Do you blog in the Boston area? Interested in food? Arts? Culture?
If the answer is yes, yes, yes, check out the new list of event invitations for local bloggers on 9Neighbors.
When you log into 9Neighbors.com, you'll now find a list of offers and invitations from local businesses and cultural institutions. Right now that means you'll see invitations to Saturday tea at Upstairs on the Square, tickets to upcoming shows at the Huntington Theatre and free admission to the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum. More are coming.
Our goal here is simple: We want to create a way for quality local businesses and cultural organizations to reach out to bloggers, but to let bloggers choose the opportunities they take advantage of. We hope this gives popular bloggers more of the opportunities available to traditional media, while cutting down on PR spam like this or this.
If you're interested in some of these invitations, sign up for 9Neighbors and check out our event listings, or subscribe to our feed of event listings here.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Changes at 9Neighbors, Invitations for Boston-Area Bloggers
Today we're rolling out some big changes on 9Neighbors.
As of today, 9Neighbors is a directory of Boston-area blogs, not a news site. Instead of focusing on popular individual posts, 9Neighbors is now centered on data about local blogs.
The new 9Neighbors also makes it easy for local businesses to reach out to bloggers with invitations to special events. Right now on the site we're listing offers from Upstairs on the Square, The Gardner Museum and The Huntington Theatre. There are more coming.
Why are we making these changes?
Well, in the months since we launched 9Neighbors, we've discovered that there's a lot of interest in the data we collect about local blogs -- who's linking to who, how often people are publishing and who writes about what. Bloggers want to know how their sites stack up, and businesses want to know who's creating buzz around town. Currently, it's easy to find this information for the global community of blogs, but not for local communities.
The deals and invitations are also an important part of the new site. We think these will benefit both bloggers and local businesses.
There are a lot of quality businesses, cultural institutions and arts organizations around Boston that want to reach out to bloggers with invitations and free passes to events, the same way they do to traditional media. At the same time, there are a lot of bloggers who'd like to take advantage of some of these offers, when they're relevant and interesting.
Without a directory of local blog data, it's hard for local businesses to know which bloggers to reach out to. And without a filter for invitations, bloggers end up overwhelmed in PR spam, like this.
The new 9Neighbors will provide both a directory and filter. Local businesses can send me invitations they'd like to offer bloggers (rick at faneuilmedia dot com), and bloggers who register for the site can signup for a feed of invitations.
Businesses and bloggers are central to our communities. They help keep the places we live unique and vital. We hope this new version of 9Neighbors supports both.
One last note: Today's launch is a first step. The transition from news site to directory is going to take some time, and we'd love your feedback as we make it. If you have thoughts or questions, please let us know.
As of today, 9Neighbors is a directory of Boston-area blogs, not a news site. Instead of focusing on popular individual posts, 9Neighbors is now centered on data about local blogs.
The new 9Neighbors also makes it easy for local businesses to reach out to bloggers with invitations to special events. Right now on the site we're listing offers from Upstairs on the Square, The Gardner Museum and The Huntington Theatre. There are more coming.
Why are we making these changes?
Well, in the months since we launched 9Neighbors, we've discovered that there's a lot of interest in the data we collect about local blogs -- who's linking to who, how often people are publishing and who writes about what. Bloggers want to know how their sites stack up, and businesses want to know who's creating buzz around town. Currently, it's easy to find this information for the global community of blogs, but not for local communities.
The deals and invitations are also an important part of the new site. We think these will benefit both bloggers and local businesses.
There are a lot of quality businesses, cultural institutions and arts organizations around Boston that want to reach out to bloggers with invitations and free passes to events, the same way they do to traditional media. At the same time, there are a lot of bloggers who'd like to take advantage of some of these offers, when they're relevant and interesting.
Without a directory of local blog data, it's hard for local businesses to know which bloggers to reach out to. And without a filter for invitations, bloggers end up overwhelmed in PR spam, like this.
The new 9Neighbors will provide both a directory and filter. Local businesses can send me invitations they'd like to offer bloggers (rick at faneuilmedia dot com), and bloggers who register for the site can signup for a feed of invitations.
Businesses and bloggers are central to our communities. They help keep the places we live unique and vital. We hope this new version of 9Neighbors supports both.
One last note: Today's launch is a first step. The transition from news site to directory is going to take some time, and we'd love your feedback as we make it. If you have thoughts or questions, please let us know.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Pothole Map
As a little bit of a side project, we launched a map of potholes around town yesterday. You can find it here: http://9neighbors.com/potholes
Anybody can add to the map, so if you know of specific offenders, by all means, add them.
I'm going to get in touch with the public works folks in Somerville, Cambridge and other pothole hotspots to see if they can add these to their to-do list.
Anybody can add to the map, so if you know of specific offenders, by all means, add them.
I'm going to get in touch with the public works folks in Somerville, Cambridge and other pothole hotspots to see if they can add these to their to-do list.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Introducing Placenotes
If you live even a little of your life online, it's probably scattered across a lot of different sites -- photos on Flickr, friends on Facebook, one-liners on Twitter, and on and on.
Unfortunately, there's no simple way to collect all the bits you produce related to the place you live -- or share them with other people who live in that place.
For my Facebook and Twitter friends in other places, posts about Martha Coakley and the Central Sq Florist are nothing but noise. On the other hand, my friends who live in the Boston area may find this stuff interesting, and I want them to see it.
So today we're launching a solution to that problem -- Placenotes.
9Neighbors Placenotes are a drop-dead simple way to put all your local content in one place, and share it with friends and folks in your community.
