Wednesday, May 10, 2006

[Self Promotion]

Street Roots Article on Blogs.

Street Roots, the paper written by and about homeless people, has an article on blogs that revolves centrally around BlueOregon. The writer interviewed Kari and I for the story. Interestingly, it's a more general article and doesn't focus much on how blogs might affect lower-income Americans. Given that the barriers to entry are nil--Blogger, for example, is free--I would like to have heard some more about how blogs might give voice to those FOX News (and most of the MSM) rarely acknowledge.

Anyway, here it is.

5 comments:

Israel Bayer said...

The article is Portland specific, and in Portland I think it's safe to say blogs haven't really affected poor communities all that much. You may have individual bloggers, but for the most part all anyone could talk about was access to blogs, and the potential they have in the context of poor people.

Also, the current Street Roots also has features on One Economy who is on the cutting edge of getting poor people wired, and an article on how the coming city-wide wi-fi will affect poor people... Together, they try to show the larger picture...

Israel

Anonymous said...

i know few poor folks that have access to the internet at large - let alone a computer - which is probably one of the reasons.

i'd rather have food than be online...

Unknown said...

I've been tempted to highlight some of the articles appearing in Street Roots, and also the Sisters of the Road newsletter. There's some fine writing in there, sometimes!

Perhaps that's an area where Sisters or Central City Concern are already addressing, or could in the future: internet access. Library PCs are crowded, and I suspect the homeless--looking are not made to feel comfortable while there.

Give to Street Roots! Reward initiative, and remind yourself about the homeless issue at least once a month. My vendor of choice is Vicki, who's on the cover of the website at the moment: Vicki

Anonymous said...

Street Roots is not a newspaper written by and for homeless people. It's a community newspaper written by all kinds of people covering all kinds of issues. The vendor program is made of homeless people, but the newspaper packs a punch for a small activist newspaper. The paper also comes out every two weeks, not monthly.

It's also the only paper I've seen Amanda Fritz advertising in!

Jeff Alworth said...

Anonymous, I considered how to characterize Street Roots. I decided to use language from their own mission: "The Street News Service (SNS) is a gateway to the best articles, essays and features written by and about homeless and low-income people."

http://www.streetnewsservice.org/index.php?page=about