Blogging the City — DC, that is.

Alex Priest — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:41:51 +0000

So in case you don’t remember, last month’s Social Media Breakfast DC was awesome. This month’s was just as good.

The theme this time around was “Blogging the City,” with the city obviously being DC (which I love, love, love–I honestly cannot tell you how much I love living in this city). Hosted at the awesome Busboys and Poets (they’re on Twitter too: @busboysandpoets) in the U Street neighborhood, today proved that I’m definitely not the only one who loves this city. In fact, as almost all our speakers this morning put it, they love this city so much they’re willing to put in more than their fair share of the “labor of love” in order to spread the word about the fantastic events, news and opportunities our city has to offer.

The line-up of speakers was fantastic. We had the founders of WeLoveDC, FreeinDC and Borderstan presenting and they had some thought-provoking and inspiring things to say. Check below the cut for the highlights, lots of links and even a video of the speakers if you’d like to watch the event yourself!

First up we had Tom and Tiffany Bridge (@tbridge and @tiffany, respectively), the awesome, awesome creators of WeLoveDC. Outside of maybe the DC-ist (which, as far as I know, makes money and has an extremely large staff for a blog) their blog is hands-down the best for coverage of our city, and they frequently cover things more thoroughly and all-around better than anyone else, mainstream media included.

They had one of my favorite quotes of the entire morning: “Voice times obsession equals an audience,” they said [Note: I'm an idiot and somehow managed to get this quote wrong the first time], calling it one of the fundamental equations of blogging. I couldn’t agree more! There’s no doubt that when you’ve got the voice for a topic and a little obsessed, the people will simply come to you. That’s happened to them at WeLoveDC and it’s a wonderful thing to witness.

Second was the always wonderful Amy Melrose and her FreeinDC blog (tweeting @freeindcblog). I had the pleasure of getting to know her a little bit back in January at Social Justice Camp DC and it was great to see her again this morning! Her blog is hands down the best resource for free (or at least cheap) events in and around the District and if you aren’t reading it you’re simply missing out.

Amy really got me thinking when she started talking about how most people outside of the District see Washington completely differently than we, its residents, do. The media makes such a fuss about Washington being “broken” and DC being such a “mess.” Even Barack Obama has consistently driven a message of “changing the way Washington works.” Well replace Washington with “the Federal government” and you’ve got the messaging right. Sure there are issues with DC, but it’s not broken, it’s not a mess and not everything needs changing.

Don’t get me wrong–public education, public transit, crime and poverty are still issues that this city needs to confront, among others. But those issues aren’t unique to our city, and they aren’t unsolvable problems. Are they challenges? Of course. But people like us–the bloggers , the social media junkies , the conference addicts, the social justice activists–we are the ones here to change that.

Amy is doing a fantastic job communicating what greatness our city has to offer, and for free. So even the down-and-outs, the poor college students, the still-seeking-a-job-ers can witness the great cultural, historical and social aspects of our city that are so frequently overlooked by the mainstream media and those outside the beltway.

Finally, we ended with Matt Rhoades of Borderstan (@borderstan), a somewhat more specific DC-based blog, focusing on only the Dupont Circle, Logan Circle and U Street neighborhoods. But don’t write him off, those neighborhoods are some of the most interesting and vibrant neighborhoods in the District, and even if you don’t live there it’s worth reading.

Matt described his blog as “the accidental blog,” but it’s just another case of that fundamental equation Tom and Tiffany presented early on in the morning: voice x obsession = audience. There’s no doubt this man has a passion for his neighborhood, for creating a dialogue among the people that live there, and for working to make it the best place it can be. It’s truly inspiring. He’s also looking for help in the near future, so if you life in the area and are interested in helping, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Below I’ve embedded the Ustream video of the event, so if you like watch it–it’s almost like being there! By no means did I cover everything they told us in their presentations, so there’s plenty more to learn if you’ve got the time to watch.

When nature and technology collide…

Alex Priest — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:45:48 +0000

…incredible things can happen.

Image courtesy of NOAA, tsunami.gov

There’s no doubt that the earthquake in Chile today is a horrible, horrible tragedy. It’s yet another terrible reminder that we truly are at the mercy of nature–as if Haiti wasn’t proof enough. But as with Haiti, we’re witnessing an amazing case study of people coming together with technology to manage the impact of this natural disaster, and it’s truly fascinating to watch.

This morning I woke up at 6:30 a.m. and immediately read the news of the earthquake on Twitter, from my bed. I watched news coverage of the event on TV while I worked out in the gym in my apartment. I kept track of updates on the earthquake and resulting tsunami via Twitter throughout my make-up class session this morning.

When I went downtown this afternoon, I listened to NPR’s coverage of the event on my iPhone while I was biking, and then watched coverage of the impending tsunami in Hawaii via Ustream on my iPhone while at Chinatown Coffee. I continued listening to the audio from Ustream while I biked back–including in the metro thanks to relatively new wireles capability for all carriers they’ve installed in the largest metro stations in the city.

Within all of this coverage, of I heard references to Twitter, Twitpic, Posterous, Ustream, Facebook, CNN iReports, hashtags, texting, iPhones, and more.

The natural disasters, record snowstorms, unprecedented level of news coverage, and rapidly advancing online technology we’ve seen in the past three months alone prove–loud and clear–the world is changing, and fast. Social media is playing an integral role in this. I saw a tweet earlier today mentioning that Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, said one of the initial purposes driving Twitter’s development was for crisis response and management. The Haiti and Chile earthquakes prove that it’s been incredibly effective for it.

Again, this is obviously an absolutely tragic event. It’s an incredible case study for technology, but obviously one we all wish we could’ve avoided. I know my thoughts, as well as millions and millions of others’ thoughts, are with those in Chile–as well as those still recovering in Haiti–and we hope we can continue to drive the development of technology and advanced communications to ease recovery from disasters such as these.

Alex Priest » ustream

Blogging the City — DC, that is.

When nature and technology collide…