So bloggers (and commenters, and other members of blogging community)...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jessie Newburn on June 16, 2009 at 8:45pm

There's a cultural habit needed to understand the concept and value of tagging information. I think you're doing great work. But hardly is your mission about data and reporting. At least that's my two cents. It's about MoJo in HoCo. And that requires an attitude change, behavior shift, new habits.

Friendly, easy events are great ways to introduce social media concepts. Hence, Ms. Ilana, why @spiraleyes and I were so intent with our American City Girls parties. They were much about introducing into networks the concepts and principles of profiles, connections, tagging content and linking, linking, linking.

What about at your own party you co-hosted with twentyfivefortyfive. There wasn't even a twitter hashtag for the event. You're a community leader. You've taken a stand with this project. It's not about the data. It's about the MoJo. The perspectives. The individual views. That's the shift afoot. Gotta get people tagging content, using hashtags. All Howard County events from here on out should have hashtags. People should be encouraged to tag photos, videos and blogs. Ja? You have a great position from which to do this.

My assumption is that HoCoMoJo will take off and iteratively develop into a way cool platform and experience. But with the articulated, modeled and strengthened habits of mobile journalism, you got a looooong road in front of you.

Doing my best to help.

Permalink Reply by Teddy Faley on June 17, 2009 at 12:18am

Well I'll tell ya what I think...

I think that I have written to the HocoMojo twitter account way too many times to have not been written back yet.

Excuse my bitterness. It just that it saddens me. And makes me feel like less of a man.

Hurumph.

- Teddy Faley

Permalink Reply by Ilana Bittner on June 17, 2009 at 11:04pm

Hi Jessie,

Thanks for your feedback. Its kind of you to jump in a catalyze a discussion. Actually, a primary focus of our mission is about data and reporting. The concept started as the Post and Sun pulled their staff out of the county and the Flier kept shrinking on our doorstep. We kept saying "We're a community of 300,000, someone should be doing this better." As we found ourselves continuing to complain about it, we realized that we were in a unique position to offer a new approach. After 15 years in the media business with Pixel Workshop, we already had the video, audio, and computer equipment required to offer broadcast-quality and broadcast-style journalism for HoCo. As active, connected members of the community we already had access to stories and newsmakers without having to start from scratch.

As we started to explore different approaches to the web development, we found the Ning platform and thought that using it would provide additional services to the community like the calendar and forums. So we've built the container and are starting to fill it with content. Over the summer, (during this open beta period) we're exploring how we want to cover different kinds of stories and working through the trial and error of content creation under the hectic time constraints required for a reliable news site.

Some of the programming ideas we're exploring include: a "Sunday morning talk show style" weekly community issues program, a one-one-one interview program (perhaps with a live audience), a man-on-the-street community issues program, and a variety of personality-driven radio-style programs. Non-programming ideas we're exploring include having weekly happy-hour gatherings for community discussions of a different pre-determined issue each week, co-hosting a local TED conference, and Geocacheing contests around the county, just to name a few.

In terms of hashtag, as you know we're using #HoCoMoJo for news-related Tweets, along with your brainchild the #HoCo for social Tweets. Honestly, I didn't think of creating a # for the twentyfivefortyfive after party, but I'm not sure a cocktail party is meaty enough to need its own #. It seems to me that for the number of people Tweeting in HoCo at the moment, the #HoCoMoJo and #HoCo tag seem to be sufficient, and people are starting to contribute and use the hocomojo hash tag. While we're getting started it doesn't seem wise to dilute and potentially confuse people by adding a bunch of arbitrary tags. This will surely evolve, of course.

Permalink Reply by Ilana Bittner on June 17, 2009 at 11:09pm

Teddy,

Looking back, I only see 2 @ replies. The first, about a local recording artist, I just missed it. You sent it just after we returned from a week at sea and I had 3500 emails and a few dozen voice mails to respond to, and Twitter took to the back-burner for a few days. The second one I see was a snarky comment about Centennial alum that you sent after we Tweeted about 2 of them appearing during the Tony Awards opening number. We're happy to be snarky with our personal accounts, but we're sticking to my mom's long-standing advice "If you don't have something nice to say...." for responding to comments.

BTW, my husband went to Centennial, my kids with go to Oakland Mills (unless we get re-redistricted in which case they'd go to Hammond) and my nephew goes to Wilde Lake. We have good friends that teach at Hebron, River Hill and Marriotts Ridge. So, we're pretty even-keeled about high school competitiveness. : ~)

Permalink Reply by Teddy Faley on June 18, 2009 at 4:10am

My apologies Ilana, I meant my post in jest.

As a matter of fact, I only included the "less of a man" after I read what I had written and became concerned that I would be taken as a jerk, as opposed to the more tongue in cheek vibe that I was going for.

I know I haven't tweeted you all that much, the post was my silly internet version of pulling the pigtails of the gal who sits in front of me in reading class just because I don't know how to say "hi".

The tweet about the local musician is about myself, pay it no mind, I must have had a moment of presumptuous narcissism. I usually conduct myself a bit more humble.

But C'MON, that Centennial/OM tweet was funny. I harbor no resentment towards other schools in HC, that would be silly. But playing up the "rivalries" for jokes is healthy.

I think.

Thank you for writing back, I really meant no seriousness, have a swell day.

Permalink Reply by Jessie Newburn on June 18, 2009 at 9:25pm

Twitterville: Common Craft video. Just a nice bit of knowledge to add to any conversation about local news.

