Back in 2011, Gayane Mirzoyan, a local journalist, applied to Armenia’s very first Social Innovation Camp. Gayane wanted to create a hyper-local media platform for Yerevan.

What does that mean? Her platform, called Taghinfo, is home to a community of bloggers and activists who write and spread micro-narratives about their communities. The beauty of hyper-local news is that it shifts the center of the information industry away from the reality of media corporations towards a reality based in your community. If, as some say, information equals power, this effectively means returning a degree of autonomy back to the local level.

Taghinfo has had many interesting discoveries. Like the story about Kalents library, which few residents of Yerevan knew existed in the capital or the GeologicalMuseum, both of which were well off the regular tourist trail.

The most important thing to come out of this initiative, however, is the small stories that helped solve local social issues: the social impact. For instance, thanks to one story, which drew attention to the poor condition among a communal area in Yerevan, the municipality took action to install missing benches. Or another short story of a building that was hosting refugees, which resulted in the renovation of the building’s elevator that had been out of order for a considerable time.

Since its launch, Gayane has mobilized a team of interested citizens who are willing to share news about their communities and. The platform hosted over 170 stories about different communities in Yerevan and continues to be an important forum for action at the community level.

Want to learn more? Have a story to report from your community? You can post directly to Taginfo or get in contact with @Gaya_net