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Ten hyperlocal news projects awarded £50,000 grants

Ten hyperlocal news projects across the UK have been awarded funding of up to £50,000 to develop mobile phone platforms.

Lottery-funded innovation foundation Nesta has awarded money to ten schemes with the aim of kickstarting hyperlocal media innovation in the UK.

One of the projects awarded up to £50,000 was My Town which was launched by former NWN Media editor-in-chief Graham Breeze and colleague David Williams who set up mywelshpool.co.uk.

The funds will enable the pair to set up new sites along with a location-aware app on both Android and iOS, allowing geograpically-relevant content to be viewed on mobile phones.

The money has been awarded under Destination Local which was launched in April to identify the technologies, business models, content opportunities and challenges for a successful hyperlocal media sector in the UK.

Nesta programme director Jon Kingsbury said: “The strength and diversity of the projects chosen shows how exciting the hyperlocal media sector is.

“There is a real desire for these organisations not only to be innovative but sustainable so that we lay the foundations for a hyperlocal media sector that is here to stay.”

The other projects winning funding were:

Local Edge – Leith and Broughton, Scotland

Local Edge will allow users to receive and post geographically relevant news and information on their mobile phones and develop a loyalty card system working with local shops and service providers.

LocalSay – London

LocalSay will create a geographically-relevant guide with an augmented reality feature allowing users easy access to useful local information and will set out pending policy decisions for example on planning applications.

LOL! Leeds Online – Leeds

LOL! Leeds Online will develop a map based interface that allows access to its content via a mobile app. In addition to providing users with geographically relevant content, the app will use the map as its dashboard, allowing users to upload, search, read, comment, rate and tag news items.

Papur Dre – Caernarfon, Wales

Papur Dre (Town Paper) is a community newspaper working with Cwmni Da, a television production company and Coleg Menai, a further education college in North West Wales. Working together they will create a Welsh language mobile service that features news and information, using images, text and video.

Our Town – Glasgow

Our Town is a mobile hyperlocal news service backed by one of Scotland’s leading media companies. The service will include both web apps, native apps and push notifications and will be piloted within a central belt town in Scotland.

#21VC – Loddon, England

#21VC – 21st Century Village Correspondent – is a project to develop the Loddoneye hyperlocal blog into a wi-fi access portal. The service will also draw on content from the parish magazine and a community journalist, creating a local mobile service and wi-fi platform.

URTV – Helensburgh, Scotland

URTV is an online hyperlocal TV service in Scotland. Following the success of Helensburgh TV, URTV will build a network of community owned, not-for-profit hyperlocal news channels and develop phase two of a mobile app, allowing for location based news and content to be rolled out across the network.

Kentishtowner – Kentish Town, England

The Kentishtowner is a daily hyperlocal online magazine and it will The Kentishtowner will develop an HTML5 version of the website and will include geo-tagging of all data optimised for mobile devices. A variety of mobile content will be available, from detailed map-point local history walks to real-time shopping discounts.

Locali – Craigavon, Northern Ireland

Locali will interact with the community, local council and local businesses to facilitate improved local engagement through a location-aware smartphone app. The app will provide hyperlocal news and information – streamlining existing public information together with new hyperlocal content.

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  • July 3, 2012 at 2:53 pm
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    Still no one knows how to make it work! All those ideas sound worthy but as dull as dishwater and all ignore the one fundamental issue – technology makes like far less local than it ever was, not more. Good luck though.

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  • July 3, 2012 at 3:09 pm
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    It doesn’t cost £50k to make a mobile app. Hope these hyperlocal sites are aware of the pitfalls of allowing Joe Public to vent their sometimes wacky views – like libel! Might be a good idea to put a few bob by for a lawyer.

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