Riverwest Neighborhood Network/ NewLocalMedia.com

The Riverwest Neighborhood Network comes squarely from that world, calling itself "a free, independently owned, volunteer- and user-driven community news source/news filter, discussion forum, and information exchange--for Milwaukee''s Riverwest neighborhood."

He says that when you do what he does, you learn that most people have the same concerns. He openly says that he writes with an agenda-–an idealistic one, he adds–-and that it comes from an interest in urban issues and with a vision of the direction his neighborhood could go in.

He has gone on to start a one-man company called NewLocalMedia.com. With it, he uses what he has learned to help other people set up Web sites using open source software.

-MGP researcher Sara Majka, September 2008.

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from NewLocalMedia.com:
"New Local Media especially aims to serve the needs of clients whose primary audience is located in their immediate geographic region. A third of all search engine queries are made by people looking for local results: information, products or services in their immediate area. The popularity of online social networking is both a model and an influence for the reorganization of the vaguely global "worldwide web" into a more clearly defined network of people and places. Most people, groups, businesses, and markets are rooted in particular places; their most valued and most common interactions are with their real-world neighbors, constituents, and clients."

from a series of articles by Knauss about RNN:
"RNN exists to help neighbors network, communicate, share, and receive information relevant to their community in the form of news, event notices, crime warnings, "what''s going on at ..." questions, rental/real estate listings, wanted/for sale notices, etc. RNN also aims to use its corner of the public sphere to foster communication and accountability between citizens and their elected leaders, to promote what is good and meritorious in the community, and to expose abuse and exploitation. Some of the news material is entirely or substantially original; much of it is "filtered" from other media sources when it has relevance to local residents. There is also an educational aspect to RNN in terms of how much of its news informs people about local civic affairs and the ways in which they may participate in them."
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Updates:
Placeblogger''s Tish Grier interviews Dan Knauss in May 2008.