Much has been written about blogs and participatory journalism, which I needn't re-tell, but instead point to two great examples: Yesterday there was a bunch of underground fires and explosions that ultimately shut off power to a bunch of homes (including ours). Baristanet, a local blog (no, probably, the local blog), covered it, practically in realtime with a combination of posts and comments. While TV, print and radio did get there -- the locals were there first, covering it for all the other office-bound commuters anxious to find out of their pets were beginning to swelter.

Meanwhile, more and more folks are descending upon the one part of the Patriots operation that is open to the public: training camp. The net-famous Mrs. B (Karen Cardoza) has been providing blow-by-blow training camp diaries before there were blogs, and now she's joined by many others -- including some amazing photos from Erdoboy. There simply is no other time of year that regular fans get get this close to the team -- and the minute-by-minute coverage of the practices (and Ed's photos) rival that of practically any "real" journalist (although Mike Reiss is hard to beat, and he has a press pass).

Omaha!