we have created so many ways of pushing/pulling content from friends/followers, but often these are closed networks - my friends are your friends... we follow the same thing. how do you reach actual communities - like your neighborhood?<p>we've tried to solve this problem with a website called http://skychalk.com, and we'd love your feedback.<p>ours is a new spin on sharing - you post something to a location - like fastening a flyer to a tree - and people view information by location.<p>please give us your thoughts / feedback - do we need to talk to our neighbors? do we already have too many avenues of communication? is there room for another platform?<p>thanks for reading!
I like the idea but when I first read your description and went to the site, I expected the equivalent of a cork board in an office lunchroom, which it does do with "gatherings", but the rest feels like Foursquare tips or Yelp's reviews. Basically, I thought it was something your going to read while you wait for the coffee to brew that has targeted information about the office "community" or "neighborhood". "I'm selling my car" or "Employee meeting on Friday the 13th". I'm using the office as an analogy like you used the flyer on the tree. But the true question here is why would I go to your site to find this information? When I walk down the street I have no choice but to run into the tree with the flyer. Then I might tell my neighbor that Cindy lost her kitten and that she should look out for it. Maybe it's easier to start spreading the local info on your site via word of mouth (existing social networks) so that people hear about your tree (your site) and at some point they'll get used to looking for the flyer on the tree.<p>Ok, sorry for the analogies and generalities.<p>I think it's going to be a challenge to get people to use it since most people feel saturated by status updates / check-ins / review apps. I'd suggest trying to leverage other social network api's in order to automatically group people by location and also facilitate posting to your site. Maybe create a light weight Facebook app that looks like a tree with flyers on it?<p>Hope this helps and good luck.
Give all email a URI. email is essentially a file on a server but not accessible by a URI. Invent email and text messaging that has a URI for each message.<p>For local broadcasting within a neighborhood, develop a system where you can send a message to cell phones with TV and radio as a failover.
I see this as just another channel, which might not be what we need. I'd love to see a truly innovative service that combines the existing communication platforms (fb, twitter, email, sms).
I think we do need to talk with our neighbors, but I suspect doing it in person rather than online would strengthen your community connections more so.
jacksondeane - here's our opinion on that: the problem is communication intent - twitter/fb are about communicating to followers. you tweet a beyonce video from a cafe and your neighbors don't need to see that. but if you want to advertise a garage sale or send a missed connection, you don't need (or want) all your friend in nyc to see that. that's what we think the difference is.