We’re All in this Neighborhood Together
Digital Neighborhoods are reshaping how we connect and help each other in the age of social networking. David Armando put out a request to his 8000 followers on Twitter to help Daniela ( see the #daniela conversation @ twitter search ) and her family get out of a bad abuse situation. David put his Twitterfluence to work and the word spread.
The original request was retweeted all over the Twitterverse and written about here and here and a bunch of other places. David followed up with another post comparing the connected, supportive neighborhood he grew up in to the connected digital neighborhoods we now converse with. People like to help other people that they know. Social Media is allowing us to call on cyber friends for help with real world challenges.
I love the neighborhood analogy because it’s so easy to picture what a nice, connected local neighborhood feels like. People smiling and greeting each other on the street, stopping to chat, sharing work and playing together. A good neighborhood is a place you want to be. Good neighborhoods have a sense of belonging. Good neighborhoods have a sense of community that is familiar to all the people living in the neighborhood. Good neighborhoods are places where you can get to know each other just a bit and you look out for each other.
What does a Digital Neighborhood Look Like?
Our social web is full of interconnected circles. We make connections in all sorts of ways. Here are a few examples: Facebook allows us to keep up for people we’ve meet all over the globe see and converse with each other on our walls. Twitter is an interconnected web of people all conversing about whatever it is they are doing in this moment like coming together to help Daniela. We discuss our photos on Flickr. Bookmarking services like Stumble and Delicious allow us to organize and share links with our friends to the stuff we like all over the web. We use these tools to converse with each other, find other like hearted people and extend our neighborhood circles.
Is Your Blog a Neighborhood?
Do you treat your blog like you envision your ideal neighborhood? Is your blog a place you like to hang out and a nice place to invite your friends over for conversation? Would you live in your blog neighborhood? What if you applied some of the qualities of good neighborhood’s to your blog?
We’re forming a new neighborhood here were we like to talk about blogging, social media, community, circles ( mandalas ), conscious business, authentic communication and doing good. As any good neighbors we’d like to talk with you about your blog, your networking and the good things you’re weaving through your circles too. We like to be helpful, listen and share. So grab a fresh cup of tea and your keyboard and join us in our neighborhood.
Flickr Photos