Blog news
Two people who are trying just that are blogging the process (and keeping the nature and name of their organization on the hush-hush for now). Be sure to read the chicken-and-egg post about registering with the state.
The owners of three Cayuga ducks and two Wyandotte chickens are blogging to keep Cambridge from banning their pets. Read more
The thing that got me where I am today are blogs. Five years ago last month I started the current incarnation of Universal Hub (yes, of course, I completely forgot the anniversary; no, I am not this bad with birthdays and wedding anniversaries). This month, I'm starting up a revamped (hopefully better) Boston blog directory. It still needs some work (non-Bostonians will notice the lack of pages for their towns; don't worry, the info is all there, I will fix that), but with that caveat, let me know what you think. Read more
MySecretBoston officially launches next week, but this online guide to "hidden" cool stuff in Boston already has an impressive number of finds online. It's an attractive site and has some attitude (and, personally, as a Drupal geek, I'm fond of their choice in content management systems). Read more
The Globe interviews Kelly Young, whose Braving the BPS Lottery has been a great resource for parents in the West Zone (Roslindale, West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain) dealing with the issue of school choice for their pre-schoolers and impending kindergarteners.
Patch, which is AOL's latest effort to blow through millions of dollars hyperlocal play, is looking to bust out of its current Tri-State playpen and move into the Boston area, starting with Sudbury. They're looking to hire somebody to compile descriptions of businesses and organizations in Sudbury, which is almost as affluent as Wellesley or Concord, just a lot quieter. Says you can make $400-$1,000 a week for up to six months doing this. They think it's going to take six months to do profiles of every business on Rte. 20? Huh!
Then you probably remember Marjorie Arons-Barron (how could you forget a name like that?). She's blogging now. In addition to politics and media, she's writing about theater and movies.
Via Richard Howe.
The Boston Haitian Reporter is collecting and posting information about the 7.0 earthquake today.
Ed. disclaimer: I do some work for the site's owners.
Local greenies have set up Green Mass. Group to chat about Jill Stein and environmental issues: Read more
The Urban Paramedic reports Army doctors wouldn't let him go because he's on Plavix and they were worried that if he got shot, he'd bleed out. So instead he'll serve out his JAG duties somewhere safer, like right here in the US.
Dave Alpert reports he was at his local coffeeshop with his laptop, trying to think what to post about today, when he was accosted by a very large man brandishing a knife:
... He started opening the blade as he approached me, but suddenly stopped a few feet away and said, “Wanna buy it?” Then, he approached two girls sitting at the next table as I got up to alert the manager. He left. Apparently, we weren’t the first because as the manager ran out the door to find the guy, he found the man surrounded by police near the corner of Huntington Ave. ...
The Boston paramedic turned Army Reserve lawyer is shipping out to Iraq and will be blogging law in a combat zone.
Does the fact that Paul Pierce's new boston.com blog is really "as told to" rather than something from his own hand detract from it in any way? At least the Globe is up front (well, bottom of blog) about the fact that reporter Julian Benbow is the one actually composing the sentences that appear on screen; it's not like they hired somebody like this.
Too often, blogging is characterized as a chance to sit down at the computer and yammer away to our heart's content, without much editing, planning, or, umm, thinking. And then we expect the world to somehow discover and embrace our pearls of wisdom. Read more
Social Media Guidance & Best Practices - Some of it's specific to state-government bloggers, but some of the advice (like the stuff on knowing your audience) is fun for the whole family.
Where's an obit for Milt Raymond?... What reminiscences have folks of Milt Raymond?...
Looks like Huffington Post, which already has local sites in Chicago, New York and Denver, might be getting closer to Boston - it's set up a Boston People Twitter list. But then again, if you look at the other lists they have, one is called Boise Sports.
Via Steve Garfield.
Patrick at Red Mass Group points out that David and others at Blue Mass Group are grasping for straws with their argument that Scott Brown is violating elections law. He points out that Martha Coakley is doing the exact same thing, too.
Valleywag reports the daily shopping e-mail newsletter for women is shutting its Boston edition now that Comcast, which paid $125 million for the operation a year or so ago, realizes there's no way it can recoup its investment fully staffing the provincial towns outside New York and a few other large cities. Boston subscribers will instead get an "everywhere" edition with a couple of Boston tidbits thrown in now and again.
Greg Cook, who covers New England arts news on his New England Journal of Aesthetic Research (including some scoops on the Rose Art Museum situation), has won a $30,000 grant from the Creative Capital and Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program:
Representing a range of genres from scholarly studies to self-published blogs, the twenty-six selected projects are united by their dual commitment to the craft of writing and the advancement of critical discourse on contemporary visual art.
The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy is now blog enabled.
Via NorthEndWaterfront.com.
WBUR reports on KennedySeat.com, the anonymously penned (um, typed) Web site that's keeping tabs on the Senate race like nobody's business. Reporter Monica Brady-Myerov gets the writer to dish a few details about himself (he's 29 and worked on Beacon Hill) and reports the site has put the fear of God into at least some people working on campaigns:
... But [the anonymity] is also a concern, according to an aide on one of the Senate campaigns who doesn't want to be named for fear of crossing the influential Web site. ...
Which gets a total of 550 visitors a day, most of them, apparently, campaign insiders.
More