MyAdvertiser.com adds three communities
Advertiser Staff
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The Honolulu Advertiser today launches three more community focused Web sites for the Waikiki, Kalihi and Ala Moana/Kaka'ako communities.
MyAdvertiser.com now includes 16 online neighborhood sites covering residential areas on O'ahu.
If you live on the Windward side, on the Leeward coast, in Central O'ahu and now in urban Honolulu, you have a community Web site with news, issues and photos about your area.
The neighborhood sites, which are free to access on the Internet at MyAdvertiser.com, contain community-specific news, local articles written by Advertiser reporters and staff writers from our People community newspapers. But most important are the reports written and submitted by residents themselves.
"This is a way for residents to have an active voice in the presentation of the news," said James Gonser, community news editor at The Advertiser. "Residents can write stories about the news in their communities that never make it in the paper or on TV: stories about their kid's soccer team, the local volunteer cleanup effort or a neighborhood security watch meeting."
The sites also provide a place for residents to talk to one another about local issues.
"We have discussion boards set up for each community," Gonser said. "We also have a growing number of community bloggers who directly speak to local issues."
Hot topics on the sites include elderly care homes in Manoa and Hawai'i Kai, bed-and-breakfast facilities in Kailua and traffic jams in Kapolei.
Lorraine Gershun, who pens a blog called "In the Second City" for myAdvertiser.com/kapolei, writes about her general observations of life as a parent and teacher living on the Leeward side. She uses her blog to get a conversation going about the issues and attitudes in Kapolei.
COMMUNITY BLOGGERS
"Blogging seems to be right up my alley. Now that I've started, I'm wondering why I didn't embrace it sooner," Gershun said. "I have a myriad of experiences and opinions and usually freely share them with any and all of my friends. I love to write. Put these two together and I'm a blogging prototype."
MyAdvertiser.com uses a computer tool called Get Published! that allows readers to submit their own news articles and photos. The stories can be on anything from school concerts and craft fairs to paddling results to scholarships being offered by civic clubs. Submitting stories is free, and they are published directly on your Web site.
Other features of the site include a comprehensive community calendar, complete school information, breaking news specific to the area, traffic and weather reports — and an unusual feature: the wish list.
The wish list is a place where teachers, clubs and community groups can ask for help — volunteers needed for a cleanup, a sixth-grade class in need of textbooks or a soccer league needing umpires. Anything that could benefit a community group with limited resources can be on the wish list.
For more information, call Gonser at 535-2431 or send an e-mail to myadvertiser@honoluluadvertiser.com.
