After a great showing in the still ongoing Google fiber campaign Duluth has another chance to “Cheer” for ourselves in the “We Hear You America” contest from Reader’s Digest.

I guess the contest has been running for a few months, but I’m not much of a Reader’s Digest Reader so I just found out about it yesterday. I “cheered” and I encourage other PDDers to play along. Yeah, I’d love for us to get the $5 million bucks or whatever it is, but I also like the idea of people mobilizing to be positive about our town. It has been fun to do with Google Fiber and this should be no different.

This contest is clearly modeled on the Google Fiber pandemonium that started almost exactly a year ago. And it also borrows a page from the Pepsi Refresh project which is of a similar vintage.

I find it interesting that a magazine that has roots in the oldest of old mass-media, is also borrowing a page from one that dominates the new mass media. Even more interesting to me (self interest, that is) is that Duluth could have a top showing in each of their campaigns. Which is somehow very “Duluth” to me, deeply rooted in the past in some ways and still reaching out for the very edges of the future. At least, that’s the community that I have idealized in my head and in my heart, if not always in my reality.