Center for Citizen Media luminary and Lisa Williams launched Placeblogger on January 1st, an OPLM directory of (predominantly, but not exclusively) US placeblogs. What's a placeblog? From the site FAQ:
"A placeblog is an act of sustained attention to a particular place over time
It can be done by one person, a defined group of people, or in a way that’s open to community contribution
It’s not a newspaper, though it may contain random acts of journalism
It’s about the lived experience of a place"
I took my son to the Leicester in Cardboard last year, a genius exhibition put together by Leicester based art collective DOT, which pretty much recreated Leicester in cardboard. We very much enjoyed acting like Godzilla amongst a mini-version of child's hometown, but my favorite part had to be the Royal Infirmary (birthplace of child) which was covered in visitors tales of their own and others pain (most of which were pretty hilarious). I know there are a few projects around which are investigating innovative ways of creating (and redefining) local histories, narratives and networks - the most interesting of these are using various forms of geotagging and MoSoSo - Mobile Social Software.
I'm kind of more interested in the social layers of space and place that might result from placeblogging, but I like the concept of placeblogging as a specialized form of activity, and I'd be interested to test out the different kinds of ways it could be used within communities. & if someone entertaining enough started blogging about my area, I'd certainly be a regular reader.
Jay Rosen, a site advisor on the Placeblogger launch
From the 7 August 2006 Citizen Journalism Unconference:
Lisa Williams Placeblogs session notes
Lisa Williams panel overview from the 5 October 2006 Citizens Media Summit II
Congratulations on the new job & blog. I've just had a look at placeblogger - looks fun - I just wish I was still living in Papua New Guinea, as there wasn't anything for there. (When I looked at the one claiming to be in Portsmouth, the map had it somewhere just East of Newcastle-upon-tyne city centre...)
I'll email you in the next few days - looks like the Edublog thing went well - and I love that Duck site!
Emma
P.S. Thailand at Christmas comes highly recommended - I want to be a mahoot [elephant rider]
Posted by: Emmadw | January 04, 2007 at 01:49 PM
The Cornwall placeblog seems to fare about the same - maybe Newcastle is some UK placeblogging magnet - either that or their mapping software is even worse than Flickr's is right now.
Look forward to hearing from you Em and thanks fr the good wishes!
Posted by: Josie | January 07, 2007 at 08:14 PM