There is some wonderful hyperlocal stuff going on in the UK. People are up to all sorts of things on the web from working out what bands are on, when the quiz night is down the pub, rounding up local news, to fighting campaigns on planning decisions, to city-wide discussions or telling people about the jumble sale at the school, or even tackling local corruption and bad governance. The net result is empowered, effective people and local communities that define their place online, know what is going on and have a powerful voice.
Lots of people are coming on board to help out – from folk getting on with it themselves to new start ups, bits of government to big newspaper groups. There are all sorts of approaches from people out to make a million, to people purely committed to public service, to people doing clever tech things, to people trying to find the future for their media company.
The three of us are involved in very different hyperlocal projects. We are committed to a wonderful diverse hyperlocal future for the UK. We want to make sure the energy created as people jostle for position is positive and collaborative, coming together to meet all our aims and more importantly support the a digital future for all.
So where are we going with this? Well we want to know if hyperlocal people in the UK are up for some sort of ‘UK Hyperlocal Alliance’ (working title) dedicated to a positive future for hyperlocal content in the UK. This isn’t an attempt to form a trade body or a union or a lobby group, just a simple web resource where we can sign up to a simple statement of intent, get in touch with each other and tell our stories.
Let us know by commenting on this post – if we get say 20 people who will go with it, then we shall listen and take things forward. We shall try to keep things free and simple.
Look forward to hearing from you.
William Perrin – Talk About Local
Dominic Campbell – FutureGov
Kalvir Sandhu – Hophive
William Perrin
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Always happy to help!
You know I’ll be in.
PledgeBank!
Count me in.
Oh yes, I’m in!
I’d like to help – maybe get some of the Open Street Map ppl involved too.
Definitely … now is the right time. Reawakens memories of UK Communities Online network in the late 90s. I’ll see if some of the old crew are around to lend support and maybe lessons learned.
“This isn’t an attempt to form a trade body or a union or a lobby group, just a simple web resource where we can sign up to a simple statement of intent, get in touch with each other and tell our stories.”
“We shall try to keep things free and simple. ”
Agree with keep it simple…. but there will be pressure to organise, incorporate, take funding, share out jobs. Tuttle is organising consultancy … Colalife is planning to incoporate.
Ooops, you just wanted yes. YES!
Count me in too!
Happy to help if I can.
Big fat yes 🙂
Hyper-Local Alliance – or the Very Independent Publishers Club – it’s all the same to me…
I’m game.
The simple and short answer is – yes, I’d love to be involved in this growing and exciting phase in the use of the internet.
speaking on behalf of the Transition web project, yes. We are putting quite some time and energy into a sharing engine for pure p2p distribution and re-distribution of stuff in a solidly de-centralised manner. Would be happy to help, and keen to hear more about what you’re up to.
Yes we can! (Sorry.) I am behind this and am happy to do whatever I can to support an alliance. I don’t really like the word “hyperlocal” though – can’t we just reclaim the word “local” back from local authorities?
yes definitely
I’ve been involved in setting up and using (hyper) local Usenet groups and mailing lists for about 14 years. I’m in.
oh and I’m working with the people at People’s Voice Media/Community Reporters – will def see what they say http://peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/community-reporters-program
Well I am a Hyperlocal evangelist too. I run TowcesterNews for two years, sell the advertising, get the content, take the pictures and above all engage. It is great, the site is now getting between 5500 and 6500 visitors a week.
I effectively run it as a daily local newspaper and I am a big fan of Twitter. http://www.twitter.com/towcesternews – count me in
Yes would love to be involved 🙂
Yes, please count me in, very important in both my work and personal activities
Count me in at Harringay Online
Absolutely agree and is something I’ve been advocating. You can count me in.
Interested here
Absolutely yes.
Always happy to help out – make a real go of this!
definitely interested in being involved
Count me in too – and I must tell Eileen Conn in Peckham about this (she just got an MBE, or was it an OBE, for her grassroots hyper-local efforts!).
I’d already been talking with her about exactly this kind of project…
Cheers,
Matthew
Apologies for the late comment with this. Count me in. With bells on. 🙂
Really interested in this. I’d like to think that should there be a need for lobbying or joint action amongst local bloggers then this group could be a route to making this happen. May the ‘Power of Birmingham’ be with you!
Dave
Yes, definitely want to be involved!
(Catching up) I’m in. Best to go into these things mob-handed I feel. 😉
Just starting, but we’ll get there. So interested in this. Paul
Great idea and I’d love to be involved.
Interested to know more…
Very keen to get involved – our Work at Community Links around digital engagement is at a fairly early stage – but we are an organisation with many community projects which could connect. My own background in running a community press connected to a national network of publishers (The Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers) could also contribute to establishing a national alliance. Thanks for the Invitation!
This was kindof what I was driving at in this post http://digitalengagement.org/2009/04/21/local-hubs-for-local-people/
Not that well apparently as some points seemed misunderstood.
So, yes, count me in.
Definitely. Yes. Just setting up my first hyperlocal site now.
Yes, sounds good.
Me too!
We’re in (speaking for Patient Opinion)!
We got some mashable content now – RSS/Atom feeds for your local health services – and plan to add something a bit more geographic to the site for your hyperlocal use.
Yes, I’d like to hear more!
Sound’s interesting, put me down as a definite “yes” !
