Peer News editor John Temple is scheduled to give the luncheon keynote at today’s NewsMorphosis 2.0, so maybe we’ll all know a bit more about the nature of the PN project by the end of the day. I hope folks attending the program keep the rest of us well informed!

Meanwhile, a recent entry from NewAssignment.net that may reflect the direction Peer News is taking with its job titles of “Reporter Host”.

Breaking News City sites that aggregate local Twitter feeds across various categories are being developed in cities across the country by individuals, and groups like chambers of commerces, who are hubs of their communities. They invest their time to create a useful hyperlocal community site by providing local Twitterers a venue to gain exposure in the community. There’s energy in facilitating the community conversation that “national” sites like Topix and CitySearch don’t have.

C-SPAN’s announcement that it is opening up its video archive covering 23 years will certainly be a boon for journalists, researchers, political historians, opposition researchers, and others who just like poring over piles of good data. What an unexpected feast!

Here’s another available data feast–a searchable database of Extreme Weather and Natural Disaster info. For example, search for “Hawaii” and you get a list of 82 reports on volcanoes, tsunamis, etc., including such best sellers as “Bibliography of literature from 1990 – 1997 pertaining to Holocene and fumarolic Pleistocene volcanoes of Alaska, Canada, and the conterminous U.S.”

Anyway, check both sites. I should credit Good Morning Silicon Valley for mentioning them in the same breath yesterday.

Over on Maui, revenue shortfalls have forced the county to cancel a contract to provide cable broadcasts of key boards and commissions, including the Planning Commission.

In California:

State and local government officials increasingly are blaming budget cuts and furloughs when they withhold or delay the release of information requested under the state Public Records Act.
The result is a diminished ability for the media to perform their watchdog role – just when downsized programs and government dysfunction make that scrutiny more crucial.

Read more.

And just FYI: If you’ve wondered what has become of former Honolulu Advertiser editorial page editor Jeanne Mariani-Belding, she is now Strategic Communication & Community Engagement Specialist in the UH Office of External Affairs and University Relations.