BeLocal blog

I’m here at the Media140 event in London on a panel about to discuss the future of local news journalism and distribution. One thing I’m going to share is the DM (Direct Message) from @belocal that I’d been waiting for (well hoping for); the proverbial ‘Cat stuck in tree.’ heading from one of our local (to Hessett, Suffiolk) ‘news’papers - the East Anglian Daily Time. Well ok it wasn’t exactly that headline but was close enough for me to want to highlite it here.

Cat gets head stuck in car wheel

I’m highliting it because I believe that local news stories like this whilst easily mocked are frequently of interest to local people. I found out about it using the BeLocal Twitter service which I think is starting to create new opportunities for local media, journalists and people. Follow @belocal if you’d like to try the Alpha version of the service - please leave any feedback/ideas here on this blog.

Photo: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/16/gordon-brown-digital-britain-summit

Gordon Brown will today open the Digital Britain Summit in London where “Technology and communications experts will debate how best to equip Britain for a digital future.” One agenda item that will be discussed is how digital media can help the UK pull out of recession. I think one area that is sometimes overlooked is the importance of the ‘local’ economy. There is huge potential to increase the value of ‘being local’ and whilst the benefits of trading locally, working locally, buying local produce, socialising locally etc. aren’t available to all it does represent a significant opportunity and should be factored into our collective thinking about the future of ‘Digital Britain’. BeLocal is aiming to play a role in that future by creating a single, simple, easy to use service that helps people (re)connect with what’s around them - initially news & events and later much more.

To help the local economy we need to introduce something more ‘radical’ - think ‘Monster for local’, ‘eBay for local’, ‘Twitter for local’, ‘Google for local’ etc. - what services/ideas do you think would make a difference to the local economy?

Simon Grice invited me to write the very first post on the BeLocal Blog. I thought I would try to explain from a very personal point of view why I think the BeLocal project is potentially an exciting contribution to the flurry of interest in digital social media and local democracy.

A key component to building sustainable communities is empowering people with information about their local community which enables them to get the best out of the services available and in this context I mean hyper-local i.e. what is within half a mile to a few miles (depending on where you live) of where you live.

A lot of information is available from a plethora of websites but to the uninitiated this can be an impenetrable maze.

BeLocal provides a simple portal to access a wide range of hyper-local information from planning alerts to traffic news, from health services to schools and from local newspapers to your local councillors and from county wide right down to parish level.

But I don’t just want to access public sector information, I also want to know what local events are going on from the local dramatic society to a pub quiz, the activities of the Neighbourhood Watch or the NCT Group and if local businesses could tell me about promotions that they are running I would prefer to support them than national chains that increasingly make every high street look the same.

BeLocal also brings me (I am using the alpha test version of BeLocal.com, you will have to wait until the full beta launches in a few months) up to the minute information about events and local activity, whilst providing a channel for local community groups to promote their activities and connect their members. I can also place a virtual postcard card in the BeLocal “neighbourhood shop” to find someone who wants to make use of that old bike that has been in the cellar for ages or to advertise my willingness to help people master the mysteries of “those computers”.

That brings me to a personal hobby horse “nobody seems to know their neighbours any more” – as BeLocal grows it will hopefully enable its members to connect with each other bringing a “digital village” out into the real world. Maybe we can have BeLocal street parties?

So that in a nutshell is what BeLocal will be when it launches its Beta later this year – a place to discover local information about public services, events and activities, offers from local businesses, individuals with items for sale or services on offer and a way to connect and get involved in my local community. You will be able to browse to Belocal.com and enter your postcode to see what is going on near you or sign up in a few seconds and then tailor your daily or weekly e-mail bulletin from BeLocal to provide just the information that you want.

Lots of stuff has been written about Twitter in the last few months, most of it focussed on the celebrities and politicians who share some quite useless insights into their work and private lives. BeLocal hope to offer some genuinely useful and current services through Twitter. If you are using Twitter why not follow @BeLocal then you can subscribe to a trial daily feed of local news and weather information. The team here at BeLocal would welcome your feedback.

Steven Feldman is an Advisor to BeLocal and principal of KnowWhere Consulting

Welcome to the BeLocal blog. We’re going to use this blog to help you stay informed about what the team at BeLocal are doing and to provide a space for you play an active role in the development of BeLocal through your feedback and suggestions.