links for 2010-02-06

Use Twitter Tim.es. This is a great tool for catching up when you’ve been away from the stream and using Twitter to help the important news find you. After you connect with some people in the business and in your community, go to twittertim.es and sign in using Twitter.

Nsyght’s aim is “not replace social networks, but to enhance them”. As such, you aren’t required to re-friend people on Nysight as you would on FriendFeed or Cliqset. Instead it uses the APIs of the services to channel your comments and conversations between Nysght and the other services you use.

Since December 2009, the News Leadership 3.0 blog has been publishing a special series of guest posts by Amy Gahran on civic engagement. This series explores how news organizations and other institutions can implement the findings of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. This joint project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute Communications and Society program produced the 2009 report, “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age.”

Even as blogging declines among those under 30, wireless connectivity continues to rise in this age group, as does social network use. Teens ages 12-17 do not use Twitter in large numbers, though high school-aged girls show the greatest enthusiasm for the application.

At the core of hyperlocal behavior is passion. It’s your reality, or at least a reality that is right outside your front door. The level of engagement and commitment hyperlocal news websites have are huge, compared to the average reporter, who is assigned for a story and educated to be detached. Hyperlocal reporters are involved in the story and they can afford to be critical and assertive close to the local authorities, and use their work to improve their community’s living standards and environment. It’s what matters to a few, that becomes really important.