Seattle is a hotbed of local news innovation and a big part of it is the technology infrastructure the city's leaders have put in place. Recently, City Hall announced another move forward in technological transparency as the Seattle Police Department began putting many of its incident reports online  where any citizen can access, understand and report on what is happening on the streets around them.

We're proud to announce an amazing new update to our popular SeattleCrime iPhone app  that will make this useful new dataset available to you where you roam in the city. The latest version of the SeattleCrime app now features a new SPD tab that will show you the latest SPD reports for your area. You can read the full text of the report on your phone and add comments to be part of a community conversation about the realities of crime in Seattle.

The SPD reports are now paired with our multiple feeds of data, real-time reports from Seattle Fire and the new community-driven YouReport system to create... (more)

Joe Ricketts is a billionaire. He's the founder of TD Ameritrade and owner of the Chicago Cubs. The shrewd investor has also thrown his hat into the hyperlocal news ring. More on his site DNAinfo.com from the New York Observer:

Like seemingly everyone else these days, Mr. Ricketts wants to figure out the future of news, and he has chosen the streets of New York to conduct an experiment of sorts. The name of his venture may sound more like a bio-genetics company than a earnest news site dedicated to zealously cover community board meetings and the like, but Mr. Ricketts chose the name (which stands for Digital Network Associates) to reflect the organization's multimedia ambitions.

DNAinfo.com is now up and running, cranking out daily videos, brief articles and slide shows, focusing on the tick-tock-zoning disputes, fires, crimes, restaurant openings, transportation disputes, roosters-of 22 neighborhoods throughout Manhattan. The sleekly designed Web site went beta in November 2009 and is still finding its...

Our SeattleCrime iPhone application is already the most popular independent news app in Seattle. With more than 4,000 downloads, there's already a pretty good chance that the next time you hear sirens, you can look around your bus to find somebody whipping out their iPhone to find out what's happening. Our latest update to the app builds on Jonah Spangenthal-Lee's awesome local crime reporting and improves the services many of you are already using to understand what is happening on the streets around your homes and businesses. But that's not enough. SeattleCrime has alread moved expectations for what a news app should be beyond a simple regurgitation of RSS feeds. Now we want to move it even farther forward.

Mobile news apps need to be more than simple reading and consuming devices. To harness the full potential of the technology, the apps need to also excel in the collection of information. If they don't, there's no reason to be an app. In our latest update to SeattleCrime, we're putting this potential to the... (more)

Just a quick note to say happy birthday to a little experiment that we're glad to see make it through the year. When the gang from the Seattle PostGlobe came to us last summer from the still smoking wreckage of a volunteer-created open source site, we did what we could to help. Our systems are designed to be simple to use and affordable -- they enable us to provide great technology to content producers and information gatherers great... and small. The Globe's ragtag band of editors, reporters and photographers have stayed "in business" because of their energy and their commitment -- but also because they have a technology supporting them that helps extend their effort without burying PostGlobe in technology costs and tools designed for developers, not journalists. Happy birthday, PostGlobe. Happy to be part of another year.

Neighborlogs is highly dedicated to community news at the neighborhood level but that's not all we do. We also provide services that power some of the best independent news and information sites here in Seattle. One of our favorites is Seattle's only online news and culture magazine, TheSunBreak . We're proud to announce that we're helping TSB roll out its brand new TheSunBreak iPhone App . Grab it today if you're looking for a good Seattle read and one touch access to TSB's services like the weekly planner, On the List.

In addition to great content, we hope you'll enjoy the Neighborlogs-shaped experience geared toward making the app more than the glorified feed readers so many sites churn out. One great leap forward for app-kind seems simple but you never see it in many efforts -- we've integrated comments in the SunBreak news-stream. Please check it out and let us know what you think. Once again, we're working with our pals at PurpleRobots to make this goodness happen -- so thanks a bunch to them.

Wow.... (more)

As part of the celebration of its one-year anniversary as an online-only news source, SeattlePI.com profiled seven leaders who have joined it in the online media revolution underway in the city. We're proud to have made the list and to have the opportunity to spread our message and showcase our services.

"The cost of content is so high, you have to find ways to pinch technology and all the tools as tightly as possible. Plenty of players will be gone because they don't know how to do that. The next generation is going to be very interesting for us."

These are exciting times for our company:

• Our Seattle-area independent advertising network has grown significantly and added some impressive partners
• Our SeattleCrime iPhone app is one-of-a-kind and getting great reviews. We're up to 2,000 downloads. Get yours today. Plus, some amazing new features are coming very soon -- and a few new hyperlocal apps are in the works.
• We're hiring!

