What's Happening in OurTown

It's a beautiful day in Cincinnati, Our Town's headquarters.  We can look out our office window and look down into Great American Ballpark, unhappily empty until next spring.

We seem to have neglected our blog this summer...too busy reporting on all the action in Cincinnati.  You can check out the latest news at www.cincipulse.com, the downtown Cincinnati OurTown site.

That site has added a couple of new features over the summer.  We have a guest columnist, Marinela Potor.  Marinela is visiting from Germany and has a new column which is featured every Monday.  Marinela gives her unique insight into life in Cincinnati and surrounding communities.

We are also offering an expanded fashion column..."Shopping With Gabby".  Our stylist, Gabby Prescott, does a Wednesday column on the latest in women's fashion.

We are always adding new features to the website.  If there is something you would particularly like to see...wedding and birth announcements, classifieds, personal ads, etc., let us know and we will do our best to incorporate them.

Our Town's mission is to report on the good news in our various communities.  We are always glad to have your input.  Your pictures, announcements, community news will be featured.  Just send them along to your local OurTown editor.  Just send your announcements to support@ourtown.com..

What's happening in Cincinnati This Summer

If you haven't been to downtown Cincinnati for a while, you need to come back for a visit.  The Banks entertainment district is going strong, particularly during the summer months.  Crowds from the Reds games are partying at the Banks both before and after the games.  

Downtown residential options are also expanding and with all that is happening downtown, it has become an exciting place to live.  In the summer there is always something happening on Fountain Square.  There is free live entertainment nearly every night.

Just last weekend, downtown was hopping with the Gay Pride Parade and after parade party at Sawyer Point.  Check out the pictures on www.cincipulse.com.

For up-to-date information on what's happening downtown and around town, stop by www.Cincipulse.com
Don't forget our neighbors to the south at www.ourtown.com/nky

The New Video News Network !

I have been writing a lot about the future of news and where it will take us.....will it be all video, streams of media, all mobile, or will the newspaper somehow survive.  Nobody knows for certain, but one could take a very calculated guess and point towards video / mobile.  I had also talked about a new type of news site that we were building to incorporate into OurTown.com as well as have it stand on its own......VNN ( Video News Network).  

VNN is going to be a video network (much like YouTube), but it is focused on local news and local happenings.  Regular people will be able to upload video in real time to the network as the actual news is happening.  Then our users can view and browse this content through many categories including down the the zip code.  VNN will eventually have "video editors" who can do 3 essential things.....curate the news, comment on the news and create social interaction with viewers as they respond to the news. . We will also have a strict admin control over the site so that it doesn't turn into a YouTube with many off topic videos and keep it limited to what is important to the site and its users.

VNN will become that place for local news stations to upload their daily broadcasts, amateur journalist to upload their findings and breaking stories via video, and also a perfect place for any vlogger !  Since we are incorporated into YouTube itself (meaning our VNN videos get the YouTube video SEO treatment) we become the best choice for these types of users.

We are in the beginning stages of VNN and will hopefully grow into our own over this coming year.  I invite you to check out the BETA site and let us know what you think in the comments.

BETA site - VNN

Your OurTown Superhero,
Chris