Tuesday, April 17, 2007

A Visit From Exit133

Derek Young from Exit133 visited the Living and Working class at the University yesterday and spoke about blogging and communities. Given the strength of community and volume of activity that permeates the Exit133 blog, this was a real treat and educational experience for the students.

One of the fascinating facets of Exit133 is that it grew organically. From Derek's personal use of the technology to distribute information to family and friends, to a record of daily life in Tacoma, to an answer to Seattle's inability to cover Tacoma (circa 1995) unless it was crime or corruption, to where it is today, a central hub from where artists, developers, city officials, citizen activists and the every Tacoman talk, debate, inform and plan. (How is that for obtuse sentence construction?).

One thing Derek mentioned that I thought was particularly important. He remembers when site regulars went from calling it Derek's site to calling it "our site". That's pretty cool, and a big indicator of a strong virtual community.

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