lokalgood » Localism

Info Sharing: See Where You Stand

lokalgood — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:09:14 +0000

All this writing and talking about neighborhood info sharing has also inspired a related experiment (and new local resource) called heystack, which is for all those times when we want to know what others are doing on a decision we’re facing but don’t ask (too busy, too forgetful, not comfortable). What to pay a babysitter? When to give your kid a cellphone? When to start setting dough aside for college or retirement? heystack aims to help folks both see where they stand on questions like these and get/share ideas on taking some new step if so inspired.

Check out this quick video preview. Or give the site a whirl.

Stuff Sharing: Virtual Tool Shed

MWilker — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 20:34:53 +0000

Poster: Michael Wilker

I’m cheap. I admit it. Sometimes I need a tool (post hole digger, table saw, 40′ ladder) that I just don’t have. I’ve got a few options — ignore the problem, crack open the hinge on my wallet, or borrow. I’m not one who will ignore a project for too long, and the hinge on my wallet has a pretty tight spring.

So I needed a way to open up the borrowing lane, and I just knew there were other dads who faced the same problem. I could have gone the rental route (a craze which recently reached neckties, yes I said neckties!, right here in Washington at Tie Society), but the crop of rent-your-stuff sites still requires a bunch of steps for sorting out the crazies and lands you likely with a rental dance partner you don’t know from Adam.

Thus I cobbled together the Virtual Tool Shed, a hyperlocal, high tech (not really, it’s an Excel spreadsheet) online shed where dads I know in the ‘hood contribute to an ever-growing list of shareable tools. The result, now I can use a great table saw, but I don’t have to build an addition to Wilker HQ to house the handy slicer. Now I can reach the front gutters without the use of a jet pack (since I don’t have one of those, any more than a big ladder).

Beyond the tools in this case, what’s cool about this idea is that you can apply it to so many types of stuff, basically anything with some of the following characteristics:

Expensive
Infrequently used (but super helpful/the-only-way when you have the need)
Big i.e., takes up valuable space around the house, office, yard
Hard to find
Easily used by multiple people with no gross factor (Virtual Expertise Directory. Love it. Virtual Athletic Equipment Locker? Sure. Virtual Athletic Apparel Locker? Umm, pass.)

And it’s pretty simple to do. For my group of Dad buddies I rounded up inventory with an email call, dumped it into an Excel file and then shared back with the group along with some super simple rules:

If you need a tool and someone on the list has it, contact him
If your tool is crap, let the person know so he doesn’t hurt himself
If you break a tool, be a man and pay to get it fixed or replaced
Return the tools in a timely manner, or at least contact the owner
If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask
If you need a tool and it isn’t on the list, don’t be afraid to ask
If you continually screw up, you’re name will be spread across the neighborhood

The rest is up to participating Dads who contact each other by email when they need something. All in all a good result so far. Saving some bread and some time, taking a small step toward more reuse and creating a few more connections between neighbors. Not bad.

All this concept needed to get off the ground was a cheap person who needs help. I see that guy in the mirror every day. But whatever your motivation, if you’re interested in starting a Virtual [fill in your stuff interest here] Shed and want some tips, feel free to email me here at lokalgood@yahoo.com.

What folks read in ’10 on lokalgood

lokalgood — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:55:37 +0000

The stats wranglers at WordPress.com mulled over how lokalgood did in 2010, and here’s their high level summary of its overall blog health. I’ve added a few comments in (parentheses) throughout. All in all a fun year with this experiment. Would be great if more folks added their own content too but as it’s turned out, I quite enjoy writing meself so will keep at it as long as the stready reader stream continues saying there’s some value in it for our hood. Just means frequency will = when the muse is with me + time available. I hope folks find high quality offsets modest quantity…. or that they jump in and share their thoughts (however short or long) to add to the volume. Here’s to a good ’11 full of useful local info wherever you find it.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire! (their terms, not mine, seems way frothy to me but at least it’s not… this blog is in flames and soon to be but a few cinders).

Visitor numbers

Blog was viewed 2,600 times in 2010.

Where they came from, were looking for

The top referring sites in 2010 were gwslepthere.com, lesdunbelle.wordpress.com, (many thanks to these two great local blogs for connecting to lg), en.wordpress.com, facebook.com, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for patrick camus architect, architect (good news for architects generally – who says additions are stalled? – and for my man Mr. Camus in particular), milk delivery alexandria va (South Mountain creamery deserves all the interest it gets), lokalgood, and alexandria masters soccer (fingers crossed for a return to the pitch in the spring).

