Blogs...Lots of 'em!

One of humanity's great pursuits is authenticity of information.  How often do people consume information from and official source only to be somehow a bit dubious about its intent or genuineness?  Factually accurate data isn't necessarily hard to find - but the truth can often be a different matter.

The Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau (DCVB) has long prided itself on factual accuracy.  Credibility is a distant vista without it, but can an official organization fully speak from the standpoint of every corner of the citizenry?  Simply put, no.  With that truth laid bare, the desire to pull back the curtain on the community's inner workings and thoughts never wavered, and a year ago, a solution was born.

The truth - as told by anyone who wishes to tell theirs - can be laid out in a blog.  The barrier to entry on this format is low, most are very simple to use and free.  DCVB decided to give amplification to those truths by consolidating local blogs into a central location.  To date, more than 470 are listed here on a page on the Durham News Service website. 

On this page, a blog itself, are blogs from all corners of the community on all subjects - everything from personal ruminations to hard-hitting reporting and informed opinion.  Perusal of this list gives a reader a strong sense of Durham from many angles - just the intent for which it was designed.

There are thousands more to add to this compilation. Take this article as an invitation to see sides of the community in which you live that to you might be foreign.  Share the resource with friends who are thinking of visiting, or media that might be interested in learning about Durham by listening to those who call it home.  It's quite a fascinating journey.

Of course, those interested in sharing their blog and not finding it linked can email to share the address.

Don't Fear the Feed

As technology grows and expands, so does the collective vocabulary of the world. It can be difficult to keep up with changes and technology can become overwhelming if the correct tools are not utilized. "RSS Feeds" and Readers are tools that can make following blogs simpler.

The Durham News Service encourages fans to subscribe to the feeds for each section of information in order to stay up-to-date on all the happenings in Durham. Each section of information features a button on the right hand side which says, “Get RSS Feed.” By clicking this button fans can download the feed to the platform of their choice by following the given instructions.

What does “getting the RSS Feed” mean? Feeds simply allow websites to distribute their content to subscribers who are interested in regular information updates. Likewise, RSS Readers are aggregators that pull Atom and RSS Feeds from selected sources to one place for ease and organization. Visit this article for more in-depth information on Atom, RSS Feeds, Readers, and how to make a webpage a homepage.

So, don’t be left behind in the world of technology, take advantage of the tools that are offered to have Durham’s news delivered right to you.

Lets. Go. Bulls.

Even the unitiated sports fan has to love the Durham Bulls.  Let's face it, aside from having a world-class stadium in an awesome downtown setting in which they play world-class baseball, they are also the subject of the number one sports movie of all time.

And now they are in the play offs.  Again. 

The league champion will be crowned in Durham this weekend - what day depends on who wins each game.  Read that another way and it says "GO ROOT FOR THE BULLS TOMORROW" but the Durham News Service is not a place for yelling.  Sure, 'Bama and the Crimson Tide is coming to Duke for some football, and frankly that's all the more reason to head on out the The Durham Bulls Athletic Park and let the Bulls know that the hometown fans are behind them 100%.

Besides, how sweet would it be to have a (nother) championship in the place where great things happen?

Launch of the Durham News Service Website

Welcome to the launch of the Durham News Service website. It’s an amalgamation of all the stories and features readers have become accustomed to seeing, but in a different format.

The old format? Well, the problem is, news doesn’t happen once a week…it happens constantly throughout the day, every day. As news happens, DCVB will now post it to the Durham News Service Website. Readers will be able to choose the sections they want to receive in “real time” (immediately after a post occurs), in a daily digest, or once a week.

There are some brand new features on the site including a staff blog and a section where you can read clippings about Durham from local and national media. Additionally, you can access the Durham, NC Facebook page, Twitter feed, community calendar, and other Durham blogs.

A weekly “push” email will still be sent to readers for the next several months, but ideally, readers will take action and either make the site a homepage on their Internet browser, or subscribe to RSS Feeds.

DCVB has been working on this new concept to deliver news for about eight months. We’re really proud of the result, but also see some changes we want to make in version 2.0. Give it a test run…and tell us what you think.  http://www.durhamnewsservice.com/

Durham News Service Online

Most consumers use media in very different ways now compared to just a few years ago. So much, in fact, that it can be hard to remember just how inefficient the old ways really were. Times have certainly changed for the better, and the Durham News Service is about to change, too.

In the next few weeks, the Durham News Service will be shifting to an online “news aggregator” website-style format and allow readers to subscribe to their desired interests via RSS feeds. The shift is major and it accomplishes a number of DCVB’s communication goals:

• Widen the appeal of, and access to, the Durham News Service to everyone in Durham and beyond.
• Allow readers to be more focused about what they want to read via RSS feeds.
• Convert to a website format to allow up-to-the-minute updates – much more real-time information.
• Share daily headlines about Durham from a comprehensive global media search.
• Include a DCVB staff blog about Durham, living here, and related subjects.
• Create a page that will serve as a community gathering place that is used by residents as their home page.
• Create opportunities for local businesses to communicate directly with local stakeholders.

So what does this mean for readers? Faster access to more current information updated in real time during the work week, the capacity for filtering to see stories of particular interest using tags and the ability to receive content of interest via RSS feeds.

The site will launch in the next few weeks, and instructions on how to use the site will be sent in upcoming issues of the Durham News Service. Email versions of the newsletter will still be sent for several more months, but they will change to being “recaps” or “digest versions” of what was posted on the website that week. Major research and white papers will still be sent in full in email.

As always, feedback is desired and it can be emailed here.