JEEcamp 2009: Hyper-local news and social media networking
After Kyle MacRae’s JEECamp keynote speech there were several breakout sessions on community management, new business models and tips for finding funding. However, the main recurring theme was how the digital age has changed the nature of local media – with regional newspapers under threat it seems hyper-local projects are the great new hopes.
Hyper-local News
James Hatts, editor of London SE1, summed up the essence of hyper-local news by saying “if you do these things right then there is a lot of goodwill out there” and those concerned about their area “will care that it’s well reported on and that there is a sense of community and information sharing“.
However, he spoke of the sector’s difficulties in developing enough revenue and argued that Google Adsense needs to be easier to use for advertisers:
“There’s an obvious synergy between sites that celebrate a sense of place and the local independent businesses, but at the moment it is difficult to make money from the referrals. There’s a real opportunity there for bridging the gap.”
Meanwhile Sue Greenwood demonstrated Sweeble, a site allowing community websites to be easily converted into a print product. She believes combining a blog and a hyper-local newsletter might be a feasible economic model. Then James Fryer from SoGlos.com reiterated the importance of SEO, and signalled a changing of the guard, as Google still sends 70% of their traffic despite links with traditional media outlets.
Social media networking
The ethos of Jeecamp was informality and many smaller huddles had formed to discuss issues relevant to them. Christian Payne (aka Documentally), from Our Man Inside, talked about how freelancers can best utilise the sense of reciprocity inherent in social media to make contacts.
The photographer and new media consultant, who has almost 5,000 twitter followers and 24,000 updates, sees embracing the internet as an extension and improvement on traditional methods:
“I don’t think the value of the network depends on how many people are following you, to be successful on twitter you just need to connect to the right people who are going to help amplify you.
“My social networking existed before the internet, it’s just been easy for me to migrate into the digital world – the difference is I can hold 50 conversations a day instead of two.”
Photos taken by kasperbs and These Digital Times on Flickr, video shot by Kasper Sorensen on Vimeo.
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Pingback on May 10th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
[...] JEEcamp 2009: Hyper-local news and social media networking « Michael Haddon James Hatts, editor of London SE1, summed up the essence of hyper-local news by saying “if you do these things right then there is a lot of goodwill out there” and those concerned about their area “will care that it’s well reported on and that there is a sense of community and information sharing“. (tags: hyperlocal blogs se1) [...]
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Pingback on May 11th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
[...] already been some great videos, pictures and posts from the event – see Michael Haddon’s round-up, Martin Belam’s posts and John Welsh’s blog to name but a few – but some additional [...]
April 12, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Well this is a concept, so no one should expect all the details to be there. And only 1st year work?
Awesome.