Local blog summary

lokalgood — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:16:41 +0000

Another good local resource to share is the growing collection of Alexandria/Del Ray blogs recently summarized at a good one from this blogging bunch, gwslepthere. In addition to the ones listed here, I also like the helpful health related info at the blog from Neighborhood Pharmacy.

Lots of different topics covered, missions pursued, but in all cases helpful deposits in the community information account here in Del Ray. Comment here if you have other good ones to highlight.

Sort-of localism

lokalgood — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:07:36 +0000

A few weeks ago I wrote about this idea of hyperlocalism – that folks want local news to be really local, from their neighborhood, development, right around them. And that most news beyond that – at the county or regional level – falls into a dreaded middle ground we don’t generally care about as much. Thus, for this and other reasons, the surprising demise of regional news outlets in places where the number of would be news consumers is rising rapidly, a la Loudoun county. I read about this trend to the intensely local in an article in the Washington Post. Sort of funny then that, at least at first glance, the Post seems to be skipping toward that same deadly ground in between with its new service Washington Post Local.

I’m going to investigate further but on first blush, the chipper introduction I get from my virtual tour guide doesn’t seem to point to anything more local than the Capital Region. Rather it feels more like a way to shift my news around so that my front door to the Post leads me first to all the rooms with “local” news from DC, MD, VA and the close-in environs of the beltway…. Then deposits me in the back rooms with all the national fare. (If I want I can also reverse the order and leave the local bits til the end.) Call it My Washington Post on steroids. But so far the vibe is much more personalization of existing content (not a bad thing in itself) than it is serving up new/different content more personally relevant to me where I live.

Certainly feels like a general nod to the rise of whatever’s local. Just not sure it actually goes anywhere new under that banner beyond moving existing news merchandise around on the store shelves. We’ll give it a whirl and see.

Add a local resource, or comment on this one.

Hyperlocal: How local can you go?

lokalgood — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:31:09 +0000

This blog is all about the idea that what’s right around you, I mean right in your neighborhood, is interesting and useful. And that, despite being right under your sniffer, all this good stuff is largely unknown and thus worthy of chronicling in ways we don’t do today.

I see myriad nods to the notion all the time… that fruitless web search for a close by home theater advisor, the then hit or miss poring over listserv archives, only to come upon a post done 2 years ago. The cool art exhibit or community center reading you hear about after the fact. The unease you feel from maybe plunking down big bucks on a built-in cabinet project with a guy you found in the yellows (web search didn’t get you far) but can’t get any takes on from local folks who’ve used him. And there are tons of others…. services, events, teachers, interest groups, vacation rentals, doctors, etc. All resources right near you that you either didn’t know were there or don’t have any context on if you did know they existed.

We want them and we want them close. For a lot of reasons… time, gas, reference, convenience, belonging, etc. In the same moment that distances are rendered somewhat meaningless by the web… they’re also being magnified by it. I think because we’ve started to get a taste of just how rich and powerful local info and context from others like us can be in living better, choosing better. Listservs, bulletin boards, local search – incomplete and sometimes frustrating as all these are – they speak to what’s near, what can be participated in, effected.

Here’s a great example, in this case through the news lens. From a recent article about the disappearance of media outlets where I grew up, in Loudoun County, VA. Why is that happening? Think about it, one of the fastest growing and richest counties in the land, yet sources of “local” news are dropping like flies. This article says maybe it’s because we want more than just local, we want “hyperlocal”. I.e. I don’t want to read about what’s happening in my county… I want to know what’s happening right in my neighborhood, my subdivision, my corner of the development. Regional newspapers, even small ones, can’t do that with the immediacy and context that the local listserv, or community site can. (We’ve got great examples here in Del Ray, like LesDunBelle Diary, a blog dedicated to the news on 3 streets). As the title asks.. the question for media in a sprawling, fast growing county like Loudoun is, “How local can you go?”

I’m sure there are lots more reasons for this trend… which I hope slows (my mother is a reporter for, you guessed it, a Loudoun County newspaper). But at a minimum, this dying off speaks a little more to this increasing need we have for what’s near. And to the idea that we get it best when information is shared and amassed from the community up (not from national service down)…….hyperlocal.

Let this Del Ray experiment in hyperlocalism begin.