A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a blog entry in the citizens widget on the right sidebar of Northfield.org‘s home page aggregator by someone named Quizzical mama.
A few clicks later led me to Northfielder Anne Sabo who, it turns out, is a former St. Olaf prof who now maintains three active blogs.
Northfield has a lot of bloggers but not many with more than one so I knew I needed to know more. We had coffee yesterday morning at GBM and we’re now exploring ways to collaborate.
Brenton’s tweets and blog posts are personable, often opinionated, and cover many different topics but nearly always linked somehow to Northfield and his life as a husband, dad, rink rat, store manager, part-time preacher, kids baseball coach, and many other roles. He’s an occasional commenter here on LoGro and his blog posts often appear on Northfield Patch.
WCCO News recently aired a Good Question segment about breastfeeding in public as a result of a Texas woman’s nationwide call to for a "nurse-in" at Target stores after she said she was humiliated by Target employees.
The segment reminded me of a blog post I wrote in July 2006 (Pornography yes – Breastfeeding no – Are We Serious?) on the hypocrisy and idiocy of the fact that our nation accepts and promotes the normalcy and legitimacy of pornography, and yet demands nursing mothers sit in dirty bathrooms and closet spaces to feed their infants just so passerby’s aren’t exposed to the slightest embarrassment of having to see a sliver of a breast performing its most natural function.
Since Northfield Patch is the new kid on the block here in town, its time to scrutinize their effort, both locally and nationally. What has been their impact on Northfield thus far? What do you like about what they’re doing? What’s disappointing or problematic?
Patch is a national chain of hyperlocal news sites owned by AOL. There have been many other high profile hyperlocal news projects launched, with many failures already. What’s being learned out there?
Journalism (local, state, national, international) continues to be in a state of extreme flux. What do you like and not like about what you’re seeing?
If you come across interesting resources related to these issues, be sure to post them in a comment with a link and, if you’re up for it, an excerpt.
This spring, St. Dominic parish will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of their church. Nearly forgotten is the old church and the tumultuous debate that preceded its ultimate demolition in the Fall of 1985. Tradition-minded parishioners joined with preservationists in the community to try to save the old church building. The contest attracted letters to the editor of the Northfield News from around the country, and newspaper articles in the Faribault Daily News and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
With the help of Hayes Scriven and the Northfield Historical Society, I have assembled a handful of photos that perhaps explain why so many were so attached to the lovely old red-brick building. More photos and analysis of the episode available on my blog.
AOL has hired former Northfield News reporter Corey Butler Jr. to be its new editor of Northfield Patch (not yet open). The corporate Patch About page says that it’s "a community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for individual towns and communities."
Patch is also soon launching in Eagan, Edina, Golden Valley, Richfield, and St. Louis Park. I was to meet with Minnesota Patch regional editor Don Wyatt today in Apple Valley but he had to cancel.
MinnPost’s David Brauer has blogged about Patch’s arrival in MN (see his posts: July, Aug, Sept, and Oct). There’s plenty more to read online about Patch, as it’s commonly seen as the most well-funded of the national hyperlocal community news ventures. AOL has deep pockets.
Since Patch goes after local advertising dollars, I see them as a competitor to the Northfield News, KYMN, and the Northfield Entertainment Guide. Since Patch does community event info and seeks content from citizens, they’re also a competitor to Northfield.org. Some of their sites have discussion threads on their stories so in that sense, they’re a competitor to Locally Grown.
Natasha’s July 19 blog post, Produce for Sale, chronicles their Saturday, including the game of "How many farmers does it take to set up a tent?" and a visit from a “professional blogging consultant.” Heh.
Chelsea and Natasha are natural born bloggers, telling interesting stories with fun photos on their Carlson SEEDS blog.
Way back in 2004-05 when I was still at NCO/Northfield.org, we encouraged local civic leaders (including members of the city council, school board and county board) to start blogging. I taught a civic leader blogging class and even coached some local ministers. It was all part of the civic blogosphere project with an emphasis on including leaders.
So as A) we head into the 2010 election season; and B) begin looking for a new Northfield City Administrator, I thought it might be helpful to point out some very important reasons on WHY someone in a leadership position should consider using social media tools like a blog and Twitter.
