Boston Blogs

Some of you may have noticed that little blue "Boston Blogs" logo that popped up over on the right a couple weeks ago. Here's the deal on what could become a cool new resource for Boston-area bloggers and their readers:

First and foremost, Boston Blogs are about Boston. We're local bloggers who live, breathe and eat Boston. Founding members include Universal Hub, Exploit Boston, Hub Blog, Off On A Tangent, Car Pundit, The City Record and Boston News-Letter, One Smoot Short of a Bridge and Bunkosquad.

We're going to see if we can practice some serious citizen journalism, foster the local blog community, have fun and, yes, make some money.

Citizen journalism. There are more than 1,000 bloggers in the Boston area. Can we expand on the Universal Hub concept and create a system that brings even more local news to local readers? Are there stories out there we can do a better job on than the MSM? You bet!

Blog fostering. 1,000 people is a big enough community to warrant its own news source. Our central site, www.bostonblogs.com, is THE place to turn for news of the local blogosphere - who's doing cool stuff, who's making news, who's doing cool stuff, who's new. It also features a directory of local blogs, currently organized by neighborhood, topic and alphabetically (with a mini-directory by T stop to come).

There are some wicked knowledgeable people around here. Let's do informal how-to sessions on making better blogs - on everything from choosing the right blog software to tips on better photography.

Have fun. Let's get together every so often - just to meet the people behind all those blogs you read.

Make some money. We're not the only ones who live, breathe and eat Boston. Our readers do, as well. We're building an advertising platform that will link local businesses with the sorts of services our readers might want.

But what do you think? Let us know (especially if you're a local blogger interested in participating in the network).

-- Adam Gaffin and Susan Kaup