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Well, it must be true now, the paper’s picked it up

It was a nice surprise as I opened the al.com website this morning and noticed an article written about John Morse’s website, bhamwiki.com.

Online encyclopedia focuses on Magic City, The Birmingham News, 11.25.2006

It’s great that they’ve mentioned this excellent source of information for the website. I freely admit that I’m one of those that has registered and who has rarely been able to post articles to the site. I only hope that enough people are not still recovering from their food coma on Thanksgiving to see this article that not only focuses on the ever expanding wiki, but also other sites that we’ve talked about on this site, including Birmingham Rewound.

One thing that I’ve realized is that while I do this for fun, it’s been interesting to notice just how many things can be covered by our local bloggers, and how much more detail we can bring to a story than traditional mainstream and alternative media. Many people will never stumble across this site, but they may stumble across the Birmingham News article in print and online several months after the story is first mentioned on a blog or a group discussion page. It demonstrates the influence that the medium has received.

Two months ago through a conversation with a gentleman in Tuscaloosa, I finally read a report written by the Pew Trust about blogging and its influence on how information is shared. We’re not reporters or journalists, though we serve that purpose for a lot of people. There are also some that have made the transition towards mainstream. We’re some folks that just have a lot of fun writing about what we see or do. Here’s a link to the report. Some of you may be interested in what it says; I know some of it definitely surprised me.

Speaking of a story not really existing until a major mainstream source picks it up, it appears that this morning’s New York Times has a story about the battle for cities to attract that elusive creative class or young professional group.

Cities compete in hipness battle to attract young people, The New York Times, November 25, 2oo6

The story focuses on the regular reasons that cities are attempting to get these people more involved in the cities with hopes of keeping them there for some time. The Times’ article will make it the issue du jour for many cities that have not quite picked up on the importance of this group, meaning that many cities will have to examine what they already offer and determine how to make their city stand out. The hope is that Birmingham, Alabama will continue to stand out as one of the cities that got involved early on.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving meal and that you did not get trampled too badly yesterday if you ventured out of the house to shop. Enjoy the day, and we’ll see what else we can show you. I have to hope that these images from this recent trip can be posted before ND v. USC tonight 🙂

Cheers.

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