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Local Civic Blogosphere

It's starting to happen: a cluster of weblogs and podcasts in a small geographic area that are at least occasionally devoted to civic matters -- Northfield, Minnesota's civic blogosphere. (Definition of blogosphere: the intellectual cyberspace occupied by a subset bloggers.)

NCO has been working on making weblogs a tool for strengthening the civic fabric of the area, both for individual citizens, local leaders, and local non-profit organizations since early 2004. We added podcasting to our efforts in late 2005.

Why?

We think it's good for democracy for citizens to be more than passive consumers of media. We see weblogs and podcasts as tools that can be used for "conversational journalism" or "citizen-driven journalism," a unique way to have a dialogue among separate sources of information that's not otherwise easily done.

We think it's possible that the collective wisdom of Northfield's Civic Blogosphere (citizens, community leaders, public officials, government staff) can help improve the effectiveness of local government.

If you're interested in starting a weblog or a podcast, talking to someone about them, know of another one in the area that should be listed here, or in helping us with this effort, attach a comment here or contact us.

Area government officials with weblogs

Area organization leaders with weblogs

Area non-profit organizations with weblogs

Area citizens with weblogs

Area podcasters