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Greensboro is cool

Greensboro is cool. The first time I was here, last summer, I missed that.

Here are some reasons why...

If you're a blogger in Greensboro, you probably know eight other bloggers, and could easily find the rest of them. They network here, they build consensus, they work together.

It's a friendly place. Because it's a southern city, people are polite and generous with their smiles (I had forgotten that about the south).

As far as I can tell, Greensboro is ahead of most other small cities in the US in their blogging.

It's very interesting to see Ed Cone in the context of this community. In the past I had only seen him in the context of my community.

I was very welcomed here. I instantly felt like I belonged. I can see why people love living here.

Now Greensboro's old economic base, manufacturing, has gone to China, and they're wondering about their future. I suggested that they consider basing their economy on blogging. Already people in Winston-Salem feel closer to the Greensboro community than they do to their own, because Greensboro is doing so much reporting on itself through the blogs. Why not offer honorary Greensboro citizenship to anyone who joins the Greensboro web community? Have events for community bloggers coming from New York, California, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia. Find like-minded communities all over the world and help them bootstrap their own citizen journalism and government. Think bigger than Guilford County, what you have going here should belong to the world, and so therefore, could Greensboro.

Think of it this way. You used to export clothing and furniture. Now you're exporting subversive ideas. Which is more interesting?

I don't doubt that much of this will happen without anyone thinking it through. The place is already attracting outsiders like myself. On Sunday, Dan Gillmor will be here. Surely we're just the pioneers. Better create a sleep-away camp for bloggers, a lake with fishing and campfires so we can all come here and sing kum-bay-ya, in celebration of blogging, in celebration of Greensboro.

Anyway, thanks for being such gracious hosts. I totally enjoyed my three days here! ;->

# Posted by Dave Winer on 2/11/05; 9:06:59 AM - --



 

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