Posted by admin on: February 04 2010
Last year, two City2 bloggers (knighted with City2 press-credentials) did a great job of covering the '09 festival with unique reviews, great pictures and plenty of flare.
This year, we're upping our game. We've assembled a team of our most unique and engaged bloggers and turned them loose on the 25th annual Santa Barbara International Film Fest. 7 bloggers to dazzle you with their wit, insight and other yet-to-be-revealed talents.
We've also set up a few special feeds for this year's festival (just like last year), so be sure to check in and see what we're up to!
To see all the headlines from our team, try this page for the latest (it'll start getting full soon).
And of course, we'll be linking to all the other great coverage of SBIFF from all the other local newspapers in our A&E Feed - 'cause we're cool like that.
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*If you're looking for a schedule of films, the Indy has one here.
Posted by admin on: January 13 2010
In addition to posting about our recent upgrades, we wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who helped make 2009 into a great first year for City2.
As you may already know, we officially launched with a good bit of awesomeness in February with extensive and unique coverage of the 2009 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. When the Jesusita fire struck, City2 was one of the most visited and valued local sites for fire information anywhere. Residents freely posted pictures from their phones, updated the community about fire boundaries and shared maps (and other crucial information). Our combination of news aggregation and citizen blogging was cited by many as an essential source of information during this difficult time.
Now that it's 2010 we find ourselves a part of something big. City2 has grown into a dynamic local blog network that is over 250 citizens strong. Santa Barbarans are using our publishing platform to read and write about everything from thoughtful political analysis (see Dick Flacks aka Step By Step) to the humorous post-multicultural observations of 'Santa Barbara Man About Goleta'. Not to mention all the other 'City2ers' reviewing local eateries (and sometimes their restrooms), movies, parks etc. We even have a 'quasi-daily' cartoon, the 'Bellicose and Bucolic' (courtesy of artist Saul Gray-Hildenbrand).
Here at 'City2 headquarters' (which looks more like a converted toolshed than you'd think), we've been working hard to make the site meaningful for our fellow Santa Barbarans'. As natives ourselves, we're thrilled to be part of a community project that helps all of us normal (but secretly amazing) folks participate in the local news and information ecosystem.
If it's been a while since your last visit, make sure and check out this post about all the awesome system upgrades that we quietly introduced in December, including enhanced user profiles, Twitter support, better mobile posting and all sorts of other goodies.
Now is as a great time to re-visit your City2 account. Set up your phone to post sunset photos, blog about something you care about, or report breaking news from around town (It's addicting).
We are honored to continue to host some of Santa Barbara's best talent. Individuals with integrity, wit, heart and a common belief that by sharing, we make our (unusually beautiful) corner of the world a better place.
We'd like to sincerely thank everyone (bloggers, critics, press, sponsors and commenters) who has been involved in the evolution of City2 over the past year.
Happy 2010!
-Warren
Publisher/Founder | City2
Posted by admin on: January 13 2010
2009 was a great first year for City2. We had stellar citizen coverage of SBIFF 09, helpful Jesusita fire updates, and all sorts of other great Santa Barbara stories over the last 12 months.
So what's this about presents? Well, we've made some great changes to our system that will make your local blogging life easier. So whether you're already a part of our local blog network or are thinking of starting...we humbly present the product of our labor of love:
New Local Profiles
You now have the ability to create a local profile that lets you link to your own website, write a bio, and upload a picture. Of course, this seamlessly integrates with the upgrades we've made to your City2 userblog!
City2 Userblogs Now Have:
Tasty New Designs:
This is the most obvious change. We've created 13 spiffy new blog templates based on a much clearer, more readable layout. We will be continuing to tweak these new designs as time goes on.
Blogroll & Twitter Support
You can add your Twitter name to your user settings so that your most recent tweet is displayed right there on your blog. You can also link to other blogs, profiles, and websites from your blog - which has been one of our 'most asked for' upgrades.