Hyatt says in the video that “Twitter may be greatest leadership tool ever invented” in part because it’s “a marvelous way to leverage your influence as a leader.”
(The title of the video makes one think it’s all about ‘how to get started’ but the most important pieces are related to why.)
Knowledge workers get paid extra when they show insight or daring or do what others can’t. But packaging the knowledge is expensive, time consuming and not particularly enjoyable for most people. As you get better at what you do, it seems as though you spend more and more time on the packaging and less on the doing.
… The exception?
The intense conversations you can have with your customers and prospects, especially via a blog. Once you get the system and the structure set up, five minutes of effort can give you four minutes of high-leverage idea time in front of the people you’re trying to influence.
The book adds this to that last sentence: “This is pure, unadulterated leverage. The stuff you actually get paid for, with no overhead.”
Godin’s insight — “among highly-compensated workers, the percentage of the [knowledge] work you get paid to do goes down as you get paid more” and that “packaging the knowledge is expensive, time consuming and not particularly enjoyable” — was stunning to me and still is.
In the Why keep a blog? section of my 2005 Leadership Blogging Guide (currently under revision as a White Paper), my #1 reason to blog is to “Leverage your leadership interactions that otherwise disappear:”
In the course of any leader’s week, there are literally hundreds of interactions with colleagues, constituents, staff, media and other members of community. Whether these interactions are face-to-face, phone, electronic or paper-based, they comprise the bulk of how leaders exhibit their day-to-day influence. A phone call from a constituent, a conversation with a staff member at lunch, an email exchange with a colleague, an off-topic discussion at a team meeting – all likely evaporate into thin air, for all intents and purposes, as soon as they’re concluded. Even most paper documents such as memos and reports are quickly relegated to the trash, the shredder, or the filing cabinet, never to be seen again.
With a blog, leaders can select from among this never-ending parade of interactions the ones that they deem strategically significant, and give them a longer “shelf-life.” With a posting to their blog, the story of the interaction gains immediate wider audience while making it significantly easier for that audience to pass the story around to others who they think should know about it.
Prospective civic leader bloggers frequently ask, "How much time is blogging going to require?" It’s a fair question. Blogging feels like just another task when you first start out, and it does require some time commitment to work it into your week.
But once you experience feedback from your blogging, that not only are others reading your blog but that it’s starting to have influence, your attitude towards the task of blogging changes because it becomes strategic.
"I’m going to blog this because I know that she’ll read it and pass it on to…"
"When this group of people sees what I’ve blogged about this, then they’re more likely to…"
You start to realize that your blog leverages your leadership strategies in time-effective ways.
Among other reasons why a leader should blog/tweet is that the tools allow you to:
Use a voice of authenticity to have a one-to-one conversation with an audience
Extend your presence with a selective window into your day
Provide another way for people to interact with you
Convey your message directly to your audience instead depending on media institutions
With the political season winding up, we’ve added 3 more local candidate blogs to our lower right sidebar aggregator: Mark Murphy, and Al DeKruif. Other candidates there include incumbents Kevin Dahle and David Bly.
2 PM update: I mistakenly added Mike Piper’s blog, thinking that he was the Republican endorsed candidate for 25B. Kelby Woodard is the endorsed candidate but he currently doesn’t have a blog or RSS feed. I’ve removed Mike Piper’s blog.
I was riding my bicycle through the southwest neighborhood back in March when I noticed two homes with Home Matters signs in the yards. I’d never heard of the project so I took photos but alas, totally forgot to blog them.
The Home Matters Project is about stabilizing neighborhoods affected by foreclosure and creating healthy, affordable, and energy efficient housing opportunities.
This sandwich board in the front of the Goodbye Blue Monday caught my eye, not only because it’s clever (“Look for us on Facebook & Twitter – but you won’t find us”) but because I’ve been trying to get smarter about how Twitter and Facebook can complement a blog.
Our radio show/podcast guest yesterday: KYMN Radio’s operations and sales guy, Tim Freeland, talking with us about how Northfield area retailers can make use of social media for marketing.
