Local media predictions for 2010... Hah, look at me giving my predictions for local media. What the hell do I know about local media?! Anyway, at news:rewired Heather Christie jumped on me (metaphorically, not physically – that would have been weird) and asked me my local media predicitons for 2010, along with panel-mates Sarah Hartley...

New hyperlocal Wordpress plugin: Opening... I received a tweet the other day from the wonderful Andy Mabbett. It read; http://opening-times.co.uk/ is very #hyperlocal oriented. They’re on Twitter: @opening_times / @willperrin @getgood (widget, @philipjohn ?) So I toddled over to the Opening Times web site and had a gander, found some XML...

OpenAustralia plugin for Wordpress... I’m delighted that after my release last week of my TheyWorkForYou.com plugin for Wordpress, Henare Degan has created an adaptation which provides the same functionality but using OpenAustralia, an Australian version of TheyWorkForyou.com. You can download the plugin from Henare’s github,...

GroupsNearYou.com Wordpress plugin... This is the last one this week, I promise. For Talk About Local I have just developed a Wordpress plugin using the GroupsNearYou.com site. The plugin creates a simple widget which shows the groups in your area, based on a postcode that you provide. I made a demo video and wrote instructions on how to...

WriteToThem.com Wordpress plugin... As if the TheyWorkForYou.com plugin wasn’t enough I’ve also created a plugin for WriteToThem.com as well! The plugin adds a new widget which your blog readers can use to get in touch with their politicians from councillors to MEPs. There’s a demo video and instructions on how to set...

TheyWorkForYou.com Wordpress plugin... As part of some work for Talk About Local I have just developed a Wordpress plugin using the TheyWorkForYou.com API. For this first version the plugin creates a single widget which shows the latest activity for your MP. I hope to add more in the future and if you have any suggestions, please add them...

MA Online Journalism: Law for bloggers a... Warning: this is a long post, get yourself a cuppa before you start…. Last week I popped along to the Coffee Lounge in Brum for one of Paul Bradshaw’s open MA Online Journalism sessions. This one was about the law & blogging, something I obviously need to be aware of with The Lichfield...

Hyperlocal: Give me your ideas, I’... Some of you may be aware that I’ve begun writing a Wordpress plugin using OpenlyLocal. It’s not the only thing I’m working on though, and I have lots of ideas. However, I know that there’s plenty of hyperlocals out there that probably have their own ideas of what would make their...

Getting serious about hyperlocal, part 3... Parts 2 and 3 of this series covered legal issues and journalism. Now I’m going to cover that big elephant in the room: money. Much (most, all?) of the hyperlocal efforts at the moment are voluntary, passion-driven projects. Many I’m sure cost only time; it’s easy enough to run a site...

Getting serious about hyperlocal, part 2... While the conversation continues around legal issues, burning issue number two in my mind is the quality of hyperlocal content. I’m very fortunate that at the helm of The Lichfield Blog is former journalist and current journalism lecturer, Ross Hawkes. I’ve learnt a lot from Ross, mainly...