Blogosphere

Hayes Scriven is the Northfield Historical Society's Education and Exhibit Coordinator. Click for a larger view.

He joined the blogosphere last week with this post.

We're about one month away from launching our new platform here on N.org. One of the new features will be the ability to aggregate the weblog posts of local bloggers in a variety of ways.

For example, rather than just displaying the four most recent posts of each blogger as we do now, we'll be able to aggregate the most recent posts of a group of bloggers and lump them together, unidentified like this:

The Northfield Union of Youth (NUY), has a new weblog/website, so we've added their RSS feed to our right sidebar.

Recent blog posts include Mr. Sticky show (today) and the announcement that they're
hiring a new Executive Director.

More and more organizations in the area are using weblogs and RSS feeds on their websites. We add them to our civic blogosphere right sidebar on our homepage where the four most recent entry headlines are automatically imported. We also list the weblogs on the Civic Blogosphere project page. Recent addition: Friends of Way Park

More and more organizations in the area are using weblogs and RSS feeds on their websites. We add them to our civic blogosphere right sidebar on our homepage where the four most recent entry headlines are automatically imported. We also list the weblogs on the Civic Blogosphere project page.

Recent additions:

Northfield Area United Way (Elizabeth Schott)
Northfield Arts Guild Spotlight (newsfeed)
Northfield Soccer Association

If you know of an organization in the area with an RSS feed or a weblog, contact us.

For more information on RSS:
- How to read RSS Feeds
- RSS Readers

Northfield Planning Commission chair and blogger Betsey Buckheit has resigned her post... and is blogging off (includes a list of people she thanks and some suggested to-dos.)

She and her daugher Elizabeth are accompanying husband and dad Justin London, professor of music at Carleton, who is going to Cambridge for a one-year sabbatical on a Fulbright.

Tim Goodwin, Executive Director of the Northfield School of Arts and Technology (ARTech Charter School) is now a blogger, part of Northfield's civic blogosphere project. (I took the photo of Tim playing guitar at a school event last spring. Click for a larger view.)

From his intro, "Northfield is an exciting town in which to be a leader in the field of education. Northfielders show great passion towards education issues. Because of this passion for education, both in myself and in the community, I am excited to be a part of the community dialogue."

EDA Member Tracy Davis, shown at last week's ArtSwirl kickoff, is now a blogger, part of Northfield's civic blogosphere project.

From her intro: "I've been a Northfield resident for the past fifteen years, and a member of the City's Economic Development Authority for five. My service on the EDA is part of my commitment to the Northfield community... call it a labor of love."

Saturday's Northfield News carried this "Our View" opinion piece by the paper's editorial team:

Officials extend thoughts to the Web.

Some excerpts:

Northfield News reporter Adam Johnson has a story in today's paper titled: The Future is Now: A look at the Northfield blogosphere. (08.01.05 update: the article is now available on their website.)

Among those in the piece: Alex Beeby, Diane Cirksena, Ray Cox, Jim Pokorney, Gary Smith, Center for Sustainable Living, Northfield Garden Club.

After a Chapati-catered lunch on the outdoor patio and deck at The Contented Cow yesterday, International Symposium on Local E-Democracy conference participants heard from a panel of Northfield and Eden Prairie bloggers in the lower level conference room at the Archer House.

L to R: Gary Smith, Northfield Police Chief; Betsey Buckheit, Chair, Northfield Planning Commission; Ross Currier, Executive Director, Northfield Downtown Development Corporation; Scott Neal, Eden Prairie City Manager, George Esbensen, Eden Prairie Fire Chief; Dan Carlson, Eden Prairie Police Chief. See the bottom of conference page 2 of the photo album for more photos of the Northfield visit.

David Bly, Betsey Buckheit, Chip Cuccio, Kathleen Doran-Norton, Citizen Wig.

ArtOrg's website now has a weblog on their home page with an RSS feed. Dave Machecek, ArtOrg's new Executive Director (on the left in the above photo taken on Bridge Square this weekend, with Kari Albert and Brett Reese), is the chief blogger thus far. His most recent post is titled ArtOrg's Equipment-Intensive-Studio Strategy for Northfield and contains details on the arts building to be built on the Lubbers property by Mendota Homes.

So we've added ArtOrg to our Civic Blogosphere project. And like other local civic-oriented weblogs (citizens, civic leaders, non-profit organizations), we aggregate the headlines of their four most recent blog posts into the right sidebar of the Northfield.org homepage under the Blogosphere section.

Left: Alex Beeby (previous N.org post): Braving the Storm for I35 Community Discussion
Right: David Bly: Proposed I-35/Hwy 19 Development Area 4th Monday LWV Discussion

Left: Carol Overland: I-35 development: Lies, charades, outdated guidelines... what am I forgetting??? and I-35 Development in Rice County - Stinkin' thinkin'!

Center: Jim Pokorney: I35 - Are We Ready To Break the Social Compact?

Right: Marcia Walters: Fourth Monday Discussion Focuses on I-35 Development

All those bloggers allow comments to be attached to their posts but citizens can also join the I-35 discussion thread I just started on the ISSUES list.

Kathleen Doran-Norton: Health Care and the Uninsured in Northfield

"Fifty-eight out of 140 hospitals in Minnesota are offering lower prices for folks who are uninsured, according to the Star Tribune. The Northfield Hospital is not on this list, though Faribault and Owatonna's hospitals are."

Police Chief Gary Smith: Sex Offenders

"I noticed the Northfield News ran an article in this Saturday's paper about "Educating the Community About Sex Offenders." Unfortunately, the article didn't speak about the involvement of local law enforcement and the part they play in the community process... What the article did not mention... "

Rob Brown: The Union of Youth

"The Key, or The Union of Youth, is held to higher standards for some reason. I guess it's easy to pick on kids. The Key is seen by many as a hive of delinquents. There are some bad kids everywhere, right? Some of those bad kids turn into good adults when they are supported and a sense of responsibility is fostered. The Key is this amazing youth-run organization. It's full of creative young adults."