I remember my childhood neighborhood just before the advent of air conditioning and the omnipresence of TV. A walk down the block gave you a good idea of what your neighbors were up to. Or not. 😉
Comparing then to now, the neighborhood where I now live, is strangely silent. Walk down my block and you hear no TVs, conversations, radios, loud discussions or the like.
We have become increasingly isolated from others by our means of transportation, entertainment and climate control.
EveryBlock offers the promise of restoring some of the random contact with our neighbors to our lives.
EveryBlock says it solves two problems:
First, there’s no good place to keep track of everything happening in your neighborhood, from news coverage to events to photography. We try to collect all of the news and civic goings-on that have happened recently in your city, and make it simple for you to keep track of news in particular areas.
Second, there’s no good way to post messages to your neighbors online. Facebook lets you post messages to your friends, Twitter lets you post messages to your followers, but no well-used service lets you post a message to people in a given neighborhood.
EveryBlock addresses the problem of geographic blocks, but how do you get information on your professional block?
Do you hear anything unexpected or different? Or do you hear the customary and expected?
Maybe your professional block has gotten too silent.
Suggestions for how to change that?