If you live in HK and are interested in politics and news, you should take a look at this new online community, the first of its kind in HK according to Dan Gillmor). From Chatter Garden’s news release:

Chatter Garden, an online community for news and discussion about Hong Kong regional politics and public affairs, is now live.

The English language site was created as a University of Hong Kong student project for the New Media Workshop, part of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre. Visitors are encouraged to engage in online community dialogue, writing weblog entries and moderating stories. The Web site creation was directed by assistant professor Andrew Lih and visiting lecturer Dan Gillmor, author of the book, “We the Media.”

While Hong Kong has one of the most free media environments in East Asia and China, there are surprisingly few forums for public discourse. Chatter Garden was inspired by other online citizen journalism projects, such as OhmyNews (Korea), Malaysiakini and DailyKOS (US) to engage citizens in discussing regional public affairs. Topics include politics, economy, culture, and “One country, Two systems.”

Chatter Garden is named after “Chater Garden,” the park next to the government Legislative Council building, and a popular gathering place for local political rallies.

Some interesting discussions are going on over there, and it definitely has potential.

Thanks to Jeremy for the tip.