Take a look at mine, and you'll see what I mean. On my page I'm aggregating:
> Photos I load into Flickr with the tag "9Neighbors"
> Posts to my Twitter account that include "#9n"
> Items on 9Neighbors that I vote for.
> Notes & links I post on 9Neighbors
> The feed for my blog (www.rickburnes.com)
You can set all this up on the 9Neighbors "Settings" page. Add your Twitter and Flickr username on the Profile Data tab, and any feeds you want on the "Feeds Settings" tab.
If you follow me, new items I produce will show up in your From Your Friends tab every time you log onto 9Neighbors.
We've created Placenotes to be a super-simple way to collect and share local content. Try them out, decide what you think, and let us know. We'd love to hear from you.
Unfortunately, there's no simple way to collect all the bits you produce related to the place you live -- or share them with other people who live in that place.
For my Facebook and Twitter friends in other places, posts about Martha Coakley and the Central Sq Florist are nothing but noise. On the other hand, my friends who live in the Boston area may find this stuff interesting, and I want them to see it.
So today we're launching a solution to that problem -- Placenotes.
9Neighbors Placenotes are a drop-dead simple way to put all your local content in one place, and share it with friends and folks in your community.
Take a look at mine, and you'll see what I mean. On my page I'm aggregating:
> Photos I load into Flickr with the tag "9Neighbors"
> Posts to my Twitter account that include "#9n"
> Items on 9Neighbors that I vote for.
> Notes & links I post on 9Neighbors
> The feed for my blog (www.rickburnes.com)
You can set all this up on the 9Neighbors "Settings" page. Add your Twitter and Flickr username on the Profile Data tab, and any feeds you want on the "Feeds Settings" tab.
If you follow me, new items I produce will show up in your From Your Friends tab every time you log onto 9Neighbors.
We've created Placenotes to be a super-simple way to collect and share local content. Try them out, decide what you think, and let us know. We'd love to hear from you.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Following Your Friends on 9Neighbors
A few people have asked about the concept of "following" somebody on 9Neighbors.
Here's what it means: When you signup to "follow" somebody, you see all the things they find interesting on the site. That means that all the items they've voted for, links they've added and notes they've written will appear in the "Your News" tab at the top of your home page.
The goal is to give folks another way of filtering the site. The Popular Today tab provides a view of what's currently popular, the Most Recent tab lists the most recent items in the system, and Your News gives you a way to keep track of the items your friends find interesting.
If you're just getting started on 9Neighbors and looking for people to follow, you can find lots of people here.
Here's what it means: When you signup to "follow" somebody, you see all the things they find interesting on the site. That means that all the items they've voted for, links they've added and notes they've written will appear in the "Your News" tab at the top of your home page.
The goal is to give folks another way of filtering the site. The Popular Today tab provides a view of what's currently popular, the Most Recent tab lists the most recent items in the system, and Your News gives you a way to keep track of the items your friends find interesting.
If you're just getting started on 9Neighbors and looking for people to follow, you can find lots of people here.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Follow Us on Twitter, Get a Thing a Day
Last Sunday, at another great Boston Media Makers gathering, I told folks about some of the gems bubbling to the surface on 9Neighbors.
There was the video of a hawk lunching on a pigeon on Boston Common. The great pair of videos from Somerville City TV on the Assembly Square project. The photo of Dice-K's Nikes in the classical Greek art section of the MFA. I could go on and on -- lots of wonderful stuff.
In the flurry of tweets that followed BMM, I decided Twitter would be a good way to let people know about items I find.
So I setup 9N -- our 9Neighbors Twitter account. We'll use the account to send out a link that we like every day.
If you have link suggestions (for 9Neighbors the site, or the Twitter account), just reply to us via Twitter (@9n).
There was the video of a hawk lunching on a pigeon on Boston Common. The great pair of videos from Somerville City TV on the Assembly Square project. The photo of Dice-K's Nikes in the classical Greek art section of the MFA. I could go on and on -- lots of wonderful stuff.
In the flurry of tweets that followed BMM, I decided Twitter would be a good way to let people know about items I find.
So I setup 9N -- our 9Neighbors Twitter account. We'll use the account to send out a link that we like every day.
If you have link suggestions (for 9Neighbors the site, or the Twitter account), just reply to us via Twitter (@9n).
Monday, January 7, 2008
How Flickr Photos Appear on 9Neighbors
A Flickr user contacted us today wondering about our policy on use of Flickr photos.
Here it is:
We use photos distributed by Flickr in its feeds. Mostly, we use feeds for local tags like this one: api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=bostonma. Sometimes we also use feeds for specific users.
According to Flickr, photos that appear in feeds like the one above can be blogged, as long as attribution and links to the original item are provided (which we do). A Flickr user can prevent photos from appearing in feeds by switching the "Who can blog your photos" setting on this page: www.flickr.com/account/?tab=privacy.
I'm blogging this because we want to make sure we get it right. Hopefully folks will point out any problems or gray areas in the comments.
Here it is:
We use photos distributed by Flickr in its feeds. Mostly, we use feeds for local tags like this one: api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?tags=bostonma. Sometimes we also use feeds for specific users.
According to Flickr, photos that appear in feeds like the one above can be blogged, as long as attribution and links to the original item are provided (which we do). A Flickr user can prevent photos from appearing in feeds by switching the "Who can blog your photos" setting on this page: www.flickr.com/account/?tab=privacy.
I'm blogging this because we want to make sure we get it right. Hopefully folks will point out any problems or gray areas in the comments.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
