The Hyperlocalist

From The Daily Camera (Boulder, CO):

Residents of one south Boulder neighborhood can get the Boardman Camera personally delivered once a week by the publisher (who is also the editor, reporter, illustrator, ads salesman, circulation manager and distributor): 11-year-old Eli Boardman.

Last weekend, Eli, who started the paper when he was just 6, celebrated the Boardman Camera’s five-year anniversary and 200th edition with a neighborhood party.

The Boardman Camera is Eli’s second attempt at running a newspaper. The first incarnation, the Boardman Enterprise, began when Eli was 3 and fizzled out after a bit. But the Camera has gained a strong following.

Naturally my first thought was: Fuck this kid. But to be truthful, I’m only angry with myself for not moving forward with my own hyperlocal project. Fuck me.

Time to get down to business.

In a nutshell, people in remote areas of India can report and receive news via cell phone. Terrific.

The cool thing that’s got me salivating over this story: the same practice can be applied to low-income neighborhoods where internet access is hard to come by, where hyperlocal coverage is lacking, and where English is not the primary language.

Hooray for the ubiquity of cell phones!

A Canadian news site is hauling in revenue by having their employees give continuing-ed classes in the newsroom.

That’s fucking genius. Now how to scale that to a smaller organization with a virtual newsroom?

Just some stuff I plan to dissect line by line, then blog about with the same convulsive venom you’ve come to love.

A semimar on how to cover my neighborhood? Sure, I’ll sit through that.

New York politics are far more complicated than those of my former beat. I think a three-hour seminar is in order.