Life Time Fitness Meets Buzz
Star Tribune's Buzz.mn is definitely worth checking out for local stories written by people just like you and me. They have some true citizen-media-journalism hyperlocal placeblogging going on. I think anyone can get an account and publish.

Make sure to check the Life Time Fitness thread by nmdevitt:

Are you a member of LifeTime Fitness, which now operates all the (former) Northwest Athletic Clubs? Am I the only one who is ANGRY that the two oldest, worst-equipped clubs are in a tier (eg, St Louis Park and Crosstown) with higher monthly dues than the newer, far-better euipped clubs (eg, Chanhassen, Plymouth clubs)?

She's started a grassroots campaign and hit a serious nerve regarding Lifetime and it's fee structures. She got a story in Star Tribune (which I cannot locate in their search engine). She has managed to get her own membership terminated by the corporation (bad move, Life Time).

This would have been soooo hard to accomplish in pre-blog days.

You will note that sometimes I use "Life Time" and sometimes "Lifetime." If you go to the Life-Time site, you'll see that they are not sure who they are either.

Labels: blogging, newspapers, placeblog

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 6:28 AM |

 
Peter Speaking at U of M’s Wireless Cities Conference
Garrick beat me to the post but I'll carry on with my announcement that Garrick and I will be part of a panel at the University of Minnesota Wireless Cities Conference April 16 at Walter Library. Our panel, Media and Wireless Communities is at 3:15. We'll share the stage with Christina Lopez of the U's Digital Media Center; Jeremy Iggers, former Star Tribune restaurant critic and current Director of Twin Cities Media Alliance (parent organization of TC Daily Planet); and moderator Nora Paul, Director of the Institute for New Media Studies. The conference runs two days and the cost is $175 ($75 for U of M attendees).

I think this is going to be interesting.

Required readings... Michael Maranda on bringing folks out of isolation to tell their stories, Doc Searls on the Giant Zero, and Garrick on news by the block.

From Doc's post:

The Net is a giant zero. It puts everybody zero distance from everybody and everything else. And it supports publishing and broadcasting at costs that round to zero as well.

we don't just "deliver information" like it's a Fedex package. We inform each other. That is, we literally form what other people know.

Labels: blogging, broadband, digital_inclusion, newspapers, placeblog, UM

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 7:00 PM |

 
Placeblogging day at PF Hyper
Check the comments for this post where Lisa Williams (PlaceBlog, H2otown) drops by and promises to give up jargonese for Lent and then I found this VC blog (A VC by Fred Wilson) discussing the placeblogging idea as a "fundable opportunity."

(And check out Fred's music posts [especially if you're a Neil Young fan].)

Labels: blogging, placeblog

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 11:27 AM |

 
Hyperlocal placeblogging citizen media siting in Northeast Minneapolis
Garrick calls it hyperlocal on his latest First Crack podcast where he chats with Dan Haugen, founder of the new (est. Nov. 2006) (The) Northeast Beat blog. But that's so 20th century. For the 21st C we have: Placeblogging.

Terminology aside, it's a good interview that covers citizen media issues and specifically Dan's background and his hopes for Northeast Beat where he's just added a couple of wikis for event listings and publishing community meeting reports.

I will nominate Dan's feed to be included in the new Minneapolis Wi-Fi Portal (aka "walled garden"), currently under discussion. The goal is to have hyperlocal journalism sources (oops, placeblogs) that would be tied to an area. So in Northeast Minneapolis, Northeast Beat's feed would appear in the portal. The portal itself would be available to anyone with Wi-Fi connectivity — you don't need an Internet Service account.

So Dan, please change your current feed so it displays full posts and not just a paragraph. This is of convenience for those of us who like to read everything in one place and it may be a requirement of the portal to prevent linking out to the larger Web.

Labels: blogging, placeblog

- posted by Peter Fleck @ Permalink 9:45 AM |