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What makes local sites hum?

By Dave Winer on Monday, March 07, 2011 at 11:23 AM.

A picture named robot.gifLately it's dawning on people that the mass aggregators of local information aren't achieving critical mass among the locals. Outside.in, a site that never made much sense to me, sold to AOL for $10 million. A lot less money than the VCs had invested in it. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Anyway, I thought now would be a good time to remind that in spots around the world and even in the US, local sites are kicking butt. Here in NYC, we have quite a few. I keep an aggregator of East Village blogs. Pretty interesting reading. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

A couple of my favorites, close to home and a former home are NYU Local and Berkeleyside.  Permanent link to this item in the archive.

I think the common thing is people who care. Who wants to read local news prepared by software. I find it interesting to know what interests people near me. I find the idea of an algorithm making the choices to be sterile, void of nutrients. Unhappy! Permanent link to this item in the archive.

Hey even the curmudgeonly Berkeley Daily Planet has a pretty decent website these days (few offsite links, but hey that's who they are). Permanent link to this item in the archive.
About the author

A picture named daveTiny.jpgDave Winer, 55, is a visiting scholar at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. He pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master's in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor's in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in New York City.

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