New Press Release!

Listeners of the World,

We have just released our latest press release listing our latest towns and communities to join the OurTown family. In the past 2 weeks we have added 5 new towns and have had 5 older towns increase their coverage area! We plan on trying to add anywhere from 20-100 towns and communities each month until our new release of OurTown.com. Once the new site is up we will be embarking on a national high pace marketing plan that will increase the amount of towns added per month by 100%! We plan on becoming a household name by the end of 2010 where you can go and find out about anything in your town or community. As we work hard to fill out our map please contact our Support if you are interested in having your own site or wanting to post pictures, events, videos, and stories online!

Your OurTown SuperHero,

Chris

Burger King and Beer!

Listeners of the World,

I decided to write a different kind of post today where I would put information about OurTown on hold, and just share a story with everyone that I feel is very interesting! I was reading the various news sites this morning and I came across a story that I just had to share and give my take on. The headline read "Burgers and Beer" and I was instantly intrigued and had to know more! As I dove into the article I was very happy about the notion of Burger King adopting the European way of serving beer at fast food places. I for one have been to Europe and taken advantage of this perk and found it to be great. Burger King is also introducing another notion that I love and that is delivery! The new Whopper Bar will offer outdoor dining, a walk-up window and delivery service in addition to BEER! I mean how could this get any better, I can now enjoy a beer and a great whopper in my own home without ever living if I wish! Now many people are against this stating that we are setting a bad example for our kids, and that the kids will see all the alcohol. Well my response is do you drink at home, at any resturant, or how about Chuck E Cheese! All of those places serve beer as well and nobody seems to care. I think if everyone gives this idea a chance it will be a big hit and you will see that its not that big of a deal.

Your OurTown SuperHero,

Chris

HTML Island!!!!

Listeners of the World,

I am happy to announce that the HTML island is once again available for all local editors to use on their OurTown sites. We took this island away almost a year ago in an effort to make the site more secure and to develop a better application for our local editors to use. While developing the application we ran into many different issues delaying the release. After a year we have come up with a two step plan. The first step was the re-release of the improved and more secure HTML island. But, this is not enough for this still leaves our site vulnerable so we have also developed a new application that will be launching along site our new site release. With the combination of the new site and new application we will have the perfect balance of functionality and security.

Your OurTown SuperHero,

Chris

Why .NET?

Listeners of the world,

By now you know that Ourtown is being completely redesigned from the ground up. One of the important factors in the new site is a new technology called .NET. The old Ourtown was build on classic ASP an old Microsoft technology for creating web applications. So, why use .NET?

First, .NET is new and it is here now. Since Ourtown is being rebuilt we thought it best to use the newest technology available to us. .NET has gone through several iterations and is a solid framework proven to build web applications. With a newer technology comes not only better security but also better speed and optimization. With the web today it is more important than ever to take into account security.

Second, .NET is built for the future. This means that we will be able to more easily implement newer technologies that are built for .NET and are supported by Microsoft. With the old system we had outdated code that was not supported and did not have as much of a growing code base.

Finally, .NET allows us to program faster. This means we can build better architecture for Ourtown so we can get things done a lot faster than the old system. Who doesn't want faster updates?

Your tech wizard,
Michael

New Local Editors!

Listeners of the World,

With the release of the new site coming up in only a few months we are making a push to fill out a lot of the OurTown map! Right now we are actively looking for new local editors who will bring the right enthusiasm and skills to OurTown.com. We need people who care about their community or city and enjoy reporting about the different events or stories going on there. We have made a lot of progress over the past year, but it is not enough and we need to make larger strides in the next few months to really help out the new release. If you or anyone you know is interested please visit OurTown.com and take a look around. It is free and we supply you with all the tools necessary to create and maintain a success full site!

Your OurTown SuperHero,

Chris

Facbook Note

Listeners of the World,

Today instead of writing a new post I wanted to share a note that I wrote on our Facebook page explaining the benefits of becoming a local editor. After writing the note I felt so compelled by it that I felt that I needed to share it on our blog. Please enjoy.......

Facebook Note!

There are many different opportunities in the world for people to embrace and celebrate with many different motives. It could be a new job opportunity to make some extra cash or new sport to try out to have fun with your friends. No matter what it is there are many aspects of the opportunity that appeal to each individual that tries it out. Now the hard part is to find these opportunities and once found to make sure they are not too good to be true. Well I have an opportunity that many people would like, but doesn't really know too much information about.........OurTown.com.

OurTown.com is a hyper-local news site that brings you the local news that nobody else has......or is it more than that? Or is it a community of different small towns that bring you more than the news, but an identity to your town that only the people living there can relate to. I would like to think so, and that's why we recruit people from those towns to be in charge of the sites! We put the control into the peoples hands and let them decide what they want to focus on and what is truly important to them and their fellow neighbors. We let these local editors report on things that are apparently too small for regular news outlets, but not too small for the people living in these communities. This is why we have way more than just some hyper-local news site on our hands!

We also like to think that there are other advantages of becoming a local editor other than for the love of your town and the news going on in it. There is also a way to make extra money while doing what you love for the people that you care about (your neighbors). We allow every local editor to sell local advertising on their site and keep all of the profits! This way you can do something important and be compensated at the same time! It is a win-win-win all the way around! Your community receives the information that is important to them. The local businesses get a chance to advertise to the real customer base that is within their town. And you get to make some money while improving your community!

Overall I think this opportunity is a lot greater than anyone can image, but nobody knows about it. But trust me on one thing.......soon more and more people will know about it and soon it will be too let for you to benefit off of it!

Blogging and OurTown !

Listeners of the World,

Who out there has seen something, heard something, or had an important issue in their life that they wanted other people to know about? Well if you are a human being that would be all of us! We always have different events going on in our lives and a lot of people like to share their life with others - Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin are just some of the social media sites that we use to do this. These sites are great for sharing parts of our lives, but not great for sharing stories, articles or big chunks of information. That is where most people would start blogging! Blogging is great for getting your opinion, ideas, or just a nice story out to the world. The only problem with blogging is getting your blog to be popular enough for people to read it so that what you write actually matters! Well I have an alternative to blogging and that is OurTown. OurTown.com gives you a site where you have full control over what goes on it. You can put up pictures, events, videos, stories, news, and even different Twitter and Facebook widgets! Now you have a blogging platform where people will be able to see your articles, stories, pictures, videos, and etc. And once you have the platform to unleash your ideas and stories, the sky is the limit!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

2010 and OurTown!

Listeners of the World,

It is now 2010 and I hope that everyone had a great New Year! We here at the home office are very excited and busy with this new year for we have much work to do! We will be releasing a new version of our site in the early spring. We will also be recruiting more local editors to help fill out our map to bring the most news possible to our viewers! Also we will be adding more contests and fun games to OurTown to not only make it a great news site, but to make it fun and exciting as well. We will also be expanding the functionality of the site to make it easier to use Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. So as you can see we have a lot to do and little time to do it in, but we are up to the challenge! I will be letting everyone in on our progress over the next few months with more blog posts to come.

Your OurTown SuperHero,

Chris