He describes the blog as “… a tool for expressing opinions, sharing thoughts and reflecting on matters of the spirit.” I consider it an atheist-friendly blog, though he likely has to deny that.
Clay’s now living in exile in Cannon Falls but occasionally sneaks into Northfield on Saturday mornings for inspiration and mood-altering chemicals at the GBM. See our other Clay-related blog posts for more.
The classroom is operating as a newsroom with 22 students covering stories of interest in Northfield and Rice County, as well as Carleton stories that resonate beyond the campus into local, state, national and global communities. We are publishing daily through the term so please come back often or add Pressville.org to your bookmarks and RSS feeds.
We’re now aggregating Pressville’s RSS feed on our lower left sidebar.
Northfield area organizations are increasingly seeing the advantages of setting up blog sites (a website with regular pages but built with a blog platform) for special events (eg, ArtSwirl, JuneBug).
The latest is the NAG 50th Blog, "Celebrating 50 Years of the Northfield Arts Guild." Of course, they’ve also joined the twittersphere (twitter.com/nag50).
Northfield Kitchen Concepts (and Olson Brothers Construction) has moved to Woodley and Hwy 3, next to McDonalds. And they now have a blog, authored by someone named Renee.
Former Northfielder Aaron Street, a civic blogger at Citizen Next, is the new Publisher of Lawyerist Media, LLC, “a leading internet site on legal marketing, practice management, and technology.”
Yesterday’s cold north wind despite the sunny skies sent me looking for signs of green and I found some in the Upper Arb, just off the paved path below the hill at Second St. and Oak. where Spring Creek flows under the bridge. The Arb has a web page devoted to spring but alas, the text/photos there are brochure-like, true for all springs, not current for this spring. (Hey Doug, the Arb needs a blog!)
Got some signs of spring to report? Photos? Let’s have ‘em.’
Update 8 PM: I’ve changed the sentence about ‘canned text/photos.’ See the comments below.
Rob Hardy alerted me to his blog post Pasqueflowers for Holy Week: “Here you go, Griff! The pasqueflowers are blooming, right on schedule. (This photo was taken at approximately 2:45 pm today, Wednesday, April 8, 2009, at an undisclosed location owned by Carleton College.)” More about pasquelflowers here.
The Northfield Blogosphere Roundup is a good way to see the latest information on many of the area’s blogs. The updates included here show blog posts added approximately within the previous 48 hours. See Northfield.org’s blogosphere aggregator page for an automated, comprehensive listing.
This is the title of an article at the Mankato Free Press article about the March 13th Regional Competitiveness Economic Development Summit. The Rural Enterprise Center’s agripreneurs development model was voted the second most important priority for the development of the Agriculture and Food Sector as it pertains to the incorporation and full utilization of skills, assets and visioning coming out from the Latino/Hispanic communities of the region.
We are currently developing the strategic plan for the large scale regional deployment of this model in the coming decade with a launch strategy focused in no more than 8 SE MN counties, but including strategic outreach to other highly promising targeted Hispanic/Latino entrepreneur in other areas of the region.
I’ve been invited to speak briefly tonight with the Northfield City Council at their work session. The agenda item says: “Discuss technical recommendations on citizen input.” It’s all part of the “background information as the Council begins to discuss ways of achieving and working on the goal of improving citizen communication.”
We’ve discussed this issue on LG (here, here, and here) so it’s time to craft something concrete for the Council and staff to react to. Here’s a first draft of what I plan to present to them tonight. Reactions welcomed. (continued)
5th Bridge Executive Director Candy Taylor and her husband Cliff created this volunteer thank-you display in the lobby of the Northfield Middle School, honoring this year’s Rock ‘N Roll Revival volunteers. It reads:
5th Bridge salutes the hundreds of people who have made this production possible… directors, choreographers, set designers, set builders, hair dressers, costume sewers, costume helpers, program designers, local business sponsors, concession volunteers, ushers, ticket agents, sound and lighting crew members, band members, cast members, refreshment volunteers, parent and community volunteers, and many, many more! Amazing things happen when people share their gifts and talents. Visit www.5thbridge.org to learn about local service opportunities.
