A guide to hyperlocal

The next MMJ masterclass at www.multimedia-journalism.co.uk is about hyperlocal journalism





We’ll be talking to one person who is building a website for west London: West London Today.
His name is Bolaji and he’s something of a veteran in hyperlocal.
He created a hyperlocal print magazine, Brook Green, in 2001, and last year he decided to create an online site for a large area of London, with various hyperlocal presences under that big umbrella.
Bolaji is at a crossroads,;trying to decide whether to keep building what is at present a fledgling site on his own, or to partner with  one of the most successful names in the hyperlocal business, Neighbournet.
That’s a choice many who want to create hyperlocal sites face.
Another problem for many hyperlocal sites is how to get enough content on them.
Bolaji has been following the masterclasses in MMJ, and he asked if we could address this key problem.
So we do, looking at how to use Yahoo Pipes to create filtered streams of content; a range of closely targeted feeds that will help satisfy the information needs of his users, in each locality of west London that he covers.
And we look at how to embed such RSS feeds into your site
Also, at how to find those feeds.
And not just news feeds, but also feeds containing on a whole range of other information, such as school league tables, crime, what MPs are up to, and reporting street cleaning and other problems to the council.
There is a great deal of advice out there, and existing Yahoo Pipes that you can adapt for your own purposes, if you can find it. So we have gathered some of that.
Finally, what we cont cover in Masteclass17: your publishing platform. That’ll come next time, in Masterclass 18.