Placeblogger Goes Live

Lisa Williams started up H2Otown.info as a community site about Watertown. For ease we'll call it a blog. It's a site with dated entries that flow chronologically – but it welcomes community members to sign up, log in, and share their news about Watertown. Inspired locally relevant blogging. You'll find mentions of cars who's mirrors were smashed off to the large explosion at a gas station last month. Things you may not find out about from MSM, especially when Boston often takes the spotlight (and Watertown isn't even outside the 128 belt). H2Otown fits the definition of what she calls Placeblogs. The definition from Placeblogger:

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

After they flipped the switch to push Placeblogger.com live just after midnight on New Years the full directory of placeblogs became live. It's full of blogs, wikis, livejournal communities, and more. Along with the directory are front page features about placeblogging, placebloggers, and news items relating to placeblogs. It's a wonderful resource for locally focused blogs, if you're ever considering a move we highly recommend surfing around to find out if there is a placeblog that can help you gauge the new community. In addition to Lisa Williams' efforts a team of advisors including Dan Gilmor from the Center for Citizen Media, Jay Rosen of PressThink, and Susan Mernit from Susan Mernit's Blog.