“They all get the idea that if we’re transparent about what we’re bad at as well as what we’re good at, we’ll get better.” That’s a quote by Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, speaking about his staff. Levy maintains a leadership blog called Running a hospital where he regularly shares “thoughts about hospitals, medicine, and health care issues.” You can also follow Levy on Twitter.
I’ve been thinking about Northfield area public leadership, transparency, and social media tools this week for four reasons. (continued)
kiffi summa: Our mothers consider the ‘bunched panties’ remark too squalid to pass either their sainted lips, or those of their darling daughters… and seriously doubt whether it was said during your father’s time!
Jane Moline: Griff: you really didn’t know my mother and how do you even know if I wear panties?
Griff Wigley: Jane/Kiffi, I did some family of origin research and it turns out your mothers actually said “A stitch in time saves nine” and “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” about 3-4 times more often than...
kiffi summa: Jane: Both our Mom’s were smart, and they knew about the problems with “borrowing trouble” i.e don’t stir up problems that are non existent; there’s enough current problems to deal with, and even some of...
Jane Moline: I can’t believe I have to bring up my mother’s advice: DON’T GO BORROWING TROUBLE! If some women want to join the fire department in Northfield, we must be afraid that our fire department MIGHT respond like North...
Vicki Dilley: How many lives can we even begin to count that have touched by the Youth Exchange program? Northfield has been involved in Youth Exchange since 1969 when we hosted our first student…since then 100′s of High School...
Tom Durkin: This event supports one of the crown jewels of the Northfield Rotary Club – the Youth Exchange Program. Northfield can be proud that we send out more than fifteen students annually for year abroad study programs. We also host several...
john george: Kathie- I knew I was sticking my neck out on that one!
Kathie Galotti: Geez John. Don’t get Griff restarted on the geese!
john george: Yes, more beaches would certainly accomodate more geese. We have to remember to be waterfowl friendly.
Susan Hvistendahl: I totally agree with you re the need for more beaches in Northfield, having just returned from a week in Puerto Vallarta. Could have had rum punches there but….well, after we visited a local tequila distillery and got to...
Bright Spencer: Oh, you both look so happy! Thanks for sharing. More pics please!
kiffi summa: Griff: whither goest thy right arm if it starts to “whither” (sic) ? sorry; couldn’t resist… stuck at home with a bad knee provides way too much time on computer!
Bright Spencer: i’ve been looking thru a site, crazyguyonabike.com that has lots of journals and photos from around the world.
jane fenton: Congrats, Griff! That’s my son Cliff in the orange hat. He’s revamped the recycling bin prototype. You should see it!
Griff Wigley: Don, I’ll keep ping pong in mind. I’d hate to have my right arm start to whither from a lack of racquetball. In the meantime, I’m trying to excite as many Northfielders as I can about mountain biking. I’ll...
john george: Griff- Iris will have to work real hard to keep you in focus on everything else. I shutter to think where this could go.
Griff Wigley: Name: The Local Joint Description: A handmade and vintage collective in Northfield, MN. COLLECTING.CREATING.COLLABORAT ING. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheLoc alJoint Nfld News: Store to open in former ‘digs’ space
David Beimers: Hmmm… fans? air conditioners? ice cream?
Jessica Paxton: I know. But I don’t wanna spill the (cool) beans!
Megan Tsui: Edward, Sorry you weren’t able to attend. We’ll be posting notes from the meeting on the NEC website and if you send me your email, I’ll make sure you get a copy! If you (or anyone else!) would like to chat about it...
Edward Smith: I wanted to attend this, but was unable. Does anyone know if there will be a summary posted anywhere?
Kathie Galotti: My kid had a pretty decent AP Environmental Science class 2 years ago….he’s not a great math/science student, but this one got him interested in at least knowing enough science to create good policies. I remember...
Paul Zorn: A few years ago one of my daughters spent a year working in Copenhagen, largely in an office setting. All desks in her office could be raised or lowered to permit either standing or sitting positions. I have no idea whether such...
