Micro-Community Chalkboard
Author: Roy Shearer
What NEED does this meet?
I would like to see a web service for very small communities such as the 7 households that live in my apartment block (or perhaps a street, or one floor of a large apartment block). We need a means of communicating when we all have radically different timescales and lifestyle yet live in very close proximity. We need to build a stronger community, on a micro level.
What is the APPROACH?
The site would be a hub for encouraging social activities and communal caretaking, arranging times to meet, allowing everyone a say on what work should be done, and even donating to a fund for said work. The main problem we have is that finding the time for everyone to meet up is almost impossible, so we need some kind of virtual bulletin board that people can access at leisure from their home. However, the service would also have to be accessible enough to include all households, and include those without internet access somehow. Here in Glasgow, I am aware that there is plenty of intent to form stronger communities at this level, but no one knows how or has the tools to do so.
What are the BENEFITS to people?
I think there may be a need for this all over the world, a simple, accessible micro-community board with very few features, that can successfully translate into some tangible form as well. Small and simple is how I imagine it in order to include everyone equally with the minimum of fuss.
People will benefit from building stronger communities in order that they can participate in improving their immediate environment (probably urban), something that city councils seem to find hard.
What is the COMPETITION?
There are plenty of commmunity/club/society services, but they are far to complex to include the less IT-literate, and do not interact with the physical world at all. We need a service that acknowledges its role a support system for real world communities. Also, existing services are tailored to single person users, making them rather too personal at times for these purposes. My idea would allow people to participate as households rathre than single users.
What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?
The setup of any web service would be very simple, the intersting and challenging part is how the service would be designed to interact with a real world counterpart. This could be as cheap or expensive as you would like, as it could take the form of a community internet access point, or a simple notice board.
Very good, Roy. Clearly argued. Since not all residents have web access, what you really need is a flat-screen panel monitor installed somewhere within the close or stair displaying the latest postings from web-enabled residents in the community, and beside it a wipeable whiteboard on which messages and responses from other (web-deprived) residents could be temporarily posted, using a dry-wipe marker firmly attached to it by a cord. You’d then have to think through how such epheneral messages could be secured or in some way transferred to an electronic medium.
Hey Roy,
how about the system generates text message digests every so often (or on demand by the convener of the group, assuming some hierarchy is allowed) to get sent to moblie phones, or landlines (I think many landlines can now receive text messages – they are read out loud by a synthesized voice) as surely every one will have one or the other of these.
N.
If you want to enable easy communication between a small group of people that inhabit a common location asynchronously, there is probably nothing to beat a real whiteboard and/or noticeboard. The startup cost is near zero, the running cost is near zero and it has the advantage over web technology that it provides a common physical location where from time to time people will actually meet in person.
There are numerous free online bulletin board/forum services. They are simple and asynchronous. If membership is required per-household rather than per-individual, there’s nothing to stop people signing up like that and sharing the password among them. This still doesn’t solve the problem of the households that don’t have internet access. However, having a physical noticeboard does.
True, very true. However the problem in my experience is a) vandalism and b)willingness of people to use the system. it is strange but true that these days people feel more comfortable using web and computer driven communications than others. There are people who wouldn’t like to write up on a whiteboard simply due to the effort and the fact that their message will be on display to all, all the time. I think we need a service that puts everyone on more of a level footing, and that isn’t thrust in their face all the time. Rather, there should be a certain, known ‘place’ for these discussions that can be entered and exited at will, and privately.
Plus, stuff in our close tends to get damaged/stolen for whatever reason.
Another factor is that landlords need to be involved in the system, and they neither live in the physical locale neither visit it that often necessarily. It would be great if there were a direct link to someone at the council too, as the two orgnaisations could be mutually beneficial. The council can’t come around and check people’s whiteboards all the time.
This is why the problem is interesting, because its not a simple communications problem for a geographically local group, it has all sorts of outside players, effects and constraints for which a networked system is ideal.
The Yahoo Groups service is more than adequate for online collaboration and it’s free. There are plenty of imitators as well.
The traditional message board in a central location would work much better than technology and be used by everyone.
In 30 years time this type of idea will be common except we’ll be interacting via our mobile devices.
I’m the only one in this world. Can please someone join me in this life? Or maybe death…
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