Buffalo Bloggers

I was very happy to get a note from the BuffaloPundit, not only because it represents a great local blog, but because his blogroll points to a bunch of other local bloggers. I had been periodically watching for local Buffalo blogs, but to be honest, most of these were not what I have called “public bloggers.” In other words, to a greater or lesser degree you needed to know the person and their posse to understand (or care about) what they were writing about.

I’ll also encourage you to visit the Elmwood Strip community. I’ll let it describe itself:

Elmwoodstrip.orgis a free community dataspace based in the elmwood strip community of Buffalo, NY. This digital public space brings buffalonians together by allowing them to digitally share and embed their local experience within the data structures of the site. Users can embed text, sound, animation, and video without having any web programming experience and without the use of any expensive commercial software. After the user finishes click-publishing their media, the embedded data becomes immediately available to the public via the elmwoodstrip.com interface. By lowering the learning curve for publication to the web, and tying the publication in with a dedicated local readership, we hope to open up this digital documentation process to a segment of the population that typically does not produce their own media or record their own historical experience.

The system itself was developed by Paul Visco, an MFA student here at UB. It’s interesting in that it was designed from the outset to help foster community, and many of the issues educators using blogs have recently faced, he treated at an early stage. It has a couple hundred users, all within a fairly limited community running along Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo.

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5 Comments

  1. Posted 6/7/2005 at 9:58 pm | Permalink

    I wondered what you thought of Buffalo Rising. Do you consider it a blog?

    It’s pretty and I go a few times a day. They certainly know how to generate buzz. They’re a magazine and they’re almost too media savvy, too commercially focussed.

    And what’s with all the pictures. The contributor Figmo is a really good writer but I don’t consider him a blogger. He’s a little too much of a smart mouth. And he can be really snarky and cruel about points of view he disagrees with.

    But everyone seems to be talking about them.

    They also don’t have a blogroll as if they’re the only ones who count.

    And all they do is write about cool things in Buffalo. They don’t even acknowledge the suburbs and they don’t talk about the real problems in Buffalo. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think from reading Buffalo Rising that Buffalo is a nice place to live.

    They’re so full of themselves.

    What do you think?

  2. Posted 6/8/2005 at 7:57 am | Permalink

    While I certainly would like it if Buffalo Rising sported a blogroll (with me on it), I don’t think there’s anything at all wrong with that site.

    First of all, Paul: what makes you think Buffalo isn’t a cool place to live? I live in the burbs, and am seriously considering getting a rehabbed victorian near Elmwood and sending my kid to Nichols when she reaches 5th grade. That’s because I miss living in a lively, urban environment. Buffalo isn’t NYC or SF or Boston. It has something none of those places have – affordability.

    They’re also pretty upfront about the fact that the blog is an offshoot of their quarterly magazine. Look – if your print publication comes out 4x/year, and stuff comes up that you’d like to discuss in the interim, and can’t wait 3 months, what better way to do it than via blogging? It’s cheap, it’s conversational, and it invites discussion.

    Figmo is, in my opinion, the best blogger on that site. His posts generate the most buzz. His posts are informative and entertaining – they go beyond the “hey there’s this cool party tonight at such-and-such” and really explore and examine Buffalo issues.

    AFAIC, the more snarkiness the better. I don’t just want to click a link & read the poster’s opinion on said link. I’d like some good, funny, sharp writing, too. Figmo delivers.

    Citing Kelly from Byzantium Shores, that blog is a ship sailing the flag of Buffalo. Godspeed to them.

  3. Posted 6/8/2005 at 7:58 am | Permalink

    And thanks for the link, professor!

  4. Posted 6/8/2005 at 6:37 pm | Permalink

    Hey, Dr. Halavais, I just found your link to elmwoodstrip.org and wanted to say thanks. Also, in case any locals are reading this, we are trying something new at elmwoodstrip.org, looking for some new people to write specific topic based journals. If anyone is interested you can read more about it here http://www.elmwoodstrip.com/articles/news/633.html
    end journal or IM me from my jorunal.

  5. Daphney
    Posted 6/25/2005 at 10:55 pm | Permalink

    Paul: It was great reading your June 7 comment. I stumbled upon this at the perfect time (meant to be). I have been appalled by the replies those BRJ folks give in their comment sections. Man, you’re not kidding “snarky” and “cruel” to say the least. I’ve been totally turned off by the BRJ crew. I’m looking forward to checking out elmwoodstrip. Thanks!

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