes a change from me boring on about the offline stuff.
At its core, our running club is about community. We meet a couple of times a week, we chat, we get out of breadth and stop chatting, we compare achievements, we moan about injuries, we even have a beer together if our personal fitness regimes allow. In some ways creating an online space to replicate that is fairly straightforward and our previous website had a forum that was pretty active at times.
But, as forums often do, it veered towards nitpicking and complaining, lacking that essential quality that the offline running culture has, ‘praise’. So in re-thinking our web presence it was a simple process of switching to a blogging platform and enabling comments (we’re a self-hosted wordpress blog with a very slightly tweaked free theme).
There was some feeling amongst club members that we’d end up having the sarcastic forum comments replicated on the blog comments but I doubted that since the dominant offline culture in the club involves congratulating people on their runs. The blog comes closer to replicating that, so when Mike Berry completed his seventh marathon in seven months he got some nice comments online as well as the usual slaps on the back on club night. Even the briefest of reports gets a nice response for our club members who run all over the UK. To date I’ve not had to moderate a single comment.
In shifting to a more web 2.0 platform we can also begin to plug in other resources that someone other than myself can manage. Our images are largely hosted on Flickr, our club records are a series of google docs maintained by our club chairman and our race/training calendar is on google calendar, easily updated by a range of club members.
One of the development areas for us to make better sense of our running data. When we compete in a race the organisers might produce a spreadsheet or a pdf file or sometimes even a Word document. We copy and paste and then put the results into a blog post (quite easy to do, just use Excel or google docs to cut and paste the data in, and then out of) but we lack a coherent way to make sense of every runner’s data as opposed to just the elite ones. Although if you are elite then UK Athletics take the trouble to record just about every run you do – take a look at the data for one of our quick women runners - every competitive run since she was 15.
So in using a range of free online tools we keep the central website fresh with new content. I may manage the thing that pulls all the elements together but there’s a whole team of us supporting the process and doing their bit – which is what being a part of any community is all about.
This morning Kate Norman asked on Twitter: ‘what websites might be of MOST interest to Romany Travellers?’ There are two great ones that I know of.
The first is Savvy Chavvy, a private Ning network created by On Road Media whilst they were training young Gypsies and Travellers in social media skills in Kent, Cambridgshire and Surrey. It’s quick growth highlighted the community’s need for their own online space they felt safe to express themselves within:
www.savvychavvy.com has almost 500 young people on it in less than a month which demonstrates the need for dedicated spaces like this on the web for marginalised groups. Spaces like these do not alienate the group concerned from the rest of society – they allow the young Gypsies in this case to communicate freely amongst each other in a safe place away from the discrimination and prejudice that many of them face daily.
As On Road Media recognized, Savvy Chavvy illustrates how helpful a private network can be for vulnerable groups of people who may feel exposed or at risk of abuse in a more public space.
Another interesting site I’ve come across is Pesha’s Blog, created by Clay Shipson, a Romany Gypsy living in Lincolnshire:
The Roma (Gypsy) or Romani/Romany Gypsy people are the most misunderstood people on the face of the Earth. I have set up this blog to promote a positive image of my people and hopefully in turn this will lead to understanding and tolerance.
Clay uses her blog to celebrate Romany culture and raise awareness of and campaign against widespread discrimination. Pesha’s Blog has become a powerful community voice (Clay often gets emailed content by others to post up) that works towards changing negative perceptions and righting wrongs across the world – Clay is currently using it to raise money for Roma Gypsy children from Kosovo suffering from the effects lead poisoning.
Talk About Local has a special connection with canals, since we all live fairly close to them and by chance [in the over-romantic eyes of your blogger], Stoke-on-Trent to Digbeth to Kings Cross quite closely shadows the old routes of the revolutionary Midlands industrialists. If we weren’t in such a tearing hurry all the time we could easily commute around by narrow boat rather than train. But that’s a post for another day. It’s good to know that if we chose to move from rail to water there is just as active an online community to help us along.
