people out to meet their neighbors one evening a year, what could we do as a
movement (or "industry") to increase our collective and individual reach and
participation rates?
I keep thinking about the Pew numbers on Neighbors Online - based on the
"joiners" of neighborhood e-mail lists, forums, and social nets "we" are
over 10 million strong with tens of thousand "hosts" like yourselves. Why
not twenty million?!
We all know how hard it really is to find just one new person and how
challenging it is to help a new neighborhood reach the critical mass
required for "it works" word of mouth growth to take over.
What we don't have is a national (U.S. in this case, darn
neighbours/neighbors split) campaign or way to promote the tens of thousands
places people can collectively find then join:
1. Neighborhood e-mail lists, forums, and social nets.
2. Neighborhood association websites, Facebook Pages, and e-newsletters
(typically more up to date IMHO)
3. Neighborhood watch alert networks from local police departments (and
others)
4. Local neighborhood "place" blogs (Does Placeblogger syndicate
directory data?)
My thought is that we can raise the tide for the distributed model of local
online public spaces (versus being supplanted by some new Facebook feature
when or if they move from mobile "Places" to stationary places ... it could
happen) so far more people can be connected to the "mom and pop" efforts so
to speak.
So who here is interested in the idea of a well promoted "Meet Your
Neighbors Online Week"?
It would eventually need a decent search by zip web directory as well as
some funding. I would guess we could bootstrap a "just do it" year one and
then work to attract decent funding for future years.
Your thoughts?
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.org