Sunny News for LocallyGrown

Thursday, November 10, 2011

LocallyGrownNews.com, a hyperlocal, hypertopical online community about local food founded by Elon University Professor Michelle Ferrier has expanded to Florida, opening its first franchise site in Tampa Bay.

Ferrier came to Elon from Florida, where she developed and managed a hyperlocal online community for a mid-size newspaper. From the lessons learned, she pitched the idea of a community news franchise to J-Lab and the New Media Women Entrepreneurs program. She was one of three grant awardees in 2009 to receive $10,000 in startup funds from the McCormick Foundation-funded program. LocallyGrownNews.com launched in April 2010.

She will be working with Dana Villamagna, M.S.J., a Tampa Bay journalist and author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids."

"I'm really excited to work with Michelle on this project. I think local is the future not only for food, but also for media," Villamagna said. "The more we get to know each other and our communities, the more vibrant our societies become. I love food and I love journalism and I think it will be a great community building project."

LocallyGrownNews.com has also received recent press from The Patterson Foundation, the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Columbia Journalism Review on the unique hyperlocal, hypertopical cooperative model.

The Patterson Foundation New Media Journalism blog

Reynolds Journalism Institute Block by Block Community

Columbia Journalism Review News Frontier Database

Ferrier plans to expand the local food community concept to other cities nationwide and is in search of local foodies interested in bringing the project to their community. She is also seeking partnerships with hyperlocal news operators seeking evergreen food/eco content for their audiences.

"While we provide hyperlocal content to our readers, we also have an abundance of stories and recipes that help raise awareness about local food and sustainability," said Ferrier. "We'd like to syndicate some of this geography-neutral content to other hyperlocal news operations and partners."

For more information about LocallyGrownNews.com, contact Michelle Ferrier at info@locallygrownnews.com.

Locally Grown News featured by The Patterson Foundation

Thursday, November 03, 2011

November 3, 2011

Locally Grown News publisher Michelle Ferrier was featured in a blog post by the New Media Journalism initiative, associated with The Patterson Foundation. Ferrier's "hyper-local," "hyper-topical" model for her news site fits into the New Media Journalism initiative's goal of promoting networks of engaged citizens.

"The idea of building networks to help build community is a key part of our work at The Patterson Foundation. We see the opportunities for what is learned in one network to inform others, a process that both helps build better practices and lets us all learn from what doesn’t work," the post reads.

Ferrier focuses on her topic of local foods and healthy lifestyles, detailing how her market is niche, yet successful.

Read the full blog post here.

LocallyGrownNews.com Tweaking Interface, Sending First Email Newsletter

Monday, June 21, 2010

I officially launched LocallyGrownNews.com last week after a month in soft launch where I invited close friends and collaborators to take a look at the site. I’ve gotten great feedback regarding the design and I love how the community members are front and center on the site.

Last week, my developer and I tweaked the site to add the popup bubbles on the community members. Now when you mouse over who’s online or who’s new, you get their mini bio and how long they’ve been a member. My goal is to allow users to “wave” at one another and trade “gifts” using the bubbles, but that’s on a long list of developments we’re still working through on the site.

I sent my first email newsletter today, using Constant Contact’s free trial. While the interface seemed a bit clunky for a first-time user, I was pleased that CC actually called me when I initiated my account to see if I had any questions or concerns. Then they followed up this morning to make sure I had been able to send my email properly. Now THAT’S customer service! Thanks Erik!

So I’ve been cranking out new articles on the site, using my visits to farmers markets to generate two or three articles from each visit. Plus, I’ve been distributing postcards about the site to vendors in their booths, directing them to the site. So when I write an article about a vendor, I send them a link to the article or photo package and they put the links on their site.

The local food movement conversation has been a great choice for the content on the site. When I look around the farmers markets, I see such a diversity of humanity. I know this is the place to start the conversation about building our local economy, and the way to a community’s heart is through its stomach.

Soft Launch Updates

Friday, May 28, 2010

I’ve been knee deep in launching the platform and doing promotion. We’re still in the *soft launch* mode, but fleshing out content now that the semester has ended. A few updates…

• I’ll be promoting LocallyGrown News at the Detroit Journalism That Matters event next week in our Innovations Expo. Hoping for a few recruits.
• The week after, my platform developer will be highlighting the site in his talk on hyperlocal communities at the Editor and Publisher Interactive Media conference. He will also be distributing literature at his booth at the expo.
• We have interest in Florida (back in Daytona Beach) and in Washington, DC to launch one of the franchises. We’re still in the demonstration phase, so I’m not eager to sell someone a bill of goods when I haven’t demonstrated the viability of the concept. But it is getting traction.
• In Winston-Salem, we’re working with the regional market managers who will be using the site as their main promotion site.
• LocallyGrown News got a $1,000 grant from the Center for Design Innovation in Winston-Salem as part of their Design, Arts, Technology Symposium that focuses on food and foodways this year. LocallyGrown News is one of three projects that will be featured at the conference and we will be providing editorial coverage.