Freshly designed Control Panel
Remember when changing your City2 profile information was bizarre and confusing? Yeah, it was totally annoying… so we made a new system from scratch. Your new and improved control panel has been re-designed and is very easy to navigate. It's full of helpful links, suggestions, and lets you manage your account easily (finally).
Open Comments
Your friends no longer have to be City2 members to leave comments! This means that anyone can leave feedback - which means more conversation. Anyone who knows the answer to the secret question 'what's the main street in SB'. that is... we put that there to keep out the spammers :)
Picture Archives
Every user now has a special page linked to their blog that displays a thumbnail of every photo they've ever uploaded to City2. The Bellicose & Bucolic and Almost Native Son, both have extensive photo archives that really show off the new feature.
Sinchy Sign Up
After only one step you can be composing your first blog post (another big improvement). If you have awesome friends, tell them to get themselves to City2. It's like locally grown catnip for cool people.
That's it for now. But know this; we're just getting started. More cool stuff on the way!
Posted by admin on: June 02 2009
That's right - we're looking for a few brilliant interns.
City2 is the fastest growing local citizen journalism and news aggregation site in the region. We're looking for self-starters who are interested in an engaging, fun and challenging internship experience.
Qualities we're looking for:
Bonus points if you:
Perks:
As a rule, we want our interns to get something meaningful out of their experience with City2. If chosen, you will have a high level of autonomy, and will be able to tailor your experience to dovetail with your own skills and passions.
To apply:
Please send resume, appropriate links, and brief cover letter to 'info[at]city2.org'
Posted by admin on: May 08 2009
We have created a special Jesusita Fire Info Page with multiple fire maps (some official, some unofficial), emergency phone numbers, school closures, and helpful links. Click the image above to get more information.
Posted by admin on: May 05 2009
As of 6:30 pm on Tuesday, here are the roads that we know to be closed and/or blocked
• San Roque Road • Laurel Canyon Road
• La Cumbre Road • Morada Lane • Ontare Road • Alamar Avenue • Glen Albyn Road • Tye Road • Cheltham Road • Mission Canyon Terrace • Tunnel Road • Foothill Road • Mountain Drive • El Cielito Road (2 locations)
Posted by admin on: April 23 2009
Slipping tax revenues are causing the city of Santa Barbara to cut spending by $7.4 million, while milking an additional $1.5 million out of existing city employees (labor consessions).
The Council has said that they want feedback from the public. That we should engage our local system and express our views.
If you have something to say, City2 is designed to be a soapbox so that your voice can be heard. Write an op-ed piece using our platform and send it to our city leaders. That's what we built it for. :)
Sincerely,
-The City2 Team
Posted by admin on: March 05 2009
Hello Friends, Family & Fellow Santa Barbarans!
After 3 years of hard work, we are very pleased today to announce our official launch!
City 2.0 is a new online town-center & news site for Santa Barbara. It is designed to encourage local conversation and participation, allowing local users to easily access an extensive variety of local headlines, as well as share, discuss and publish news, opinions, photos, sports and other local events. 'City2' provides a simple, fun and extremely democratic online platform built to enrich our local Santa Barbara experience!
??Our goal is to help locals create and maintain a healthy community dialogue; to keep one another informed, and to provide a sustainable and simple citizen journalism mechanism to compliment and enhance our local news experience.
We are eager to add new features and ideas to City2 with the communities help and feedback, so please don't be shy to send us your input, ideas and critique - we dig it all.
Looking forward to seeing you around town (and online)!
-The City2 Team
Why City2?
Because local citizens should have the tools at their disposal to be informed, and to inform one-another.??‘City2’ provides easy-to-use tools for locals to write and publish ‘that Op-ed piece that the paper won’t print’, to share pictures from their trip to a snowy Camino Cielo, or to report eyewitness news as it happens. ?
