Creator, Placeblogger.com and H2otown.info
Greater Boston Area
- Current
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- Founder at Placeblogger.com
- Founder and Editor in Chief at H2otown.info
- Past
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- Online Community Strategy at Boston.com
- Project Leader, Frontiers in Innovation at Center for Citizen Media
- Director, Enterprise Applications Group at Yankee Group
- Senior Analyst at Daratech
- Education
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- Emerson College
- Recommended
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1 person has recommended Lisa - Connections
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297
connections
- Industry
- Online Media
- Websites
Lisa Williams’s Summary
I run H2otown.info, a nationally recognized example of a citizen journalism community site, covering and talking about Watertown, MA.
In January I launched Placeblogger.com, the largest searchable directory of local weblogs. Placeblogger has been covered by many media outlets including Wired, USA Today and the Washington Post. Placeblogger was a winner of the Knight 21st Century News Challenge Award.
I'm currently working with Boston.com, the online wing of The Boston Globe, on online community, social networking, and blogging.
Prior to moving into online local media, I was director of the Enterprise Software research group at Yankee Group, a Boston area technology analyst firm. Before working at Yankee Group, I worked at Daratech, where I studied and wrote about the CAD/CAM software market. I had the opportunity to work with dozens of early stage startups, which was a blast.
In addition to the many tech conferences I spoke at during my career as a technology analyst, I've been fortunate enough to speak at the following conferences:
J-Lab Citizens' Media Summit, "The Thousand Placeblog Bet:
Citizen Journalism's Growth in the U.S.",
10/06, U. Maryland J-Lab/ONA, Washington, D.C.
Wikimania/Citizen Journalism, "Placeblogging,"
07/06, Cambridge, MA
Bloggercon IV, "The Emotional Life of Weblogs,"
07/06, San Francisco, CA
Democracy and Innovation Forum, Speaker, Citizen Journalism,
07/06, Amherst, MA
SXSW Interactive, "Bloggers in Love," cohost with Julie Leung, 3/06, Austin, TX
BlogHer I, Speaker, Podcasting and Videoblogging, 07/05
along with videoblogger Ryanne Hodson, San Jose, CA
Bloggercon II, Discussion leader, "Weblog Wishlist", 03/04,
Harvard/Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, Cambridge, MA
I'm married to Evan Williams, who's currently working at Akamai Technology in Cambridge, MA. We live in Watertown, MA with our two kids.
Lisa Williams’s Specialties:
blogging, citizen journalism, online community, hyperlocal, forecasting, citizen media, placeblogs, podcasting, video, social media
Lisa Williams’s Experience
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Founder
Placeblogger.com
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
May 2006 — Present (2 years 1 month)
Placeblogger.com is a searchable directory of hundreds of locally focused weblogs across the US. Placeblogs arise from a fiercely non-generic America that's not about big-box retailers or blunt, 30,000 foot style reporting that results in bland, red vs. blue trend stories. Placeblogs are about the lived experience of a community -- some of which is news and some of which isn't. Placeblogger is my attempt to give to others the delight I've had in discovering and reading these sites, to help placebloggers connect with one another and make their own sites better, and to give real insight into what's really happening in citizen journalism in the U.S. at street level.
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Founder and Editor in Chief
H2otown.info
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)
February 2005 — Present (3 years 4 months)
H2otown is a bottom-up news source for the residents of Watertown, Massachusetts, pop. 32,000, a dense, urban suburb of Boston, MA. H2otown has 350 members and a midweek peak of 3,000 daily readers. H2otown celebrates what's authentically unique about Watertown, from its food to its people, and often breaks news in town.
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Online Community Strategy
Boston.com
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Newspapers industry)
April 2007 — July 2007 (4 months)
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Project Leader, Frontiers in Innovation
Center for Citizen Media
(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)
May 2006 — October 2006 (6 months)
The Center for Citizen Media supports and studies the rise of citizen engagement in the news media. The Center is headed by Dan Gillmor, author of We The Media, and is affiliated with the journalism school of the University of California at Berkeley and The Berkman Center for the Internet and Society of Harvard Law School.
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Director, Enterprise Applications Group
Yankee Group
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Telecommunications industry)
October 1997 — June 2002 (4 years 9 months)
I held several positions at Yankee Group, culminating in being the director of this technology analyst firm's group devoted to researching business software.
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Senior Analyst
Daratech
(Computer Software industry)
1995 — 1997 (2 years)
Lisa Williams’s Education
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Emerson College
1988 — 1992
Additional Information
Lisa Williams’s Websites:
Lisa Williams’s Interests:
weblogs, rss, placeblogs, local media, local websites, online mapping, long distance and transportational cycling, geolocation, urban orchards and gardening, open-ocean kayaking, fitness, child development and literacy, real estate
Lisa Williams’s Groups:
BlogHer, Berkman Blog Group, MassBike, Bloggercon
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Obama for America member -
Yankee Group Alumni member
Lisa Williams’s Honors:
2007 Fellow, Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution
National Constitution Center, Philadelphia, PA
Winner, Knight 21st Century News Challenge, 2007, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Lisa Williams’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