I'm thinking a list of local hashtags is a good way to add value to the growing stream of hoco-mo-jo popping up all over. Perhaps there could be some sort of wiki-like place in hocomojo to aggregate and publish this info. I've seen, of course, #hoco, which we hold no patent on. I've also seen -

#columbiamd
#longreach
#2ndchance (Second Chance Saloon)
#acshoco (Association of Community Services of Howard County)
#owenbrown

Perhaps schools and PTAs will develop hashtags and this info could be aggregated by some of the MoJo's running about in Hoco. Just thinking that there's an intentionality to layer in as the information volume increases.

Perhaps events such as the Rotary's cardboard boat regatta will have hashtags, not just for twitter, but Flickr photos and YouTube vids. @chrisbachmann used this one: #hocoboatfloat. What about Wine in the Woods? The Columbia Festival of the Arts.

My belief is that the juice for a vibrant community site, replete with news, will come less from the official reporting and more from working people's natural interest in what others are doing. That's what I get from where I stand today and from when I scan the horizon of what I see coming in the next 10-15 years. But maybe I'm too far ahead of the curve and perhaps "news" is the thing to cover now. I don't know.

Permalink Reply by Jessie Newburn on June 18, 2009 at 9:43pm

Re the hashtag for the #2545party, the opportunity is in the leadership to demonstrate and model behaviors and skills that will strengthen the core of our community. The volume of info is only going up. So info and data, in and of themselves, are, imo, meh. It's the WHO is behind and connected to the info that will become more important. People will be getting more and more of their info from people, ja? And less from institutions and organizations. They'll be connected to institutions, but more through personal relationships. "Ilana says the Columbia Foundation is a stellar organization in Howard County and trustworthy of stewarding donated funds. I trust Ilana. I trust the Col Fdn." Not a new principle by any means, but one that requires some skill to navigate the territory of explosive volumes of data in the current era.

Just being a broken record: Hashtags and making hyper-local info is where value will increase and people will flourish, sez me.

Ilana Bittner said:

Hi Jessie,

Thanks for your feedback. Its kind of you to jump in a catalyze a discussion. Actually, a primary focus of our mission is about data and reporting. The concept started as the Post and Sun pulled their staff out of the county and the Flier kept shrinking on our doorstep. We kept saying "We're a community of 300,000, someone should be doing this better." As we found ourselves continuing to complain about it, we realized that we were in a unique position to offer a new approach. After 15 years in the media business with Pixel Workshop, we already had the video, audio, and computer equipment required to offer broadcast-quality and broadcast-style journalism for HoCo. As active, connected members of the community we already had access to stories and newsmakers without having to start from scratch.

As we started to explore different approaches to the web development, we found the Ning platform and thought that using it would provide additional services to the community like the calendar and forums. So we've built the container and are starting to fill it with content. Over the summer, (during this open beta period) we're exploring how we want to cover different kinds of stories and working through the trial and error of content creation under the hectic time constraints required for a reliable news site.

Some of the programming ideas we're exploring include: a "Sunday morning talk show style" weekly community issues program, a one-one-one interview program (perhaps with a live audience), a man-on-the-street community issues program, and a variety of personality-driven radio-style programs. Non-programming ideas we're exploring include having weekly happy-hour gatherings for community discussions of a different pre-determined issue each week, co-hosting a local TED conference, and Geocacheing contests around the county, just to name a few.

In terms of hashtag, as you know we're using #HoCoMoJo for news-related Tweets, along with your brainchild the #HoCo for social Tweets. Honestly, I didn't think of creating a # for the twentyfivefortyfive after party, but I'm not sure a cocktail party is meaty enough to need its own #. It seems to me that for the number of people Tweeting in HoCo at the moment, the #HoCoMoJo and #HoCo tag seem to be sufficient, and people are starting to contribute and use the hocomojo hash tag. While we're getting started it doesn't seem wise to dilute and potentially confuse people by adding a bunch of arbitrary tags. This will surely evolve, of course.

Permalink Reply by Ilana Bittner on June 18, 2009 at 9:50pm

Ah Teddy,

No sweat. See if we were talking rather than writing you'd have seen my tongue firmly embedded in cheek. @ilanabit (my personal Twitter) just started following you so we can connect there as well.

Warmly,
ilana

Permalink Reply by Ilana Bittner on June 18, 2009 at 9:54pm

Jessie,

I like the idea in concept, but the thing about hashtags (and this my be because I'm overly verbose) is that they can take up an pretty big % of your 140 characters. #HoCoMoJo adds 10 character to any Tweet. So I think the trick is in coding them so people can remember but making them short enough to not interfere with a complete thought.

Permalink Reply by Jessie Newburn on June 20, 2009 at 11:38am

I think there is an emerging style offered by twitter to write posts that include #hashtags as part of statement, as opposed to an add-on that takes up space. Currently listening to/participating in conversation on the "Future of Journalism." So believe in the power of local news/mojo. So believe #hashtags are part of this process. Gotta tag content.

Ilana Bittner said:

Jessie,

I like the idea in concept, but the thing about hashtags (and this my be because I'm overly verbose) is that they can take up an pretty big % of your 140 characters. #HoCoMoJo adds 10 character to any Tweet. So I think the trick is in coding them so people can remember but making them short enough to not interfere with a complete thought.