A Voice for Broadgate

The Lancashire Evening Post has just posted a link to 'Broadgate is Great' from their blogs page.
They describe us as 'A community blog written by one man for Broadgate Preston'.
In fact the blog is written by 4 men, myself, Terry, Faron and Chris, and there's always space for anyone else who wants to write here about some of the great things going on in Broadgate -and we could certainly do with a few female bloggers to make up for our gender imbalance.
If you're a budding Broadgate blogger, pass us your article, and it shouldn't be long before you see it up here!

HyperLocal Blogging is the Future

Clarissa Sebag Montefiore explains the phenomenon known as 'hyper-local blogging' in this BBC article.

Hyper local blogging is any blogging that focusses, almost obsessively on a single town, community or even street, and it's taking off in a big way.

Broadgate is Great is one of those 'Hyper-local blogs', using our closeness to the community to give a unique viewpoint and voice to people who otherwise would not get heard, we're delighted that fellow hyper-local blog 'Preston Blog' got a particular mention as a shining example of what a local blog can achieve. We can testify that their coverage of the Penwortham Leisure Centre Fiasco has so far been second to none, so they fully deserve their place in the national spotlight.

Russians In Lancashire

A new blog has been set up for members of the Russian community in Lancashire

It's authors are Andy and Elena.

They say:

This blog is for the Russian speaking communities of Lancashire in the north west of England. (Русская версия данного блога здесь)

We plan to publish a wide variety of material about our meetings, events, experiences and interests. We hope that Russian speaking people visiting Lancashire will find useful and interesting information and will want to share their experiences with us.

We will try to keep you informed of forthcoming events and please let us know of anything you would like to see listed here on the blog.

We hope to raise the profile of people from Russia and the Republics in the north west of England and we are happy to hear your ideas!

you can read the English Language version here: http://russianlancashire.wordpress.com

The Russian Language version is here: http://russianlancashire.blogspot.com

'Broadgate Is Great' Reverberates Across The Blogosphere

"Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux of all things? Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that propagate themselves are the beautiful type of all influence" Ralph Waldo Emerson

The internet is like a constantly flowing body of water. If you chuck a big enough rock in, you can send ripples right around it.

Broadgate is Great is a very little blog, about a small, but pleasant, part of Preston, which is an ex-town trying a little bit too hard to be 'the third city of the North West'. You'd think a blog with such a small footprint would seem barely relevant to other people in other places.

Even so, in the short time it's been in existence, 'Broadgate Is Great' has certainly sent out a few ripples, and been noticed by quite a few people, and it is really nice to be noticed.

It's even better to be noticed by decent writers, and Jenn Ashworth is certainly that, she's Preston's brightest literary flame since Robert Service and Angela Brazil.

Jenn was kind enough to say about this blog:

Broadgate is Great does what is says on the tin. As a community news portal specific to the Broadgate area, this blog is hard to beat. The writing is clear, informative and characterful, and the look and layout of the blog make the most out of the template and include some amazing pictures of the area.

Read more of Jenn's opinions on our, and other Preston Blogs at Preston Writer's Network

A lot of people liked the post on '85 ways to build community', which got featured in the Britblog Carnival on Redemption Blues Here's their opinion on that post:

Riversider at Broadgate is Great, drawing on Professor Robert Putnam’s initiative across the Pond, lists, in a creditable effort at transplanting it to British soil, 85 Ways to Build Community. Predictably (though not without justification), "Turn off your TV or PC" features as admonition number one (on the original American list, top spot goes to "Organise a social gathering to welcome a new neighbour". Switching off the goggle box is to converse with friends or family occupies 71st position only). "Go outside" comes in at number two. Interestingly, "Say hello to strangers" is number 51 (85 in the US version). People still where I come from and it is part of the charm of the place, but nowadays chiefly the preserve of the older generation. "Join in to help carry something heavy" would be a non-starter in Waffleland, where nobody would dream of giving up their seat for a white-haired matron on a bus, never mind a pregnant woman.

Even our article on the Broadgate Flood Wall repairs made an impact on the blogosphere. Greentime said this;

Global warming brings with it heavier floods in traditionally flood-prone areas. Are our local flood defenses up to the challenge? Follow one example of posing and answering this question at Broadgate Is Great: Broadgate Flood Wall Repairs.

Closer to home, the admirable Preston Blog took up our post on the threat to build a 'Super Surgery' over the Hartington Courts play area.

The latest blog to feature an article from Broadgate is Great is The Soul of Rock and Roll the blogger there suggests our coverage of Damo Suzuki's gig at the Continental will lead him to seek this experimental underground rock adventurer out.

Lots of other blogs have also posted links to Broadgate Is Great, and we always try to reciprocate. If you look at the bottom of the right hand sidebar, you'll see the very latest posts from some of Preston's most excellent blogs.

Broadgate is Great has just been going for a few months, but we're already getting the word out about some of the great things happening in this area. We're proud to belong to a community that's starting to make some pretty interesting and exciting things happen for itself.

Riversway Blog Probes Sport

Blogging gives ordinary people a voice that otherwise might not be heard.

It is with this in mind that 'Broadgate is Great' welcomes the new 'Riversway - Labour and Industry' blog started by Callum D'Souza, a postgraduate journalism student at the University of Central Lancashire.

Callum has big ambitions for his blog, he says the blog will be

"about industry and the labour force, there is only one print correspond for labour and industry in the whole of Britain"

The first aspect of Industry and the Labour force Callum is probing is Sport.

He explains:

I am going to look at the sports industry in Preston. Looking at how sports centres in Lancashire will become a training base for the London 2012 Olympics. Fiffteen Pacific Island countries including Fiji, Paupa New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga want to make use of facilities in Preston, Myerscough and Clitheroe. This means that Preston will financially 'get a piece of the action'.

So far Callum has blogged about how the Pacific Island Countries are all set to use sports facilities in Preston - despite the fact we do not have an olympic size swimming pool.

He comments:

It seems strange that a country would specifically choose to use a swimming facility which does not match the length of the Olympic sized pool.
Although there are plans to build an Olympic size swimming pool in Preston, this is unlikely to happen in the near future.

Athletes which represent the Pacific Islands will have little or no access to swimming facilities in their own country.

So the facilities which are presently available in Preston are still considerably better than in the Pacific Islands.

Other blogs set up by journalism students include: 'Preston Town Centre Health and Social Services at http://prestonisacityofjoy.blogspot.com, authored by 'pocket venus' who's been focussing so far on the closely linked subjects of alcohol, sex and pregnancy. Pocket Venus's blog has the innate advantage that you can read about sexual misbehaviour in it without feeling guilty, because it's basically for your own good.

We wish both bloggers lots of luck, and great futures as journalists.