UO me

Hey, just wanted to point you-all at a quick piece I did for Urban Omnibus, reacting to the recent announcement that MSNBC had acquired Adrian Holovaty’s splendid Everyblock service.

Since the expiry, on June 30th, of the Knight Foundation grant that had been sustaining operations, I’d been more than a little concerned that the service and all the hard work that went into crafting it would disappear, so I couldn’t be happier that Everyblock has found a path to survival. You know, though, that I have questions about whether an organization like MSNBC will truly be able to keep its mitts off everything that makes Everyblock great, and I even wonder whether thinking of it as a discovery engine for “news” isn’t selling its potential a trifle short.

And that’s what the piece is about. I hope you enjoy it. (While you’re there, by the way, you should check out the other wonderful things UO is doing. In a lot of ways, it’s like a love letter to New York City, and I don’t hear its name on enough lips. Maybe you might could fix that.)