What prompts people to start blogging? In the case of the canal bloggers, in many cases it is a need to let retirees’ descendants know about their whereabouts. This, of course, is quickly forgotten as the real business of adventuring commences.
Granny Buttons is a nice example, with stories of tragedies, kindness and Ikea. It also has the best list I’ve found so far of bloggers and canal Twitterers to start your explorations.
Much of Britain is close to a canal and they are often the most unspoilt and beautiful parts of both countryside and city. While it’s a bit chilly outside, you can start exploring online.
Pretty photos courtesy of the Flickr community and Flickriver. This is the second in an occasional series of blog trails – if you know good canal blogs to check out or have ideas for other communities we should be venturing into, please let us know by email or in the comments below.
On 15th November I was lucky enough to grab a ten minute chat with Andrew Brightwell of Hasbrum, the new website of ‘Birmingham Hyperlocal News’ created by a group of students on Birmingham City University’s MA Online Journalism course. Hashbrum is a true experiment – the team do not have a clear long-term goal for the website, they just want to test the possibilities of delivering local news online.
The idea is to try and find out a bit more about how local news can be in the future, so we’ve decided to try to cover bits of Birmingham and try to experiment with our coverage by using different forms of media coverage – video and audio as well as writing and we’re just having some fun really…We’re letting it all hang out and see what happens!
These experiments take various forms – for instance, like many local news sites Hasbrum aggregates relevant content from other local websites, but it’s aggregation with a twist rather than just regurgitating the information.
What we’ve discovered is if we use other people’s content in clever, different ways then we’re happy to do it, we’re not just going to aggregate content in the normal way. We’re using maps, for example which is a good way of aggregating content. If you take stories from elsewhere and put them into a map then you’re giving a new twist to it.
However, Hashbrum focuses on generating original content rather than presenting other people’s. In doing this the has team found that, because of their different backgrounds, this content varies in form and feel. Andrew, who worked as a professional local journalist for several years, is more inclined to stick to that facts with his storytelling whilst others with a blogging background inject more opinions to their pieces, which gives the website ‘a real mix’ that highlights the difference between the two types of delivery.
I’m trying to learn how to do things in a more opinion-based way because what you find is if you do just factual stuff people don’t necessarily have a relationship to that….It’s not something that you would necessarily want to respond to.
You can definitely see their personal bias when looking at the news items they choose to focus on. For instance, the site has a feature page about the plight of historical Birmingham swimming pools.
We’ve been quite selective in what we do. Birmingham’s a big place..we’re not trying to cover all of Birmingham, we’re not trying to pretend that we’re a proper sort of news product like the newspapers or even the radio stations. All we’re trying to do is pick out things that have been neglected to some extent…we’re choosing what we do and I guess we’re having an impact on that as well….we’re bringing our own view to it.
Andrew hopes Hashbrum’s readers will start to play a part in directing this focus – steering the site to cover topics they want to learn about. This seems to be the reason the team haven’t fixed upon an overall goal for Hashbrum – they see it going where the audience wants to take it.
I can’t tell you exactly what it’s going to be….the goal if you like is for other people to tell us what they want. For there to be some kind of relationship between the readership….and us as the creators of content and for those two things…to be equal. So other people start to contribute to what we’re doing and they also direct what we’re doing as well…Our audience can be our editor.
This audience-led environment is a far cry from the one Andrew prepared for in training as a journalist. The new world professional journalists now face was something he’d discussed earlier that day on Rhubarb Radio’s Sunday Local with Birmingham Post Editor Marc Reeves, Peter Fletcher and Michael Grimes. During the show they touched upon the definitions of and differences between journalists and bloggers, and came to the surprising conclusion that it isn’t as important as some might think.
