Community Corner

Happy Birthday, Columbia Patch!

We've outgrown our baby booties — we're wearing new shoes to make us run faster and jump higher!

Happy birthday to us!

Columbia Patch celebrated its first birthday Saturday.

Your hyperlocal news community launched Oct. 15, 2010, with the goal of bringing you the news and information you need to help you in your day-to-day living, and to bringing you into that mix of voices.

The first article officially entered into the editing system was about the between Howard and River Hill High schools. (The Lions lost in a landslide to River Hill, 34-0.)

Since then, we've written about the , local politics and , new services from the System and the

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In looking through online archives, Patch writers have written about every element of the community, including ; ; about our neighbors, friends and community leaders; high school sports; and the .

Along the way, bloggers have written about , , , and .

Like any toddler, Columbia Patch is up and walking, trying to run and trying to figure out what to get into next.

Find out what's happening in Columbiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

With the curiosity of a one-year-old, Patch is opening doors to meet and greet; extending invitations to citizen journalists; accepting invitations to meetings, events and other happenings; and telling the stories about you, your neighbors and what's going on in your neighborhood.

Add to the mix of a one-year-old news site a new "infant" editor — on the job for about three weeks — and you have the start of Columbia Patch's second year!

I see Columbia Patch as a perpetual open house where everyone is welcome to stop by, pick up a few things and drop useful stuff off as well — sort of like a book exchange, with everything in constant circulation.

In our Columbia Patch house, there's the formal living room, where you can find hard-hitting, original journalism that informs you of what's going on in the community, what might be next with a particular issue, how decisions are made, and the impact of those decisions once they're instituted.

Then there's the cozy family room, where you'll find more casual information and conversation, from local columns to cute photographs to event listings to help you plan your free time.

And as in most homes, there's the heart, the central gathering place, the room where lots of different kinds of dishing goes on — the kitchen.

I see Patch's kitchen as the spot for communal coffee talk. Community bloggers call this room home, and they decide what they want to chat about and when.

In this next year — your second and my first — I hope to add to those voices and include more of you in the mix.

We want you to blog for us; we want you to participate in online conversations in the comment section included after each article submission; we want your photographs, news tips and story ideas; and we'd like you to join our Facebook and Twitter "annexes."

And if you have questions about anything, contact me directly at marge.neal@patch.com

There's plenty of room for everyone, and we hope you join us.

So, thanks for helping us enjoy this anniversary and we invite you to celebrate your online community at Columbia Patch!


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