5 ms·

Wanted: Hyper Local Disruption

24 points by apgwoz 16y ago

mthreat 16y ago
I've had these same thoughts myself while walking to the laundry mat in my apartments. I know that Ning exists, maybe it's too general? Maybe a social network for apartments would get more usage? You'd have the problem of verifying that someone lives in the apartments (facebook used to verify you went to school.edu by your school.edu email address).
arnorhs 16y ago
Isn't something like ning.com perfect for this functionality? Also, a Facebook group could work fairly well.
maukdaddy 16y ago
Google Groups. My 4 unit building uses groups to share info, docs, and anything else that residents need to know.
dreaming 16y ago
Certainly would have its benefits for residential issues, though baking cookies for the neighbors becomes a real efficiency challenge at 400 people.
- sprout 16y ago
  Bah. Assuming 2 cookies a person I can manage that with one oven. 500 though, then I probably need a second oven to put out that many cookies at a reasonable rate. I mean, you're not going to get them all at once, so it's pretty simple to spend a Saturday churning them out. And assuming I spent all Saturday I don't think 600 people would be out of the question, though distribution would require a few friends. Of course, that's the point of cookies is winning friends, so that part can take care of itself, just so you pick your first friends wisely.
thenbrent 16y ago
This exists: http://www.lifeat.com http://www.lifeat.com Has done for some time: http://techcrunch.com/2007/10/16/does-your-building-need-a-social-network-why-not/ http://techcrunch.com/2007/10/16/does-your-building-need-a-s... Since reading that article almost 3 years ago, I've not heard another thing about it. I guess it's pretty hard for hyper-local networks to spread like the wildfire of Facebook et. al.
adamsmith 16y ago
My first surprise moving into my first apartment was that, unlike dorms, people didn't socialize with one another. I found that very odd and disappointing, but soon after realized why: unlike college students, people living in apartments are at different stages of life and have different interests. There are a few compelling use cases to hyperlocal social networking. This article touches on a few, but confuses them with the type of relationships you have with friends. Yes, there are probably some people in your building that you would actually want to be friends with, but it's not clear IMO how to make that happen. If there really were that many people around who you could be friends with, people in apartments would hang out regularly offline, and they don't.
thailandstartup 16y ago
I wonder if creating a local wifi hotspot with a captive portal would be a good way to jump-start these hyper-local groups. So a user logging onto the local open wifi hotspot is re-directed to the local group, which might be Yahoo or Google group - or even a local noticeboard/forum that is accessible only from that hotspot.

24 points by apgwoz 16y ago

I've had these same thoughts myself while walking to the laundry mat in my apartments. I know that Ning exists, maybe it's too general? Maybe a social network for apartments would get more usage? You'd have the problem of verifying that someone lives in the apartments (facebook used to verify you went to school.edu by your school.edu email address).

arnorhs 16y ago

Isn't something like ning.com perfect for this functionality? Also, a Facebook group could work fairly well.

maukdaddy 16y ago

Google Groups. My 4 unit building uses groups to share info, docs, and anything else that residents need to know.

dreaming 16y ago

Certainly would have its benefits for residential issues, though baking cookies for the neighbors becomes a real efficiency challenge at 400 people.

sprout 16y ago
Bah. Assuming 2 cookies a person I can manage that with one oven. 500 though, then I probably need a second oven to put out that many cookies at a reasonable rate. I mean, you're not going to get them all at once, so it's pretty simple to spend a Saturday churning them out. And assuming I spent all Saturday I don't think 600 people would be out of the question, though distribution would require a few friends. Of course, that's the point of cookies is winning friends, so that part can take care of itself, just so you pick your first friends wisely.

thenbrent 16y ago

This exists: http://www.lifeat.com http://www.lifeat.com Has done for some time: http://techcrunch.com/2007/10/16/does-your-building-need-a-social-network-why-not/ http://techcrunch.com/2007/10/16/does-your-building-need-a-s... Since reading that article almost 3 years ago, I've not heard another thing about it. I guess it's pretty hard for hyper-local networks to spread like the wildfire of Facebook et. al.

adamsmith 16y ago

My first surprise moving into my first apartment was that, unlike dorms, people didn't socialize with one another. I found that very odd and disappointing, but soon after realized why: unlike college students, people living in apartments are at different stages of life and have different interests. There are a few compelling use cases to hyperlocal social networking. This article touches on a few, but confuses them with the type of relationships you have with friends. Yes, there are probably some people in your building that you would actually want to be friends with, but it's not clear IMO how to make that happen. If there really were that many people around who you could be friends with, people in apartments would hang out regularly offline, and they don't.

thailandstartup 16y ago

I wonder if creating a local wifi hotspot with a captive portal would be a good way to jump-start these hyper-local groups. So a user logging onto the local open wifi hotspot is re-directed to the local group, which might be Yahoo or Google group - or even a local noticeboard/forum that is accessible only from that hotspot.