Knowing the local terrain matters. Some of the best, most worldchanging projects out there are very specific to the places they were born. Often, in fact, the insight with which they respond to local conditions is the secret of their success.

That doesn't mean that local examples can't illuminate approaches and understandings which can be of use to the rest of us. Indeed, we started our Worldchanging local blogs with the direct intention of both helping to stir place-based conversations about how to build a better future, and weaving together a network of worldchanging people from around the world.

Thus today's selection of some of the local blog posts that caught our eye recently. We plan to make this a regular Saturday feature, bringing you interesting thinking from cities around North America, and by the start of 2007, from around the world. We hope that you'll find these both fun and fascinating.

But you don't have to watch from the sidelines: if you're a writer in one of the cities we're launching a local blog, or if you want to work on bringing a local Worldchanging blog to the place you live, we want to hear from you. Email network[at]worldchanging[dot]com to learn more.

Finally, if you have a story idea about your local community, a solution or innovative project you think we ought to write about, please let us know about it, using the suggestion form in the sidebar.