At the moment hyper-local sites tend to be filled with discussions of town fetes and the next music night at the village pub. It may be, says Roland Bryan of Associated, that this is the equivalent of small talk at a cocktail party, and that people will eventually get down to local politics. Or they may not. As local newspapers fail, we may learn that their real value was less as a check on politicians than simply as a forum for casual conversation—a place where a town can talk to itself.

"Issue Media's proposition for Ypsilanti is a dedicated site and outreach tools, something much more focused and fleshed out than the Metromode Ypsilanti section, but, of course, not as large as Model D."

An approximately monthly series running through July.

"If you’re reading this message it most likely means you’re a close friend of an editor. No matter, michigoss.com has arrived and we urge you to read and to encourage others to read."

On Lion's agenda: "CLI interpreter -- Write a simple, very basic, single-file CLI interpreter for reading a Local Names 1.5 namespace description, and resolving a search path." This is the biggie for us Mac OS types.

Annie Wolock shared this search tool at a2b3. Local business searches, confined to a rectangle or circle you draw over a map. Cool but useless toy (unless you've never used Google Earth).

"Information about labyrinths you can visit, including their locations, pictures, and contact details, are accessible here, along with information about the many types of labyrinths found worldwide."

"High tunnels may not give you more hours in a day but they will give you months of extra hours in a growing season. Neither rain, sleet, nor snow shall prevent you from tending your appointed ground."

"Can you help pool your knowledge with other kind readers to collectively figure out where to buy Thanksgiving food items that were grown within a 100 mile radius of Ypsi?" Should be an arborwiki page.

Part 2 of 2.

Part 1 of 2.

“My Wi-Fi network is open for neighbours and passers-by. Free access from the yellow chair."

"...is a community-based publication that promotes the abundance of local foods in the greater Portland area."

"When the city initiated the green rooftop at City Hall five years ago, there was only one contractor in the country who could do the required work. Now there are twenty in the City and more than 69 acres of green roof."