Some Local Favorites
Some folks found out about City2 early - and they've been busy (being talented and awesome). Here are some of our most-read local bloggers:
'Santa Barbara Man About Goleta' ?Native Paul Rivas (aka 'Rivas Cultural Services') writes insightful and very entertaining stories about life in S.B. - with headlines like "40,000 Soft Young People Make Halloween In I.V. More Irrelevant Than Ever" and more recently, "Multiculturalism Gone Bad, Brought To You By Santa Barbara MTD ". Paul also reviewed multiple films for City2 at this years Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and wrote a fabulous piece about Nick Cavalier - so be sure to check out the rest of his blog.
'The Undercover Nutritionist'?
An anonymous local nutritionist who quietly snaps covert shots of other peoples groceries, and breaks down the ins-and-outs of staying healthy in Santa Barbara. One of her most recent posts can be read here.
'The Savvy Boomer: SB's Senior SeniorCorrespondent'
?Local mother, entrepreneur, and proud baby-boomer Sue Levine is on a "never-ending trek to find what's great in Santa Barbara for the over-50 year olds". Check out these two recent posts: Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Wows Them At Victoria Hall and Pizza, Anyone?
Is a prime example of how diverse a City2 blog can be. 'A.N.S.' had great photos and coverage of the Tea Fire, SBIFF, and regularly posts sunset shots, art reviews, and news-happenings from around the city. ?
Spread the Word!
We rely on word-of-mouth to let folks know about City2. We would love it if you would help us get the word out to other locals! Do it!
Here's some more stuff you can do with City2:
Read Local Headlines
We provide Up-to-the-Minute aggregated News and Blog Headlines - from every local blog or news source we can find!
Our 'Headlines Page' includes the Santa Barbara Independent, EdHat, NoozHawk, Craig Smith, Santa Barbara Channels, The Daily Nexus, Blogabarbara & many more.
Not to mention all the amazing folks using City2's blog platform like 'Man About Santa Barbara' and 'The Undercover Nutritionist'.
Free Blogs for Locals
Free citizen blogs are available to everyone who signs up for a City2 account. We have built-in support for mobile, web and email submissions.
Things to do with your local blog:
Santa Barbara Discussion Boards (forums)
Our community forums provide an easy-to-use venue for local conversations about anything from protests and City Council Elections, to local concerts and rants about cable-outages. You can check in with your fellow Santa Barbarans here quickly and easily.
City2 is Home-Grown
City2 was designed, and built here in Santa Barbara by locals, with the hope that we can help other locals to shape their own media experience.
Big Thank You!
We'd like to especially thank, Rob Egenolf, Liberation Media, Raj K. Ojha, StoneYard Building Materials, Sixfoot6, Ian Lessing, Paul Rivas, Doc Searls and Alan White.
And of course we'd like to thank our friends and family who have been patient with us for the last 3.5 years. We are very grateful.
-Warren City2.0
Posted by admin on: February 21 2009
Howdy Folks..
We're having a few small outages. We're working on it and should have it resolved soon! Thanks for your patience.
UPDATE (6pm): We're BACK! Thanks for your patience!
Posted by admin on: February 11 2009
Just a quick update from the City2 team. Due to popular request, we have adjusted our Local Headlines page to exclude Ventura, SLO, and Santa Maria news items.
Now (with very few exceptions) our (automated) system will only feed items from Santa Barbara proper!
However, for those of you who check in on City2 for a little bit of North County, SLO and Ventura news, we have added special categories for nearby cities! Just go to the 'local headlines page (as usual), and scroll down to see the new North County, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura City headlines.
Right now, we only have a few rss feeds per 'nearby city'. So, as always, if you have suggestions for new and awesome news sites or blogs, send them to us!
image is a blend of images from flickr users: lastorset and sdean8
*UPDATE: our system is having a hiccup at the moment..So if you see some SLO and Ventura headlines where they shouldn't be - that's why. All should be resolved soon.!
