Last night, I was watching Lauren read the local town paper.
We live in a little suburb right outside of Boston and there is something special about that town paper. It’s a combination of the local news (politics, schools, high school) or seeing a photo of friends or neighbors. It’s just something we really enjoy reading.
i keep my social network on foursquare pretty tight – 112 friends altogether. So when I check in somewhere I want those people to know where I am and to me it’s sort of an implicit permission if friends are nearby they can come by and say hi. This happened recently. I was at a restaurant in nyc with lauren. we checked in and 30 minutes later Mo dropped by after seeing our check in. Fun.
Local on Twitter is magical too. I’ll tweet about something local and hit the geo button on Twitter for iPhone. Now that little tweet plus a map tells a story to others nearby or friends that know the area.
We are just at the early days of figuring out how local, social, mobile, commerce, media, search and entertainment will evolve. It’s a huge opportunity.
But looking past the economic opportunity for a moment, I’m just possessed by all things local. There’s something magical about things actually happening right in front of you.