Blogging Northfield, Longbridge, Frankley, Rubery and Rednal - the B
Sas and Marty Taylor. Image by Podnosh - https://www.flickr.com/photos/podnosh
Marty Taylor's philosophy of hyperlocal blogging is simple: "If you like doing it, and you can do it - then you should do it."
And that is exactly what Marty has done, launching B - with his wife Sas in July this year.
Stories on the site range from information on police raids to opera society events. Neither founder has a journalistic background: Sas was a registered nurse before meeting Marty, who is wheelchair-bound, and she is now his full time carer. And the couple's approach to the site is more that of a custodian than a proprietor: their focus is firmly on finding ways to involve other people in their community.
"We will sit back and let it become what people want it to become. We don't know what's going to happen with this - we've never done anything like this before."
But they have seen it done elsewhere in the city - and it was the example of dozens of other blogs across Birmingham that inspired Marty and Sas to take the plunge themselves. "We wanted to discover the beauty in our area, give people an opportunity to know what people are doing around them," Marty explains.
"You should always be interested in your local community but I've never before done anything about that."
To listen to Sas and Marty click below or listen via the audioboo.fm site.
Sas and Marty Taylor. Image by Podnosh - https://www.flickr.com/photos/podnosh
And that is exactly what Marty has done, launching B - with his wife Sas in July this year.
Stories on the site range from information on police raids to opera society events. Neither founder has a journalistic background: Sas was a registered nurse before meeting Marty, who is wheelchair-bound, and she is now his full time carer. And the couple's approach to the site is more that of a custodian than a proprietor: their focus is firmly on finding ways to involve other people in their community. But they have seen it done elsewhere in the city - and it was the example of dozens of other blogs across Birmingham that inspired Marty and Sas to take the plunge themselves. "We wanted to discover the beauty in our area, give people an opportunity to know what people are doing around them," Marty explains. To listen to Sas and Marty click below or listen via the audioboo.fm site."We will sit back and let it become what people want it to become. We don't know what's going to happen with this - we've never done anything like this before."
"You should always be interested in your local community but I've never before done anything about that."
I'm Nick Booth of Podnosh, and here we explore the world of hyperlocal, or very local, web sites. I'll be writing about the communities and volunteers who use the web to reflect on life at street level or hold power to account. To begin with this will concentrate on activity in the West Midlands.
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