This past weekend there was a house fire a few streets away from our home. My first reaction after finding out that no people were harmed, was to wonder if the family needed anything? I've heard through the grape-vine that at least one business in town is accepting donations, and that's great (but also five days after the fact).

With all of my rambling blog posts on citizen journalism and "the new media", a lightbulb turned on and I realized that we are lacking a central way to spread information like this in our Region of Waterloo. The flow of information in our communities could be greatly improved. There is all kinds of information that we can share with each other. Just what is citizen journalism you might ask? The Wikipedia's entry on the topic starts off with this:

Citizen journalism, also known as "participatory journalism," is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information, by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis. They say, "The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires."

I'm seriously considering setting up, maintaining and editing a site that would allow anyone from the community to submit stories, new business announcements, photos, events (maybe even videos) and other newsworthy bits of information. Check out this list for examples of different sites and see what you like. I'd like to include all of the towns in our little area of Ontario such as Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, New Hamburg, Elmira, Wellesley, St. Jacobs, Breslau, Conestogo, Ayr and every place inbetween.

Here's what I need everyone to do. Brainstorm a bit, talk to your family, friends and co-workers. Point everyone you know to this posting. Leave your input as a comment and we'll get a conversation going. Here's a few questions/ideas to get us started:

What would you like to see? What information is important to you? What would you like to contribute? New to the area... what do you need to know? Got a beef with local government? Want to advertise a local event? Worried about big-box stores in your small community? Does land development or usage concern you? Environmental issues on your mind? Discover a great new cafe? Can't get that pothole on your street fixed? Concerned about daycare? Sports?