Neat idea. Just curious… Any community-radio type people hanging out in your area? They’d be a great resource for your project if they’re around.

Regarding examples — I had the best luck in Google with “neighborhood podcast” as the search term. There are a boatload of links, and the range is pretty breathtaking. “civic podcasting” and “place podcasting” didn’t do so well — more links to podcast aggregators than anything else.

One of the big advantages you’ve got is an existing community that will help you answer your “what to do first?” question. I’d try a bunch of things, and encourage people to let you know what they like and don’t like through the you ongoing civic-blogging conversations. I spoze you could even go so far as to poll people what kind of podcasts they’d like before you do the first podcast…

To repeat — a great idea. Let me know how I can help out.

We’ve got a fledgling civic blogosphere going (15-20 local bloggers), with 10,000 unique visitors/month to our site.

I’d like to do some podcasts that not only would serve a useful purpose but also would set an example for the other civic bloggers in town to follow.

I don’t know whether to start with commentary/opinion pieces, interviews, soft news, or what.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. And any examples from other citizen journalism type sites, too.