When we set out to create Neighborlogs, our goal was to build an all-in-one package of tools and services that independent content entrepreneurs and community members could put to use creating awesome community news sites. Along the way, we've also developed instiAds into a great tool to manage any site's display and self-serve advertising and to power advertising networks. We've put that power to work right here in Seattle.

Our Seattle Indie Advertising Network now includes ten neighborhood sites as well as some of Seattle's best independent citywide news sites. It's the only network of its kind in the city combining leading cross-city news and information sites with the best hyperlocal efforts in the neighborhoods our partners serve. We're also proud that SIAN is unique in that it allows independent media businesses to combine efforts while maintaining sovereignty. It truly is a new era, new media network. Because we place independence first, the Seattle advertising network is a fluid, evolving group... (more)

Instivate, Inc. is looking for an online advertising sales representative to join our Seattle startup as Employee #4! Our network of Seattle news and neighborhood blogs is a cutting edge leader in the hyperlocal wave. Here are some of the outstanding local sites we power: 

• http://capitolhillseattle.com 
• http://centraldistrictnews.com 
• http://seattlecrime.com 
• http://thesunbreak.com 

We are seeking a hard charging sales representative to sell advertising across these sites.

We provide a base salary, generous commission structure and benefits options. Please help us spread the word about this great opportunity. Please contact justin@instivate.com with resumes/questions/etc.

If you know how to reach the right people to quickly close win/win advertising deals, read on. 

You are an excellent self-manager, dedicated to analytical, systematic sales approaches but also extremely comfortable helping local businesses put their messages in front of our growing Seattle audience.... (more)

It's been a week since we launched the SeattleCrime iPhone app -- our first step in bringing high quality mobile experiences to the community news space. We are proud to say we're zooming through our first 1,000 downloads and, more importantly, the SeattleCrime iPhone app is the highest rated top Seattle news app in the Apple Store. Here are the six apps Apple currently features -- some big names here including Seattle Times and KIRO.

Out of all of them, only Crime is currently rocking a 4-star user rating.

And in our time climbing through the rest of the 31 apps that come up for the search "Seattle news," SeattleCrime had the highest rating we could find.

Thanks for the support and we're glad you like it. If you don't have it yet, download the SeattleCrime app here.

At Instivate, our work developing Neighborlogs community news sites has helped us create low cost, powerful sites for larger independent news and information efforts. One of these sites is SeattleCrime. It's a fantastic city news site run by a pro journalist and powered by Instivate technology. We're extremely proud to announce an exciting new component of the site -- the SeattleCrime iPhone App.

Get the app

Developed in conjunction with mobile partner Purple Robots, the app showcases many of the tenets of our news and info delivery philosophy -- and, of course, the city's crime news flow keeps things interesting with great stories. Here is what the app does:

• Continuously maps the latest emergency calls across the city
• Mixes in original reporting from SeattleCrime and Neighborlogs Seattle community news blogs
• Is location aware so you can fire it up and find out what those sirens near you are about.

The SeattleCrime app is the kind of thing we love to build. Useful to anybody who's ever seen a cop car... (more)

We enjoyed this interview with Tracy Record, one of the great characters helping to put the Pacific Northwest hyperlocal scene at the center of the hyperlocal community news map along with us here in Seattle. But we felt bad when we saw this reply to a question a lot of people ask about dedicated hyperlocal efforts:

AP: You are constantly attending meetings, markets and other events; you keep long hours and have a family at the same time. How do you keep the energy up?

TR: I have been a night owl all my life and have managed to do OK on five or so hours sleep. These days, three-hour nights are more common than five-hour nights, though, and I tend to nod off in the living-room chair while trying to finish that one last story that it always comes down to around 2, 3 am.

We don't recommend three hours of sleep for anybody -- especially not a news and information gathering entrepreneur. Just for the record, I average about seven hours of sleep per night and Instivate prez Scott Durham of Central District News<... (more)

A Seattle neighborhood news site is out with its second annual look at the top Web media properties in Seattle. Like any good ranking system, there are plenty of holes to point out in the methodology combining Quantcast, Alexa and other rankings in a 'secret sauce' recipe but Belltown Dispatch's list is fun to dig into nonetheless. Instivate, the Seattle start-up behind Neighborlogs, is proud to point out that we power eight of the top 75 sites in the rankings. Not bad when you consider we're up against media behemoths like Hearst, Fox and, the #1 online Seattle media property, the Seattle Times.

