Outside.in & The Loudoun Scoop

As I write this the outside temperature is just above the single digits and moving in from the outside is indeed a good move. But a move that works in any season and anywhere is the new website outside.in. That’s all you need, just those two words. outside.in is the creation of best selling author Steven Johnson. A lucky few met Steven at a book signing lunch just after Christmas in Leesburg when Steven told us about his new book, The Ghost Map, the story of a London neighborhood stricken with a cholera epidemic and how this medical mystery was solved.

Outside.in is also about neighborhoods, and like the true story of The Ghost Map, residents unlock the “mysteries” of what is happening in their neighborhood. Enter a zip code and you will get the scoop on the neighborhood. News on the arts, bars, community, crime, schools, kids, etc. are a few of the many tags that can be placed on articles about any neighborhood. Top tags for 20175 and 20176 (Leesburg) are events, politics, Loudoun, Dulles, concerts, New Years Eve. Click on any tag and read everything posted about these subjects in Leesburg. Outside.in has teamed up with Google to supply a map called the “Dashboard”. If you are looking at any community, drag the map to a community nearby that you want to check out.

Outside.in is only a few months old, but growing like wildfire. In early January about a month after launching the 100,000th story was posted. Over a 1,000 stories are added every day by contributors. By early February over 1,650 blogs had been submitted to outside.in, and they were in 56 cities and 3,201 neighborhoods.

Outside.in will soon cover the world, but a great source of local news is The Loudon Scoop a creation of David D'Onofrio. If you are like me and do not have time to read all the many local Loudoun County papers cover to cover, The Loudoun Scoop is a great way to quickly stay up-to-date on what’s in the news about Loudoun County. I often find news I am interested in days before I read it in the papers because The Loudoun Scoop links to articles the papers publish on their websites. Join the Scoop email list and you will receive a daily reminder.

The Scoop and outside.in are a great way of staying in tune with what is happening.