Hello, nice to meet you.

As you now know, our usual captain on this ship we call HoCoRising is off this week. I will do my best to fill in his stead.

Have you ever gone to see a Broadway show, and at the beginning of the show an announcement is made along the lines, "Tonight, the part of Big-Huge-Broadway-Star will be played by Newcomer-Understudy?" Usually the entire audience lets out a collective groan at the likely beating their ears will take over the next couple hours. This is how I imagined the hoco blogosphere feels right now. I will tell you, though, a few times I have had this happen, the Newcomer-Understudy actually went out and did the show in a new and interesting way, and by the end of the show, had completely won over the audience.

I will not do morning links, or wax poetic about Larry Carson's latest offerings. I will offer something different. Call it a chance to try something new. Over the next few days, I plan to write a little about my thoughts on local blogging, local food, local politics and why I LOVE living in HoCo!

The way I see it, the internet has three levels of human interaction, ranked from least impact to most impact:

Level 1: Email
Email is something one sends to just one other person, or perhaps a few other people. The sender has to know the people he/she is sending the emails to, or at least know the receivers' email addresses. If the receiver decides to respond, the response only goes back to the original sender.

Level 2: Facebook and Twitter
Now, we are getting more interactive. On Facebook and Twitter one posts one's thoughts about the world and links to interesting pictures, videos or articles. Facebook and Twitter require other's to "Friend" or "Fan" you in order to read what you post. This is more interactive than email, as one can post a comment, and all of the friends can see the post. Then, if they decide to comment on the post, all of the friends can see each other's comments.

Level 3: Blogs
This is the current (until something else comes along) height of interactivity on the internet. I can post anything I want on this blog. Anyone who has internet access can easily read what I post. If anyone in the audience wants to comment, they can relatively easily write a comment to the blog post that, again, literally anyone with an internet connection can read, and comment on, in turn.

I am excited to say that I have finally reached Level 3! I look forward to having a conversation about HoCo and Maryland issues with you, "The Broadway Audience", over the next few days. Hopefully, by the end of our time together, I can win you over.

-Trevor