*UPDATE II: All fixed
Posted by admin on: January 28 2009
This year's Santa Barbara International Film Fest has been the biggest and most splashy in recent memory. We here at City2 were honored to be covering the festival for the first time, and have a lot to show for it. Here are some highlights (special thanks to Santa Barbara Man About Goleta, SixFoot Six, and Almost Native Son for the fantastic photos, news and reviews).
SBIFF Reviews by 'Santa Barbara Man About Goleta':
Review Of El Camino At SBIFF: Bad Times, Great Movie
By 'Santa Barbara Man About Goleta'
Review Of Art & Copy At SBIFF: "Art Serving Capitalism"
By 'Santa Barbara Man About Goleta'
Review Of The Inheritors At SBIFF: See Real Mexican Children Work Like Animals
By 'Santa Barbara Man About Goleta
Review Of Inventing L.A. At SBIFF: A White Man's Kind Of Movie
By 'Santa Barbara Man About Goleta
By 'Santa Barbara Man About Goleta
Red Carpet Photos & and Reviews from 'Almost Native Son'
Anatomy Of Local Shorts At SBIFF '09
By 'Almost Native Son'
SBIFF '09 Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn (Photos)
By 'Almost Native Son'
Penelope Cruz And Friends (Photos) On The Red Carpet 2009 SBIFF
By 'Almost Native Son'
2009 SBIFF Red Carpet (Photos) Opening Night + Friday Night
By 'Almost Native Son'
SBIFF '09 Mickey Rourke, Christopher Lloyd (Photos)
By 'Almost Native Son'
SBIFF '09 'the Informers - A Review
By 'Almost Native Son'
We're feeding Tweets from the Film Fest!
Posted by admin on: January 23 2009
The following is an update from Carp/Santa Barbara native Jameson Acos, who is currently attending law school in DC. He was able to get tickets to the Obama Inauguration! Published with permission from Jameson.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to witness last Tuesday's inauguration of President Obama and partake in some of the festivities over the four-day weekend and it was truly a historic experience. I think that is the best way to describe and think about the whole thing. We now have an African-American man and his family as President of the United States and residents of the White House. That is a historic change and I feel blessed just to be able to witness the ceremony and the emotion as it happened. But here is a quick breakdown of some of the events of the past weekend.
First and foremost was the inauguration itself. I was somehow won the ticket lottery and was given two blue standing section tickets for the inauguration. Thank you Senator Feinstein. So due to the warnings and advice of media etc. I was on the Metro at 6 a.m. to go celebrate with all the other millions. As soon as I left my house it was crowded and it did not become uncrowded until I got home nine hours later. But one of the coolest things about Obama crowds is that for the most part people are very happy and excited. Anyway, so we got in what was supposed to be the line but of course turned out to be a fake line as soon as the gates actually opened and everyone rushed to the 10 yard wide funnel which everyone in my section had to go through. But after a few cold hours literally sardined next to thousands of my closest friends we got onto the lawn in front of the capital. It was a pretty good spot I think, but the big jumbo-tron was still my best view of the ceremony. Its hard to comprehend how many people were there down on the mall that day because everywere is a crowd no matter where you go. But the ceremony was emotional and fun. Between the boos to Bush, the Obama chants, the celebrity "dignitaries", our chief justice forgetting the constitutional magic words, and lots of flag waivers I really got the feeling that everyone came out to see history, to see it first hand, even on a jumbo-tron, to be there and feel the cold and comraderie of Obama becoming the new President of the United States of America.