As someone who is really working in physical (if not virtual) isolation, then this is a wonderful idea! I’ve already picked up some useful ideas!
Hyperlocal is a reality in London and you should speak to this group: http://www.londonvoices.com
I’m a very active member of a local message board. Happy to spread the word…
Media Trust and the national Digital Mentors programme is very happy to be involved.
Yes, count me in. Don’t see why it shouldn’t be possible to keep it free and simple.
would be great for those doing start-ups to have some kind of power-to-your-elbow information resource Mothership kind of thing. !
I am in from Edinburgh please
I’d like to be involved with this – have just set up my own local area blog and would be happy to help out.
People’s Voice Media is in gary
Count me in. We are developing 20 hyperlocal sites around Cumbria and working on model which shares ad revenue with local correspondents
Definitely up for it. Would be good to be able to get advice and support from other people running hyper local blogs across the UK – learn from each other.
We are keen to support and get involved.
Count me in
I’m virtually with you already!
yes count me in. I want us to have support systems for local resilent well connected networks of people keen to improve their local neighbourhoods. So anything which helps the activists fits well.
yes count me in. I want us to have support systems for local resilent well connected networks of people keen to improve their local neighbourhoods and strengthen their communities. So anything which helps the activists fits well.
Hi William
Good to see your new endeavour is off to a flying start. We are really interested in seeing how you get on – please get in touch if you are up for doing anything linking in with local councils.
Daniel
This sounds great and I’m happy to help if I can. Please tell me more about your plans.
This is a really exciting initiative. I do hope it succeeds. If I can help in any way, please, just let me know.
would love to be involved, but our blog has been running for 6 years, how do we keep all that info if we migrate?
Keep me posted – I’m looking to help a north Sheffield regeneration organisation set something up to complement the community magazine they publish.
happy to help if there is anything I can do. You’ve got way more than 20 now…what next?
i’m in 🙂
.. and another one from me!
People on the ground are the ones that make the news and have have campaigns to tell others about.
Like the way this is linking the networks of hyper-local sites so all can share from each other.
Happy to help with national sharing if I can
Happy to help if I can.
count me in – happy to help
Count me in!
The Young Foundation’s in too. Let us know if we can help at all
Yes please. Definately interested in getting involved.
Keep all us citizens at the People’s Republic of South Devon in the loop too, please.
All the best
woooo hooo – great to see the ball rolling faster and faster and yes the need for these sites is huge – but there is also a huge need to join them up and to keep the momentum on content and marketing of local sites and encourage the sense of local ownership
exciting to be part of it all – and have been now for 9 years …
local is just lovely!!
and to reiterate Tom – pledgebank!!
Sign me up. It’s going to be good to share ideas with everyone.
Would love to be involved and learn from the hyperlocal community!
As a member of the ‘other side’ of local (as I work for a marketing agency that is focussed on providing new and genuine ways of engaging with local communities) I’d be really interested in joining up. Great to see new networks of great local content and real passion behind the subject.
I am very interested in this.
I have owned or be been involved in several ‘local’ sites for my town for the last 4 years. I am particularly interested in Data Models, APIs and Web Services etc. In other words I like ‘connecting’ different, but related, sites. I believe in the long term it may be very useful if different local communities could share data to form a wider network. e.g on my Visit Horsham website people can search for businesses who stock certain brands. Wouldn’t it be great if my search page could also search neighbouring ‘local’ websites because they provided a web service with a compatible data model? IMO the ideal would be to have a national network of truly independent, but connected, ‘local’ sites.
I am also involved with Facebook programming. The recent exponential growth of Facebook in the wider population has provided us with a fantastic opportunity to engage with local people both within Facebook AND external sites. I believe the Facebook profile (or to a lesser extent the Open Social equivalent) could provide the ideal method of connecting people between otherwise non compatible [social] networks.
I would really like to discuss these ideas further with like minded individuals.
Gavin
I’d be very interested in registering the South Leeds Information Project as an active member of the Alliance. We’re looking for funding to set up such an enterprise. Count me in!
We are currently developing a Community Infopoint to be located in PO and local shop windows which will display local classified ads, local information and events and community messaging platform for local councils.
We would be very interested in sharing our thoughts and findings on hyperlocal, community empowerment etc
Rgds
Gary Coyle
The Community Media Association would support such an initiative, provided it includes the community broadcasting sector using the airwaves as well as online presence – community radio is by definition “hyper local”, though like Helen I am not keen on that title – what is wrong with the words that define communittes/estates etc – local, community etc…
Full support from me and LoveClapham. My only request would be for any visitor/consumer facing site to use just local instead of ‘hyperlocal’ to make it clearer.
Sounds like a great idea. Would be great to share ideas and experiences.
I’d be interested to see how this develops and to share thoughts about the UK’s hyperlocal future. How do you plan to take things forward?
Just starting up in Toronto. Any interest in doing a cross the pond link and collaborating? Just returned from London and hats off to you…great city!
Peter
Would welcome comments on this trial hyperlocal service http://www.bispham.info in part of Blackpool. Part slide show, part magazine, part blog, I will add radio interview material in place of the music soon.
I would be interested in working with anyone involved in local internet TV. I own the software which runs thames-gateway.tv, inspired-stories.tv, loughtontv.com and others. I’m looking for ways to make it freely available to more local communities.