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Well this is a bummer. For us Vermonters, anyway. In case you missed it, Ernesto Burden is the New Media Manager for the Rutland Herald/Times Argus papers. Apparently, he's leaving to go back to work for a paper in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Ernesto has overseen some interesting, award-winning experiments at the RH/TA. Those papers have two staff bloggers — Darren Allen and Heather Aja — and they're the first in Vermont (that I know of) to start reader blogs. In terms of cyberjournalism, the RH/TA is #1 in the state. I don't know how much of that is thanks to Ernesto, but I'm guessing he had a lot to do with it. So I'm sad to see him go, especially since I never actually got to meet him in person.

Ernesto's also got his own blog, linked in the blogroll to the side. His wife's got a blog, too — Milkweed Hill. Guess I'll be de-listing them soon. Nothing personal. Sigh. I'm curious to know who's taking his place. Thanks, Morgan, for the tip.

Bear Code, a Vermont-based programming and database company based in Montepelier, has just signed a lease on some swanky new office space, and they're looking for folks to share it. They recently sent me a press release about their new digs, in the Gossens Bachman Architects building on Granite Shed Lane in Montpelier. They're thinking of the office as a "technology business incubator," and are looking for other techie folks to join them. If you're interested in hearing more, contact Rik or Mike at: 802.225.1331

We devoted the whole freaking issue of this week's Seven Days to video gaming. I wrote three stories about it, and probably could have written another one, about Champlain College's egaming program, but we didn't have space for it. Another time. I hope we struck the right balance with our coverage, and I hope you enjoy reading about something fun, as opposed to the usual news, which is almost always a bummer. I definitely enjoyed getting to play Centipede at Bob Volk's house. Man, that guy is so cool.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to include my friend, the Esteemed Reverand Sam Horowitz, aka shish kebab, in my stories. Sam taught me the basics of Battlefield 2, and answered all of my gaming questions, and let me watch him play Halo 2 on Xbox. He's a senior at Burlington High School, and is also an awesome guy (and is the son of 7D Associate Editor Ruth Horowitz). Thanks, Sam.

Someone, somewhere, thinks Brian Dubie would make a good U.S. Senator — at least that's what one must assume when viewing this Draft Brian Dubie blog. Thanks to Politics VT for the tip.

As promised, there's a new column in this week's Seven Days. The Weekly Post, which appears on page 62A, inside the last page of the first section, spotlights a post from one of the Vermont blogs on my blogroll. The first post o' the week is from New York Ex. The post was actually from last Thursday — because of print deadlines, I'm going to have to pick something from the previous week.

If you're wondering, "how do I get my blog into this column," consider this: I'm looking for writing that's fairly brief (about 200 words or so, less if there's an image). It should be creative, maybe about Vermont, able to stand alone in a newspaper and be interesting to the casual reader, and it should make people want to read blogs. I will contact the blog author to check in about using the post — I'm not sure if I'm legally bound to do that, but that's going to be my policy. I will also protect anonymity in the paper — if you're an anonymous blogger, I'm happy to keep it that way. Alas, there's no payment. And we're not archiving these on the website. It's basically a free ad for your blog, and free content for us.

If you want to suggest a post for consideration (feel free, but only if you're on my blogroll), send ideas to me at [email protected]. Please don't send more than one per week. I think I'm picking them on Monday, so send 'em before then. And send any suggestions you have about how we can do blogging better. I don't know of any other columns like this in print papers, though probably someone somewhere else is doing it. If you know of any examples, list them in the comments thread below. Also, please note that the picture of me in the header was not my idea.

Jessamyn West has this first-hand account of social capital, alive and well in Central Vermont.

Says our friend the intrepid librarian: People who nod their heads and say "That is JUST how community is disintegrating" when they read Bowling Alonemay want to come for a visit to Vermont during the Autumn. There is alot of celebrating going on what with the harvest, the leaves and thelast gasp before it gets too cold to really want to go anywhere. Wewent to chicken pie suppers in Chelsea and in East Bethel. Astutereaders may remember the East Bethel Grange because it was the site ofthe talent show last month...

Incidentally, I'm one of those Bowling Alone fans. I interviewed Robert Putnam when he came to speak at Middlebury in March. He didn't tell me much about Vermont specifically, but he talked about how, after a hurricane or an earthquake, you see a spike in "community-mindedness" that then falls off again after awhile. I think we're in that drop-off now with the hurricane survivors.

The Burlington Free Press website has a new look. What do you think? Did anyone else even notice? I like it better than the old one. Easier to use. Prettier.

Their "web extras" are kind of disappointing. They're just archives of stuff they've already run in print. Nothing new there. They have a nice opportunity there to run extra stuff, but they don't do it. Why?

If you look at the menu, they promise some "eTechnology" content. Here it is. Nothing local, of course, but interesting. And no blogs, though today they're linking to a story from the Detroit News about religious blogging.

Incidentally, I'd like to find some more religious bloggers here. I think I've only got 2 on the blogroll.

UPDATE: Wait, what's with that humongous ad at the top of the page, where the banner should be? If I didn't know any better, I might think the site was for the Essex Outlet Shops and Cinema, not the Burlington Free Press. Jeez! It's almost as bad as those stupid yellow post-its they attach to the front page of my paper. I hate those things. And I hate that giant web ad.

I'm not as afraid of these as most of my journalistic peers, probably because I'm younger, and I only recently began to count myself among their number. This column, from the LA Times, restates the widely reported industry trends of declining profits and circulations in the newspaper industry. The best quote comes from this independent analyst, who says the way people get their news is inevitably changing:

"This is the same thing that happened to other legacy industrieslike the steel mills and textile industry," Vogel said. "The onlydifference in newspapers is everybody has a college education and canexpress themselves, so they can moan and groan and go on and on aboutit."

Part of me believes that pretty much sums it up, but the newspaper loving part of me wants to say there's still hope. I dunno. The times is a changin'. I just like to keep bringing this up because nobody else in Vermont seems to care much. Or at least they're not saying so publicly.

Emily at Say What? reminisces about the Commodore 64. I had one of those, too. Used to sit around all day during the summer playing M.U.L.E., among other things. Sigh.

Intrepid librarian/blogger/tech mentor/Bethel resident Jessamyn West delivers an impassioned rebuttal to some librarian bloggers who argue that libraries are becoming irrelevant in the digital age. Jessamyn wants us to invest in libraries, and use them as tools to bridge the digital divide.

She hits the nail on the head with this observation, though it's somewhat off topic: I chose to live and work in Vermont specifically because people like meare a dime a dozen in Seattle, and in San Francisco, and probably inBrooklyn, but out here, my level of expertise is unusual, and it helpspeople.

I think every time I see Jessamyn, I ask her, in a panic, if she's moving. I hope she sticks around, and brings more of her tech-savvy friends here. Probably no one who reads this blog will be surprised by the fact that every time I talk to techie people here for a story, they casually mention — as if it's common knowledge — that Vermont is far behind most parts of the country in the technological arena. We need all the help we can get.