KFnet in T-Town
Jul. 27, 2008 at 2:44pm
Video ~ City Club Blogging Talk
TVW was on-hand for a recent talk I gave along with Derek Young of Exit133 at the City Club of Tacoma. Not only is it now showing through your local cable box but they're with it enough to offer up embed code so I can drop it for you to watch here.
We covered all kinds of issues to how sites like FeedTacoma and Exit133 got their site to what we've accomplished in the real world both with civic involvement and personal connections.
Enjoy!
comments [10] | posted under blogging, city club, derek young, kevin freitas, tacoma
Comments
 by Erik on 7/27/2008 @ 3:20pm | Nice. I see the Tribune via Mark Briggs posted something on it also: Derek Young and Kevin Freitas served as the featured speakers at today's City Club luncheon at the Landmark. So Dave Zeeck and I crashed the party to hear their thoughts about social media and local online community. ... It's not the software that makes these sites special, it's the people - both those who created and power them and those who consume and contribute. blogs.thenewstribune.com/online/2008/07/... I have to disagree with Briggs a bit on his post though, there is something "special" in the software that Exit 133 and Feed Tacoma are set up that make it successful. Yes, the people of Tacoma are special. However, if Feed Tacoma and Exit 133 were simply blogs hosted by Blogger, they would have no where near the following or effect in Tacoma that they do. |
 by intacoma on 7/27/2008 @ 4:46pm | Im going to have to agree with Briggs.
There are quite a few people actually that make a living off blogging powered by Blogger.com so I'm not sure why you think that. Exit 133 is powered by textpattern.com/, and feedtacoma is a custom solution The quality of content and persistence is what makes both sites popular. |
by intacoma on 7/27/2008 @ 4:47pm | I mean look at that ruston blog, its powered by blogger and its quite popular |
by Erik on 7/27/2008 @ 5:01pm | Exit 133 is powered by textpattern.com, and feedtacoma is a custom solution I have to believe all of Kevin's hard work has created some benefit. I think the software does play at least some role. If FeedTacoma.com were not configured in the manner it is, I believe it would be far less successful. Kevin could test it out by shutting down www.feedtacoma.com and try to use an unmodified Blogger template feedtacoma.blogspot.com/ instead and see the result. |
by intacoma on 7/27/2008 @ 5:46pm | and your thoughts on exit133 if it used blogger? |
 by NineInchNachos on 7/27/2008 @ 10:44pm | I cant count how many times my harbornet/click combo has crapped out on trying to watch this video. keep having to refresh the page and FF to part I left off.
|
by NineInchNachos on 7/27/2008 @ 11:01pm | Also I'm happy Kevin mentioned the comic though I would have marketed it more as a political cartoon, the only political cartoon drawn with love for the people of Tacoma.
(not counting the New Takhoman or the Tacoma Trashcan... but we all know they're not drawn with love) |
by NineInchNachos on 7/27/2008 @ 11:06pm | also also an interesting contrast between e133 FeedTacoma to have mentioned is that exit133 is more of a top down, authoritarian "this is the topic' blog vs. Feed Tacoma which is a bottom up, leaderless (anarchy). very different beasts working together each filling in for the others weakness(es) |
by NineInchNachos on 7/27/2008 @ 11:07pm | erik you would have been proud of kevin most of his talk was about frost park chalk art. at one point he even teared up. it was something beautiful . most of the questions derek fielded were related to his hair. FYI |
 by ensie on 7/28/2008 @ 6:07pm | Erik, I think you're missing the point. Where the blog is hosted is not the point of the discussion.
Yes the layout definitely plays a big part, and Kevin has done a fantastic job, and Derek certainly deserves credit for doing a good job with Exit 133. But there are multiple blogs out there hosted in multiple places that are infinitely more popular than FT or Exit 133, including those on Blogger. Don't get so hung up on one stupid thing that you miss the point of the message - that Kevin and Derek have built online communities that have spilled over into real life and have made real change occur. They deserve a lot of credit for that. |
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About
Although I have another home on the web I thought it might be nice to lead by example a bit and put this blog system up to the test myself.
So far, so good... Funny how I build web tools for other people that are far better than the one's I have setup over on KFnet.
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