![\"Pr199701\"](\"http:\/\/ripples.typepad.com\/photos\/uncategorized\/pr199701.jpg\" "\\"Pr199701\\"")
Waldo created cvillenews.com<\/a>, a community news blog about Charlottesville, VA, USA, in April of 1999. The fact that I had never heard of his blog shows only that the blogosphere is connected by word of mouth, not by massive and annoying barrages of publicity and 10-second spots on radio and TV. Nobody I knew had passed the word. Waldo figured out how to harness the power of the blogosphere to connect people locally.<\/p>\nWaldo has been doing his thing, rather a lot of things, like graduating from Virginia Tech in May of 2005, running for City Council, and earning slurs like, "Further left than Karl Marx!" <\/p>\n
A man of many parts, he rides a motorcycle, has hiked most of the Appalachian Trail and he has a cute fiancee — they’re to be married on September 4. According to his bio, Forbes calls him a "grizzled veteran of the Internet scene". What’s not to like about this blogger?<\/p>\n
Waldo is an interesting young man on the way up and I intend to meet him personally and find out what he plans to do next. I think he is someone to watch. He is already making waves in the blogosphere.<\/p>\n
I discovered Waldo because he established an online aggregator<\/a> for Charlottesville blogs. It\u2019s updated every 3 hours, and lists all of the latest blog entries from bloggers in and around Charlottesville. It turns out that there\u2019s a surprising variety in what people are talking about. <\/p>\n Once Ripples was included in the aggregator, I started getting hits from local bloggers. This online aggregator is a great idea for building communities of local bloggers. it also presages the development of unofficial local newsgathering networks. For example, Waldo’s weblogs provide a refreshing extension to local news coverage. When the aggregator content is considered, you get a 360 degree view of local life and politics.<\/p>\n If you bookmark the C’ville aggregator site<\/a> or add it to your news reader, you will see what people are talking about in the Charlottesville area. <\/p>\n Now that I have discovered some of my area bloggers, I have to start a series on them. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n Tag: Blogging<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have been cheerfully solo-blogging out here at Lake Monticello and have been completely oblivious to long-established efforts by blogger Waldo Jaquith, who has been doing a creditable job of building a blogging community in nearby Charlottesville, VA. Waldo created … Continue reading