My Virtual Neighbor is a social media site aimed at neighborhood homeowners hoping to fight crime in their locale. Founder Amit Mehta claims that this new social website has reduced neighborhood crime by a large percentage. Mr. Mehta claims that this site is the cornerstone of "National Night Out", which, as a member of a HOA, I've known about for years. In my own neighborhood, we have used a Yahoo® Groups for years and it has been helpful in keeping up with events in the neighborhood.
A case study was done in Houston, Texas, for a period of ten (10) weeks and, apparently, Mr. Mehta has the stats to prove an 80% reduction in crime. Although my neighborhood moderator (of our Yahoo Group) does keep the homeowners well informed, many of us tend to ignore postings that look like complaints or robo-messsages from the association managers (a separate business) and sometimes miss really important messages (like local murders, utility shut-offs, etc. and other frequently occurring events that happen on the East side of ATX).
The article goes on to state that users have more privacy controls than Facebook® or Yahoo by allowing the users to be the moderators as well as the users. This feature encourages homeowners to feel safe when becoming acquainted with their neighbors, with the end result being a more secure neighborhood. For neighborhoods that do not have a virtual network in place for homeowners, this would be a good option.
To read more, visit http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/28/3945100/new-social-media-my-virtual-neighbor.html#ixzz1ZHbfLdlt
I wish my neighborhood had this!! :)
ReplyDeleteYou can start forming your community no matter where you live anytime Andy as site is open to all :)
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