Cityscapes

[Linkmeister]

I just ran across a new group blogging idea. It's called Metroblogging, and so far Honolulu is not represented. 10 bloggers are required from each city; so far they have 10 cities. I just read the FAQ, and I wondered if it's interesting to any of us Honolulans.

[adrian]

Re: Cityscapes

What about someone who travels to Honolulu on a daily basis?

[pzarquon]

Re: Cityscapes

Wow. Looks like fun! There's no reason why one couldn't start their own metro-focused group weblog (cough HawaiiStories cough cough), but being part of a larger network could be more fun... or at least give you an audience beyond others in town. I'll sign up if you will, Link!

I see some cities have photos incorporated, others don't. Honolulu offers plenty to see, in addition to stuff to read. Wonder if they'll support mobloggers, too?

[Mocha]

Re: Cityscapes

Sorry in advance as this may be a really "stupid" question, but WHAT is blogging? I've read about it on another thread but never asked.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Cityscapes

Sorry in advance as this may be a really "stupid" question, but WHAT is blogging? I've read about it on another thread but never asked.

Ryan can give you the technical details. For an example of a group blog, you could look at Hawaii Stories, as he suggested. It's basically whatever the author wants it to be, in the case of individual blogs. I've seen subjects as diverse as politics, medicine, soup, day-to-day life, and on and on. Mine is fairly general, although if I categorized it would probably be about 65% national politics. Somehow I keep finding enough to yammer about that I've been doing it for close to three years now.

Ryan, I'll sign up, but I don't get out and about a lot to add much about Honolulu's daily life other than the papers, unless Waimalu counts.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Cityscapes

Sorry in advance as this may be a really "stupid" question, but WHAT is blogging? I've read about it on another thread but never asked.

It's short for "web logging", the keeping of a web-based journal or log (web log > weblog > blog).

[pzarquon]

Re: Cityscapes

Sorry in advance as this may be a really "stupid" question, but WHAT is blogging? I've read about it on another thread but never asked.

Blogging is an awful word that is the verb form of 'blog, which is the slang/shortened version of the word weblog. As for what is a weblog, the Wikipedia has a pretty good, comprehensive article that I'd recommend you check out.

As Link noted, a weblog can be personal, it can be political, it can be professional... basically, the term has come to encompass nearly all types of "personal publishing" on the web, which has prompted some old-timers to declare the word pointless. After all, you can just as easily say, "I have a website." Sadly, saying "I have a blog!" is too cool to resist.

HawaiiStories.com - a sister site of HawaiiThreads.com -- is a community weblog (multiple contributors post to the main site), but it also hosts individual weblogs. See Alaska transplant and Zippy's employee James, or Waikiki philosopher Ron, or Chinatown maven Lynn.

If you (or anyone) wants to give blogging a try, drop me a line. As long as you've got something to say, and have a tie to the islands, we'll happily set you up with a weblog... free!

[scrivener]

Re: Cityscapes

Blogging is an awful word that is the verb form of 'blog,

Holy Cow. Thank you so much for saying that. Seriously.

And Link, I echo what Ryan says about both HawiiStories AND the Metblogging thing--if you sign up, I will, too.

[pzarquon]

Re: Cityscapes

I applied, so if you and Link go ahead, three inquiries should be enough to get us noticed. (They have a ten-contributor threshold to be listed, but presumably a lower count to start specifically soliciting members.)

I think I'll drop them a line, separately, and see what's up. A lot of other sites with regional breakdowns tend to give Hawaii a special exemption, allowing the whole state to qualify as a node rather than just Honolulu specifically. If we can have Big Island and other representation, we'd easily find enough contributors to make for a most interesting "metroblog."

Meanwhile, I can't believe I didn't make the connection sooner: Metroblogging seems somewhat derivitave of The City Stories Project, for which I once considered recruiting island contributors. HawaiiStories.com could have been a node on that network, but ended up being something independent.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Cityscapes

I just applied, for what it's worth. For frequency of posting I told 'em twice a week.

[pzarquon]

Re: Cityscapes

Within fifteen minutes of e-mailing them, I got a reply from Metroblogging founder Sean Bonner:

They'd be happy to set all of Hawaii as a "metro area" to get started - welcoming contributions from Waikiki to Kea`au - as they faced the same question with places like the Carribean. Of course, if the site grows to the point where there are enough contributors in Honolulu proper, they can split things off then.

The cutoff to make "Coming Soon" is five. Got any blog-happy friends?

[scrivener]

Re: Cityscapes

Okay. I'm in.

For the "Why" question, I answered, "Why not?" Do you think that's a reason not to "accept" my application?

[mel]

Re: Cityscapes

I signed up for this thing. There is a category for "hawaii" but I also put in "honolulu" for other city.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Cityscapes

Mel can you post the URL in this thread? Thanks

[pzarquon]

Re: Cityscapes

Craig, Link's initial post had the hyperlink, but the site is Metroblogging.com. And indeed, as Mel noted, sometime yesterday they added "Hawaii" to the list of areas you can apply for.

To get an idea of what other cities are doing, be sure to check out the metroblogs for Seattle, Chicago, and the like. (Why Los Angeles is a separate site off the "network" I'm not quite sure.) Everything from where to eat to what I did today.

I wonder if it'll be okay to crosspost the same stuff to both the metroblog network and other group blogs like HawaiiStories (or our own personal blogs)? It's hard enough keeping fresh stuff flowing elsewhere without generating something entirely new for another site.