There isn’t really a difference necessarily…There have always been people who have become journalists…people who are interested in what they’re doing who have got some kind of expertise and they’ve been able to use that to become journalists. They haven’t necessarily been trained as journalists but they’ve been able to make that step. Lots of bloggers are doing that. There’s a huge difference between someone who just gets on the internet and sounds off…and other people who are going out and finding news and bringing it to an audience. And that’s where journalism starts and obviously it develops into something else eventually.
Far from being fearful of this new playing field, Andrew sees a role emerging for journalists of gathering the news, footage and content that website managers and bloggers can use for discussion with their audiences.
Maybe we can be part of some new model in the future where there are full-time professionals who are going out to the coalface and bringing in news and then other people are using that for their own blogs or for their own audiences. That relationship could be good for journalists because it might give them a career that they don’t have at the moment…I’m interested in finding out if there can be a relationship between these two worlds that would be mutually beneficial.
It looks like the outcomes of the Hasbrum team’s experiments will be something we can all learn from, not just in terms of innovative online news editorialship and delivery, but the place they find for themselves within that.
You can listen to my full interview with Andrew below:
Hannah Waldram, a journalism graduate who grew up in Bournville, Birmingham, has gone live with a hyperlocal site for her home town. Bournville Village provides ‘The latest news, pics and chat from the Cadbury community’, filling a gap currently left open by traditional media:
Bournville has no local newspaper and little going for it on the web – and tons of advertisers who would love to have their services published to the local community. Seems like a sure fire hit? Well it takes time and energy to set up – and it’s only little old me working on it at the mo – albeit with a web of friendly and supportive bloggers in Birmingham and plenty of other hyperlocal experts to take advice from.
However, Hannah has found the time to build up an insightful community blog. Bournville Village has not only given a local perspective to the story of gunshots in the traditionally peaceful village, which has received some coverage in the Birmingham Mail, but has also shed light on the smaller stories of concern to villagers, such as a pump installation in the Row Heath Park pond to save its fish.
Bournville Village has some quite useful aggregation, with RSS feeds of Twitter mentions and Flickr photos on the site to link villagers up to online activity about their area. Hannah is also working to take the pressure off ‘only little old me’ by building up a team of authors with different voices and views, and has already found a first recruit in the shape of Birmingham blogger Dave Harte.
….hyper-local, collaborative and aggregation seem to me to be key terms in the future of local journalism online. And I’m excited my home town Birmingham is pioneering such innovative and exceptional work.
Bournville Village is an interesting example of how traditional media training can be translated into creating an informative community site, and Hannah looks set to answer William Perrin’s question to site managers of ‘What would you do with a journalist?‘ by example.
Jack Wallington from loveclapham.com talks to TAL about building his site.
I’ve lived in Clapham for most of my adult life (so far!) and like most people running local sites, became disappointed at the quality of the local press and the lack of online representation for the vibrant Clapham community. LoveClapham.com was born!
Setting up the site was the easy part, involving a couple of weekends to set up WordPress and create a design I was happy with. The hard work started with the creation of content and getting the local community involved.
One of my personal priorities was to help local shops, restaurants and bars survive the biggest recession we’ve ever known – it would be a terrible loss for the area to be overrun with just known brands. I don’t charge local businesses to promote things on the site as long as the residents benefit from it too. However, getting local businesses involved has been incredibly difficult. I’ve launched the Clapham Awards 2009 as an incentive to help awareness and to reward them.
Other things we’ve tackled in the site’s short life are reporting on major developments and raising awareness of a campaign by residents of Clapham Junction to stop oversized tower blocks. Clapham also has many large events throughout the year, like music festivals. Love Clapham provides a guide to all of these events including travel, nearby amenities etc.
Another thing I really wanted to do with the site was open up channels of communication. In London too many people have issues but don’t know how to deal with them. Top of my list of things to do was to meet and interview members of the local council and other important organisations. It’s too easy to criticise councils, but we’re lucky to have passionate councillors in Lambeth, I’d rather be a conduit to work with them than against them.
