The power of the human link, all that traffic that comes from Twitter and Facebook for example, will drive the new economy for news more than pay walls set up by Rupert Murdoch and the Associated Press.

That was one of the key observations by Jeff Jarvis from panel called Online News of Tomorrow http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/688 panel at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin today. Jarvis was joined by Adrian Holovaty (Everyblock), Brad Flora (Windy Citizen), Jeremy Zillar (NYTimes) and Andrew Huff (Gapers Block).

Brad Flora runs a site called  Windy Citizen in Chicago which is crowdsourcing the relevancy for local news. It’s a combination of an algorithm and crowd power (people voting on stuff) and Flora said it’s “profitable” and “sustainable.” It’s a very cool site that will certainly be replicated in most major cities – possibly by local media comapnies. (Hint, hint)

“The conversation is splintering,” Flora said. “We’re not a news organization, we’re just a front page that can point people to the good stuff. For local bloggers, we are their distribution. Getting a link at Windy Citizen will brighten their day. Our goal is to give them a fighting chance.”

Zilar said email is often overlooked and that the majority of Brooklyn’s news ecosystem runs on email distribution. That’s interesting since Brooklyn is often thought of as one of the local blogging hotspots and home to hyperlocal aggregator Outside.in.

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