Here's a table showing the rankings with markings highlighting sites powered by our technology as well as the sites involved in a local news partnership with the Seattle Times which we feel should be a model for big media + little media collaboration. We've also marked the kinds of sites Neighborlogs loves most -- online-only indie neighborhood news sites -- in red. And, oh, by the way, we also power the Belltown Dispatch!... (more)

Neighborlogs features run deep. Community news providers get:

• An easy-to-use content editor and site manager
• Built-in geolocation and community features
• Forums, classifieds, aggregation tools
• A cutting-edge, small-to-medium business focused self-serve advertising service

And it's all free. To add a new opportunity to the Instivate family of services, this week we are rolling out InstiAds. The new self-serve ad service takes the Neighborlogs advertising system and makes it available on any community news and information Web site regardless of platform, codebase or service.

You can register for the InstiAds Beta here.

The new service lets anybody set their own prices and provide advertising services designed for local businesses. Here is a look at the self-serve wizard:

The service also includes easy to use Logo + Text layouts that allow businesses with limited budgets to create and update great looking display ads without a graphic designer.

If you are operating an existing local news and information... (more)

Seattle is at the forefront of a wave of independent, local online news and information. It's fun to watch the trends. Political and news online wonkfest Publicola today announced they are hiring an advertising rep.

We'll go them one better. We hired an ad rep on Friday. Meet Eric Kelly eric@instiads.com

Eric will be leading the way in ad sales on the Neighborlogs network of neighborhood news blogs. Drop him a line today if you'd like to have your message associated with truly local community news and information. Eric can get you hooked up across the Neighborlogs network, one any of the sites utilizing our services like SeattlePostGlobe.org or TheSunbreak.com and any of our partner sites.

With Big Media sniffing around (here and here) the hyperlocal space in Seattle and also gearing up for a go in Portland and these 6 new features rolled out to everybody using our service and tools, we thought it might be a good time to compare and contrast Neighborlogs vs. Big Media 'Hood Sites.

Here are some features to consider if you find yourself making the decision between contributing to a big media local news effort or building something real for your community.

Ready to start your own Neighborlogs site? Send me a note or register for our Beta today.

We're happy to announce several new Beta features for Neighborlogs that we believe will make your local news and information sites even more important parts of your communities.

• Site features control in Admin
  In your site's Admin, you will now find a Site Features section (under Site Appearance). You can toggle on/off Neighborlogs features using this new control panel.
• Classifieds
  Some of you have had these for awhile -- the rest of you, welcome to the free community classified advertising game. You can see how they work on my site: http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/classifieds Look for a new section in your Admin to create the Classified Ad Categories.
  
• Forums
  Your Neighborlogs site can now have communty message boards. Example: http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/forums To create your Forums categories, create a Forums section in your Admin's Categories management section and the add child categories.
  
• Aggregation
  This one is powerful and totally Beta! Check it out. Like the other new features, you'll need to turn...

Today's Seattle Times announcement is a happy thing for the four community news businesses involved in the hyperlocal partnership including my own site, CapitolHillSeattle.com.

But the partnership will be meaningless the next time there is breaking news in a neighborhood not named in the press release. If this partnership does what it is supposed to, the system of communication and the internal news culture that the Seattle Times is trying to build will be put into motion to connect Seattle's news audience with community news providers across the city. That change is much more important than today's announcement.

The systems, procedures and, maybe, technology the Times will develop around this partnership have the potential to drag big media forward to give community news a begrudging respect and change the interaction with the independent news sites from ignorance to respectful attention. It won't be an immediate change but the new habits are starting to be formed already. When these initial partners break... (more)

Bus Plow Originally uploaded by AdonisPhotos

Many will say that Seattle's incumbent mayor Greg Nickels failed to make it through the city's primary and into the fall general election because of snow.

But the weather wasn't really the problem. The problem was information. Seattle was hit with a situation that required systems of communication and information distribution that it did not have. The city's dying newspapers couldn't keep up and City Hall's various departments were too busy trying to dig out from underneath the snow and ice to turn to their antiquated systems of information distribution. They couldn't connect information to the neighborhoods and streets where it was needed. The County's Metro bus system fared no better despite its established Web site. There was no planned information core to power Seattle. And so it slipped on the icy sidewalks and tried to make the best of it.

But the best wasn't good enough for the mayor to keep his job.

The lesson for the surviving candidates Joe Mallahan and... (more)

Everything we do at Neighborlogs is geared toward one thing: giving people the ability to create and maintain great community news and information sites. It goes beyond tools and web pages. Part of survival for many neighborhood blog efforts is figuring out a way to financially support the effort required to maintain a useful site.