I also went down to the mall for the concert on Sunday afternoon. Again, crowds the whole time but again it is what I have coined a "happy riot" sort of crowd, where there are so many people with so much energy but all positive happy energy. (I came up with that phrase after going out in DC after Obama had won the office in Nov) But the show was cool. I though Jamie Foxx's impression of Obama was great, and the song by Wyclef and Sheryl Crow was really good, which surprised me because I usually don't like Sheryl Crow. I thought having U2 be the band right before Obama was a little wierd because they are four guys from Ireland and they definitly emphasized that in their show. Not who I expected to introduce the next president of the U.S. Many of the speakers talked about Lincoln and JFK and MLK which was interesting and appropriate for the time and place, but sometimes Jack Black telling me about Lincoln was not really believeable. But Samuel L. Jackson and Tom Hanks where good. After that I tried to walk home through Georgetown which was a bit too much once it got dark. Lesson learned: its real cold, wear lots of clothes. LOTS.
So those were the two big events that I saw this weekend. But since restaurants were open 24hrs and bars till 4 am there was plenty of time for other sorts of celebration. In the end, what I really took out of the weekend was the fact that a big change has happened in American politics. There is a lot of hope and pride in many people as well as skepticism and doubt in others. But like Obama has chosen to emphasize, it is time to get back to work.
So now I am going to try and read 40 pages of Legal Ethics before class.
Cheers,
Jameson Acos
JD Candidate 2010
American University
Washington College of Law
P.S. This is a cool video that captures the feeling of DC. And feel free to share all this with friends.
We'd like to thank Jameson for sending along his thoughts for us to share with SB!
Posted by admin on: January 21 2009
Howdy Folks! In addition to our citizen coverage, we are planning on doing some serious link gathering, reviews and discussion of the 2009 Santa Barbara International Film Festival!
A specially selected envoy of top City2 bloggers and critics have descended upon SBIFF to bring you a fresh set of film reviews, rants, pictures, and other wonderfulness from this years festival. Since the fest just started, we don't have a bunch of awesome stuff to point you to YET ( inside sources tell us it's being written and schemed).. But here are some groovy shots from the red carpet at the Arlington to tide you over!
Posted by admin on: January 06 2009
As you may already know, we (City2) are very interested in community empowerment, citizen media, and improving the ways by which folks experience their town. So, in addition to giving the occasional 'City2 Update', we thought it would be a good idea to do an ongoing series about 'Citizen Journalism' for our fellow Santa Barbarans (and beyond) who might not be very familiar with the term. You can find previous posts related to this subject here & here.
So what is Citizen Journalism? And what does it mean for Santa Barbara?
This week, we're going to be briefly discussing two definitions of 'what citizen journalism is' via YouTube. First, a brief video from Jay Rosen. We've been following Jay Rosen (writer, major citizen journalism advocate, and professor at NYU) on Twitter recently. He had a recent tweet that pointed to a post from his blog with a good discussion of the subject (especially in the comment section), as well as this video (that is less discussion, and more answer).
If Jay seems a little sharp, I'm guessing that it is because of a vigorous (and sometimes unfair) debate that has been orbiting the subject for some time. Jay has pointed out (rightly) that there are some institutions that are attempting to 'smear' citizen journalism as being somehow 'second rate' or 'out to get traditional journalism'. So his intensity is understandable.
I showed Jay's definition video to a few friends of mine who are not yet familiar with the term, and they were a little intimidated by his presentation. So I went on the hunt for another definition and found this piece from Cambridge Community Television:
While Jay's video very efficient, this video (also embedded above) provides historical context, and inspires curiosity about what citizen journalism is, and what it could become. It even gives several emotional reference points to help folks - who might be new to the idea - something to grab onto, and identify with. The video is actually an edited version of a longer (15 minute) piece that I highly recommend. It gets right at the heart of why City2 came into being in the first place.
Naturally, these are just two examples, (that are arguably directed at different audiences, though equally findable to anyone searching YouTube for an explanation). So fellow Santa Barbarans.. what do you think? Feel free to do some digging for yourself. Let us know what you find, or share your own thoughts on the subject.
-Warren @City2
Posted by admin on: December 26 2008
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Official City2 News, Updates + Announcements.
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