Hi,

I wanted to tell you about the website you're visiting. It's called UrbanHonking.com and it's a series of blogs written by a whole bunch of different people. We've given over 50 people access to write about whatever they want! And it's not just writers -- we have people showing visual art, sharing music they made, and even movies. It feels like a real community of creative people.

Photo: Part of the Ultimate Blogger selection process.

This isn't my job. No one gets paid for having a blog on Urban Honking, it's just a venue to publish creative ideas, and share them with a like-minded group. In some ways, I'm sure there is nothing new about this, but it feels exciting having all this happen on the internet, where people can find it and directly interact and even join us. Everything is instantly published, and it's like having a daily magazine published by all your friends.

Every month we get more people checking it out, and we've built up an extensive archive of great content. I'm not sure exactly where it's all heading, as the growth has been very organic, but it's exciting to be a part of a group where we're all collaborating on new projects. There is a real feeling that we're building something and moving somewhere, and it's almost better to not know where we're heading. Besides, Urban Honking has a way of ignoring any plans we make and just progressing on its own. :)

It may look like we all spend too much time writing, posting images, and chatting with other, but for me personally, and for many of the other people, there is a real sense of purpose in Urban Honking. It's something that I feel is lacking in other aspects of my life. That sense of building something and working with other people to make it happen.

So what's the story here? Urban Honking was started in 2001 by Steve Schroeder, Jona Bechtolt and Mike Merrill with the help of a lot of their friends as a web magazine. It lived a short and busy life but getting people to write articles quickly proved difficult. The site sat patiently for quite some time and then the blog phenomenon started and breathed new life into UrHo. As the new writers grew so did the audience. Some people moved on, and new people moved in. Group blogs sprung up, photo and other visual blogs, and then Ultimate Blogger, which was a culmination of everything we learned!

Questions? Comments? Drop us an email! kmikeym@kmikeym.com

Photo: URBN*HNKG authors at the 2004 sandwich party in Portland, OR.