So we're happy to announce an important Neighborlogs milestone. Today, we are proud to feature our first network advertising partner running across the Neighborlogs Seattle network of sites. Here's a look at the STITA Taxi campaign from the Eastlake Ave site:

The network advertising component joins our already powerful self-serve ad system built into every site to give site owners multiple potential revenue opportunities. We've also built in a commission process that richly! rewards sites for originating network buys.

It's an exciting development for our business and for the businesses that are building on our service. If you are interested in associating your message with original,... (more)

Neighborlogs is having fun growing in the middle of journalism's storms of change. Sites using our service are part of what comes next for local news and information. We're learning so much watching it play out and working to build the tools and services people need for the new era.

There is a lot to learn here and, so, it seems like a good opportunity for a student to join the team. We are creating an intern position with our company -- Neighborlogs Seattle Editor. The editor will gather news and information in the Seattle area including working with the Seattle Police Department and city government to cover news and events. The editor will also assist with the entirety of the start-up business including marketing and working with customers across the country using the Neighborlogs service. It should be a good gig and awesome opportunity to see the frontlines of how local information gathering is changing.

Plus, the Neighborlogs Seattle Editor will have a swell mentor. I've been working in online media for... (more)

Want to know more about the business behind my own neighborhood blog? Jane Stevens digs into CapitolHillSeattle.com in this case study to find out more about how I run the site and utilize the Neighborlogs service. It's a cool write-up. I even learned a little about my business just seeing the details of it all.

reJurno case study: CapitolHillSeattle.com

When talking with people considering joining the Neighborlogs beta -- btw, you should consider joining the Neighborlogs beta if you are thinking about starting a neighborhood blog or want to transition your existing site to a service geared to your needs -- I sometimes feel like I'm describing those old Total breakfast cereal commercials. You'd have to eat 8 bowls of blah blah blah to get the nutrition in one bowl of Total!

But we do have a lot of goodness packed into the Neighborlogs service. We have a solution that provides ten essentials of a hyperlocal news and info site:

1. A simple-to-use but powerful blog editor
2. Integrated community
3. Advertising system that is flexible and has self-serve features
4. Enabled for third party advertising systems
5. Content tools and features like mobile posting and interactive maps
6. Enabled for inclusion of third party technologies embeds and scripts
7. Hosting and technical support for database and backend technologies
8. Events calendar updated by community
9. A classifieds solution<...

We're getting Seattle-area Neighborlogs site owners together to talk neighborhood blogging and get some feedback on our 'hood bloggin tools and services -- and also enjoy some beer and pizza. If you are interested in Neighborlogs and want to meet some of the people behind great Seattle sites like TheSouthLake.com, InterbayDistrict.com and Ravennanation.com, we'd be happy to meet you, too. RSVP here.

1st Ever Seattle Neighborlogs Meetup!
Tuesday 2/24 7p
PizzaFusion 1412 12th Ave

Seattle's craigslist site is a busy place. It's also kind of a drag --simultaneously a great way to reach a lot of people in the area AND guarantee several days of frustrating flakes, frauds and e-mail tag. But we're not here (only!) to kick Craigslist around -- it's a great service and will likely always be a big part of the local Internet experience.

We do, however, want to learn more about the opportunities left behind by the big CL or eBay's kijiji, or even aggregator Oodle. So we're working on our own classifieds solution for neighborhood blogging. We rolled out an early version of the service on my 'hood blog:

It's a simple start. But we're excited to see how the following factors play out.

• Geographic definition at finer grain than metro: We're interested to learn if this a potential key differentiator for our service. Maybe improving on -- or, at least, being an alternative to -- Craigslist is as simple as providing service focused on a neighborhood.
• Marketplace for a community of registered users:...

Here's the bad news:  We had a 18 hour outage today, and lost about 30 hours of data between Saturday at 6:30pm, and Sunday morning at 3:00am.

I figure we might as well be as transparent as possible about how it happened. Maybe it will help drive the lessons learned home for us and anyone else out there who might read it.

Traffic has been growing quickly across the network, and we're preparing to launch a beta version of a new product that will drive it significantly higher.  So it seemed like a sleepy Sunday morning would be a good time to catch up on some infrastructure projects that would make sure we could maintain good service levels in coming months.

The first part of that was to toughen up our backup solution.  For 18 months we've being running nightly database backups.  It was pretty simple, but theoretically effective: dump the database to a file, and copy the file to a remote network storage that was physically distant from our operational servers. That backup solution... (more)