Bakotopia

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Bakotopia.com is a locally-focused online social networking website created in January 2005 for young people in Bakersfield, California. The site allows local individuals and bands to create profiles, events, blogs and listings. Bands can also upload music to build a local fan base.

The home page of Bakotopia.com as of Oct. 7, 2006. Shows approximately 1/5 of the page, depicting recent band MP3 uploads and profiles of recent visitors.

[edit] History

Bakotopia was created in January 2005 by Mercado Nuevo LLC, a subsidiary of the independently owned Bakersfield Californian newspaper.

The site was created as a way for the Californian newspaper to reach a demographic that was younger than that which subscribed to the daily print edition or frequented the newspaper's Web site. By observing consumer behavior, it was determined that focusing on a combination of persona-based social networking, local music and free listings could provide a more meaningful local experience than those offered by national competitors such as MySpace, Facebook and Craigslist. The site is widely considered to be one of the first U.S. newspaper-backed providers of free Classifieds and social networking.

The Bakomatic Social Media Platform that runs Bakotopia was later adapated to power The Northwest Voice and 7 other demographically-targeted sites in Bakersfield. As such, Bakotopia and the Bakomatic platform are also linked to the citizen journalism movement.

[edit] Awards

Bakotopia is the recipient of several awards, including a Newspaper Association of America's Digital Edge Award for Most Innovative Visitor Participation in 2006. In September of 2006, the Knight Foundation gave the Bakomatic Social Media Platform that powers Bakotopia.com a Knight Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism.

Bakotopia's founder, Senior Product Manager Dan Pacheco, received a "20 Under 40" award from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) for starting the site.