As for the mobile market app, we’re finishing up wireframes and searching for additional development funds. I keep plugging the fundraising locally to foundations in our region. We’re getting some interest from local farm markets looking for solutions to this problem. But we may be attacking state/federal grants rather than local ones… with a much longer time frame for response.

So that’s what’s growing in my neck of the woods!

What is LocallyGrown News?

Monday, April 19, 2010

LocallyGrownNews.com is an online community and mobile application designed to foster conversations around the locavore movement. A locavore is someone who eats locally grown produce within 50 miles of their geographic location. LocallyGrownNews.com uses the eating locally movement to generate conversation around sustainable, healthy lifestyles.

LocallyGrownNews.com is an online community and mobile application designed to foster conversations around the locavore movement. A locavore is someone who eats locally grown produce within 50 miles of their geographic location. LocallyGrownNews.com uses the eating locally movement to generate conversation around sustainable, healthy lifestyles.

The online community features eco-friendly, geo-specific topics about locally grown produce and other products. Robust user profiles allow people to connect with those with similar interests and passions. The mobile application creates a virtual exchange, connecting producers to co-producers (consumers) in a just-in-time manner. Consumers can find out what is being sold by vendors and markets in their area.

We are also interested in restaurants that feature locally grown foods as well as entities that might use surplus produce for charitable purposes such as food kitchens and churches.

Beta tests will be run in both Winston-Salem and Greensboro, NC. We’re currently looking at expansion sites in Daytona Beach, Florida and in Burlington, NC.

Dr. Michelle Ferrier is the initiator behind LocallyGrownNews.com. She is working with InnerEye Studios in Winston-Salem and Creative Circle Advertising Solutions in East Providence, RI on development of the news and market platforms.

Soft launch mode: Talk it up, sign folks up

Monday, April 19, 2010

I’m going into soft launch mode with LocallyGrown News this month. By rolling out the beta version of the hyperlocal online community through private invites to selected users, I can get feedback on any design, content, architecture or function elements of the site…and still have time for adjustments!

My goal is to use local Earth Day events to distribute information on the project to key community people and get them interested. I’ve already started conversations with city officials, photographers, content providers and others generating some buzz about the site.

I’m going into soft launch mode with LocallyGrown News this month. By rolling out the beta version of the hyperlocal online community through private invites to selected users, I can get feedback on any design, content, architecture or function elements of the site…and still have time for adjustments!

My goal is to use local Earth Day events to distribute information on the project to key community people and get them interested. I’ve already started conversations with city officials, photographers, content providers and others generating some buzz about the site.

I’ve designed a simple 4 x 6 postcard that I’ll distribute to vendors/volunteers at the local Earth Day events. I’ll also be able to gather my own intelligence about who is doing what around my core content and gauge reactions on the spot.

Here’s the front of the postcard I’ll distribute for my private invite.

My goals are simple:
1. Use this ready-made event to gather intelligence. I’m much more effective by being a participant rather than purchasing a booth at this stage. I can move quickly through the fair and get information.
2. Find out who has information to share. Are master gardeners using email to distribute information? Is the city having difficulty communicating on ordinance changes for urban gardens? These pain points make LocallyGrownNews a powerful solution for their problem.
3. Look for stories. Everyone has a story. So I’m taking my camera and getting lots of them in one place. Some I’ll follow up on later, with pictures at the farm/store/market. But I can get a lot of information in one place.
4. Recruit passionate users.
The goal is to build an email list of interested users, content providers, passionate participants and others for the site.

Earth Day is April 22. Three days. Gotta go.

Deep into development on site/mobile app

Friday, March 19, 2010

I’m deep into development of LocallyGrownNews after a quarter of brass tacks business development and planning. With partnership agreements in place with an online community platform and one in progress for a mobile application developer (no, they are not the same), I’ve been trading logo designs, wireframes and ideas for the mobile app with my virtual team(s).

February has also been a month of fundraising. While I’m licensing the online community platform, the mobile app is a completely new product to help bring an additional revenue stream to the business model. Development time = money. So I’ve written two additional grants - one with a local foundation call for projects and another with a national foundation source. I’ve also been working with the mobile app team to identify community grant sources as well as angel and venture capital funds to develop version 1 and version 2.

Versions 1 and 2? What happened to beta? I’ll be beta testing the online community in the second quarter of 2010, but I’m building out a business model with some future development in place. In order to compete in any way with the free (or virtually free) platforms like WordPress, I recognized that we have to bring some value-added to the table. That includes planning for new technologies, fresh content and always looking for partnerships to leverage smart people and products.

I’ve also been immersing myself in the markets where I’ll be beta testing the concept. I decided to launch the effort closer to home where I can develop the contacts and content myself (the free labor helps with the budget!). I’m also cultivating some interested contacts in other locales who are just as interested in food and hyperlocal communities.

Spring is here and I’m eager to break out of this winter hibernation. With our anticipated launch on the horizon, I’m preparing simple promotional materials for a soft launch, storing up evergreen content and continuing to share the philosophy of connecting communities through food.