Griff Wigley: In today’s Strib: Office-dwellers stand up to ‘sitting disease’ Dr. James Levine has reviewed the statistics: One in three Minnesota adults is either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and one in four is obese. And he thinks...
Bright Spencer: The All Pro Game last Sunday between the AFC and the NFC was so enjoyable. The stess, the anger, the anxiety all gone…well I didn’t watch all of it, as I rarely do watch an entire game, usually just the beginning and...
Griff Wigley: Today’s Strib: Hockey safety goal expanded to youth In an unprecedented mid-year change, Minnesota Hockey is toughening the penalties for checking from behind and boarding. The change will affect 40,000 hockey players in the...
Bright Spencer: I like hockey and all sports very much. I was a star basketball player in my day. I don’t remember anyone suffering any major injuries in all my hs and college days. I feel certain that coach’s know who does what and...
john george: You are correct. That is why I didn’t allow my children to attack the character of their siblings just to support their position. There do need to be some kind of ground rules in any discussion so as to keep individual...
kiffi summa: The issue could be considered to be: what is “conflict”, and what are two sides of a discussion… see #33 re: the Mayor’s admonition to Peter Dahlen at the joint Council/ChartComm meeting. I don’t see how...
john george: Kiffi- This is a good article, and I agree with most of it. Just thinking about my kids in their youth, there was always some conflict between them, but our goal as parents wasn’t to force them into some weiner form but to help...
kiffi summa: A very interesting article in the Jan.30th New Yorker magazine on the nature of the dynamics of creative discussion; it’s entitled “Groupthink; the brainstorming myth”. Based on studies done by a psych professor at...
Griff Wigley: Kiffi/Kathie, I didn’t have that reaction. But I’ve put up a new blog post to discuss it and everything else related to the Fire Department so let’s shift the discussion there.
Kathie Galotti: I read Betsey’s blog and, like most of Betsey’s blog entries, found it well-written and making a very good point. Though I agree that geographic districts aren’t the only way to represent different constituencies,...
john george: Griff- The NN editorial presents the difference between geographic representation and ideological representation. Right now, the wards establish geographic representation. With this approach, depending upon the voter turnout, a person...
kiffi summa: I hope that people will use the link here on LG to read the current posting by Councilor Buckheit on her blog, re: wards versus all at-large, and take the opportunity to comment. Once again, the NFNews has not given a very well...
Griff Wigley: Nfld News editorial: Keep the current ward system intact
Sean Hayford Oleary: In any case, this issue doesn’t seem like it needs to be another opportunity to dis/agree with the current council. Regardless of how focused on the downtown (or not) they are, it’s clear this change would not...
Griff Wigley: In today’s NY Times: Turning to Kettlebells to Ease Back Pain Kettlebells, cast-iron weights that have been used for centuries to train Russian soldiers and athletes, appear to be a promising therapy for back and neck pain, new...
Sandy Vesledahl: UPDATE ON RHONDA: We are very happy to report that Rhonda was adopted over the weekend by a local family. Rhonda’s new mom is a Family Counselor and Rhonda will be going to her office with her and helping with her clients. So...
Megan Tsui: Griff, The NEC is moving forward with the idea of a non-profit Coworking Incubator/Accelerator space. Megan
Megan Tsui: What do you think? Come to the Community Dialogue and tell us! January 31st from 2 to 4 pm at the Archer House lower level conference room. Share your ideas, thoughts, and dreams about a Coworking Incubator/Accelerator space in...
kiffi summa: I would hope the City’s Historic Preservation Commission would explore this option, and the appropriateness/allowability for use on properties within the Historic District. Thanks, Jim.
Jim Haas: I was reading a story by Porter Fox about his visit to Copenhagen. He mentioned in passing that the city is vigilant about removing graffiti using high-pressure washers with ice crystals as a mild abrasive. I did a little rudimentary...
kiffi summa: The LWV observer reports are meant to be a summary of actions taken, not a ‘blow by blow’ transcript. This is the reason that anyone deeply interested should watch the meeting for themself, if they want a full...
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Blogosphere, Civic Orgs, Colleges, Environment 
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With the political season winding up, we’ve added 3 more local candidate blogs to our lower right sidebar aggregator: 
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