I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy reading the Universal Hub every day.  I’ve also mentioned how I respect and admire the work that MassINC does on the Commonwealth magazine.  When Commonwealth writes about the Universal Hub, how could I not link to the excellent article?

Commonwealth hits some key points about UH.  It’s not just the big stories; it’s about the small things that aren’t necessarily newsworthy, but are the events that define our daily lives.  None of us experiences everything that the Boston area has to offer.  UH lets us see into other people’s lives, and gives us a new perspective on our own lives.

Look what I read on UH today.  A story that at least starts with pictures of flowers, but ends up somewhere else entirely (Read it to the end. You have to.)  A story for my friend Mike about his Red Line commute and fellow Quincy residents – be sure to notice the drive-by-but-totally-accurate critique of the Herald reportage.  And last but not least, a story about a guy being terrorized by a green dot.  Do you begin to see what UH does for us?  How many people have seen a random milk crate in the Fens and not given it a second thought?  How many people were delayed on the Red Line and wondered why?  How many thousands have driven past the sign in the lawn and wondered what the heck was going on?  The UH lets us see more, dive deeper, understand more about where we live.

On a more personal level, I think UH has linked to me once.  I saw the traffic spike and wondered what the heck happened.  And then there was the time I saw a link to a colleague’s wife’s blog.  When I mentioned it to him, Ned said “Oh, yeah, Adam links to her sometimes.”  I realized that I needed to be a better blogger, and work on my connections more.  And then there was the time that UH linked to the blog of a woman in Somerville.  Imagine my surprise and delight when I found that Margaret was blogging, and I didn’t even know it.  My point: UH isn’t about reading just a few websites.  UH manages to find the crannies of the community, and shares them for us all to enjoy.

If you don’t have UH in your RSS feed (or bookmarks, or whatever), I highly recommend you start.  And Adam, they say that flattery gets you everywhere; feel free to link here more often 😉