links for 2011-07-19

Hyperlocal websites, now numbering in their thousands, have been popping up in communities around the UK. Ranging from neighbourhood forums to parish newsletters, these sites are increasingly places where people turn to find out, publish and share news about what's happening in their community. Moreover, research suggests that these sites are adding democratic value to society in a way that many mainstream papers struggle to match with two thirds of users feeling more able to influence decisions locally.

Increasingly, some of the more established hyper-local groups in Edinburgh are realising that it is not individual blog posts that matter – it is building a sustainable relationship with a local audience and developing it into a community of ‘engaged’ citizens that matters.

And having got over the ‘gee, isn’t this neat’ phase of wonderment at the technology and what you can do with it, this means asking some tricky questions. Who is it that “owns” the audience a site has developed? What is the most sustainable tech platform for it? And who ultimately makes decisions about the sites long-term future and aims?