My top tips for setting up a local site are:
Design. Content is undoubtedly king, but I think it’s important to make the site look lively and exciting too. Not over the top, but although we’re discussing serious issues, it doesn’t mean a site has to look serious too.
Write about the area and local issues – find out what matters to other people and get them involved. Be fun with it, again, there will be serious issues, but local communities can be fun!
Make sure you’re listed in search engines like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! (there’s a lot more to search, but listing is the first step).
Tell all your friends about the site, and ask them to tell their friends.
The likes of Twitter and Facebook are indispensible at reaching out to people – starting a Twitter account or Facebook page isn’t enough though, you have to seek out and start conversations with people. I found Twitter the easiest, because you can search for your local area (e.g. “Clapham”) and then find people in the area that way.
Get out and about! I spent an entire weekend delivering hundreds of home printed leaflets to local businesses. You might not get a massive response, but at least it’s free.
Interview important local people. It’s relatively easy, but extremely high value content. It also opens up a dialogue with the organisation you’ve interviewed.
Local sites are fairly cheap, but there’s still a cost to buying a domain and hosting. I highly recommend adding Google Adsense to your site (https://www.google.com/adsense/). You can change the layout and colour so they don’t look too intrusive and while you won’t make your millions with them, you will cover the cost of hosting across the year.
Amidst all the hyperlocal froth people often forget that Facebook has a strong local neighbourhood component – not really by design, despite its origins in campus networks but more because people seem to love forming local area affinity groups. People define their own communities on the ground that reflect human rather than administrative geography. Anecdotal observation suggests that once people have their friends in th group the next thing they do is search out local‘shout’ groups in Facebook and join them.
These Facebook groups can work powerfully with hyper or ultra local sites to cross over content and messages. I set up I Love Kings Cross as an experimental sideline to my Kings Cross community site. The 160 odd people in the Facebook group are about 75% different to the 140-odd people who sign up to my Feedburner emails from the community site.
You can see examples everywhere – even in a town as proud of its old world traditions as Barnsley in Yorkshire has several thousand people in local groups
Some good local campaigns run in Facebook too, despite its many limitations. In Birmingham’s Sandwell a local mum has set up a Facebook campaign to stop people dogging in a local beauty spot:
‘Reports of Dogging, Drug Dealing and Networking Homosexuals abusing the area for their antisocial behaviour. If I can get enough people to join this group I will use it to the local Councillor to help clean the place up and drive these animals away so that children and families can start reusing the area for it’s proper purpose’
In Scarborough in Yorkshire a local woman has set up a Facebook campaign about the proliferation of new traffic lights in the town centre.
‘… after dark .. .when everyone is asleep … the traffic lights in Scarborough have been getting together and mating .. resulting in EVEN MORE traffic lights. Surely this is the reason for the growing traffic light community, and surely the Council can’t be blamed for tearing up every roundabout and replacing it with yet more traffic slowing lights! I’m sure that if all the traffic lights in town are counted, and then divided by the towns population, we’ll have three each !!!!’
This group, now 1,900 strong crossed over into a local newspaper and an 800 signature petition to the council. Google doesn’t turn up much hyperlocal community activity online outside Facebook in Scarborough. There are also a range of affinity groups for Scarborough – the biggest with 16,000 members.
Facebook simply reduces the sunstantial communication and time barriers to forming local groups. Of course, Facebook is so yesterday for many of the digerati as they tweet away to each other and build new hyperlocal platforms. But they could do well to follow Terry Leahy’s old axiom and follow the customer. In real communities on the ground, people without the skills to build a better online pesence continue to vote with their feet for Facebook to find their ultra or hyperlocal voice.
The sites above are only a very small sample of the hyperlocal sites that are out there. For a more exhaustive list please have a look at the excellent Openly Local Hyperlocal Sites Map. We may update this list from time to time but recommend that if you run a hyperlocal site you add it to the Openly Local Map.
