Mar 10, 2009 Live Local, Newspapers, TownSync, Video
As the initial launch of townsync.com approaches, we wanted to lay out some of the benefits to using an online social calendar.
So What is a Social Calendar?
A social calendar is a calendar with social functions – when events are posted they can be synchronized with others so the event is seen on both calendars.
What are the Benefits of a Calendar on TownSync?
TownSync brings social calendar functions to small towns across the country. With an account a user gets a free public and private calendar that can be synced with anyone on TownSync. The communities on TownSync are arranged by location so finding things going on and meeting new people in a local area has never been easier.
Private
The private calendar can be used as a personal scheduler unseen by the rest of the community.
Public
The public calendar can be seen by connections and used to sync with friends, colleagues and others in town.
Sync Function
If there is an event displayed on someone’s public calendar you can “sync” the event so it displays on your calendar. If you like everything that person has on their calendar you can also sync their entire calendar to your own. This way all the events in town you would like to remember or be reminded of are on your personal calendar.
When you are promoting an event you can display it to the community and others can sync it with their own calendar. Not only does this help to spread the word, but when someone syncs the event it is displayed on their public calendar to be a constant reminder of the date and location of the event.
Location
TownSync is based around US Zip-Codes. Unlike other global social-networks, TownSync connects people based on a radius around their Zip-Code. This benefits every user on the site because it connects them and allows them to sync their schedule with people that matter. Instead of finding events based on what is posted to the entire world, TownSync gives people the ability to find things happening, and people living nearby.
National
Say you’re going to another city for the weekend, or moving to a new town. You would probably want to find out what that town is like, see some pictures and search through local events, right? TownSync also gives the ability to go to other Towns/Zip-Codes and see businesses, classifieds and events happening in that town.
What Would You Like to See?
We are very excited for the launch and are looking forward to hearing what people think of the site. What features would you like to see on TownSync?
Feb 8, 2009 TownSync
Walking through the park today I passed an area with tables for people to play chess. At three consecutive tables there were men with chess boards set up waiting for someone to join them. They weren’t waiting for anyone in particular, just someone willing to sit down and join them for an afternoon chess match. As people walked by, the men sitting at the tables would gesture with a hand and a friendly smile as if to say, “Care to join?” At first I asked myself why they wouldn’t just play each other. Then I thought it might be a way to give themselves a challenge by playing unknown competition. Yet the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was a way for them to meet new people with a common passion. Playing random people in the park not only allowed them to play a game they loved, but offered an easy way to meet new people with a similar love of chess.
There is something lost with interactions online because the encounter is not face to face. There are sites that allow us to have conversations or find new connections, but the best sites are those that connect the online world with the real world. Our goal for TownSync is to improve offline relations in your town by creating an online hub that connects local people and allows them to share with each other. Granted, TownSync will not be an online chess game where two people from a local area can play each other, but it will be a place for people to set up these sort of face to face encounters online. TownSync will be the central park for your town, offering open tables for two strangers to connect over something they love.
Feb 1, 2009 TownSync, hyperlocal
At TownSync one of our most discussed topics is “hyperlocal.” The term has been used a lot over the past couple years to describe sites that aggregate news for a very local audience. Hyperlocal news channels are great, and are helping people learn more about what’s going on in their community, but they are missing some very key features; they do not allow people to connect or create content and manage a personal page in their town. TownSync will offer a community space for people and business owners in these local areas to build their online presence as well as connect with one another. We believe that creating a social network for people from the same town or city will create a stronger community online and off. Instead of simply commenting on a local blog, TownSync will provide a way for people to establish new connections, share information directly, or post information to the community for all to view.
Hyperlocal blogging, although important, is still in a growing period. News sources are just now starting to realize that people are overwhelmed with global and national news, but are short on resources in their area or on their street. The “socialites” in town are stepping up and coming out on top with hyperlocal blogs because they know what people in their area are looking to hear. In addition to this, big news sources have a much broader audience and need to find stories that please the masses, not specific areas.
Our intent with TownSync is not to diminish the growing hyperlocal industry, but to encourage it and allow for an atmosphere that emphasizes local interaction. With these things in mind we tend to think of TownSync as a hyperlocal social network. TownSync will bring online communities to a local level and establish hyperlocal networks of families, business-owners, bloggers, community-leaders and everyday folk.
Jan 27, 2009 Live Local
“Geotagging” is a term being used now when photos and things posted online are tagged with their geographical locations.
In an article for this month’s Wired magazine, Mathew Honan writes about his recent experience using GPS tracking and Geotagging. While many people are excited about the availability of Geotagging, especially with the advanced features on the popular Apple iPhone, others are becoming more concerned with the privacy issues this may reveal. Mathew Honan is one of them:
To test whether I was being paranoid, I ran a little experiment. On a sunny Saturday, I spotted a woman in Golden Gate Park taking a photo with a 3G iPhone. Because iPhones embed geodata into photos that users upload to Flickr or Picasa, iPhone shots can be automatically placed on a map. At home I searched the Flickr map, and score—a shot from today. I clicked through to the user’s photostream and determined it was the woman I had seen earlier. After adjusting the settings so that only her shots appeared on the map, I saw a cluster of images in one location. Clicking on them revealed photos of an apartment interior—a bedroom, a kitchen, a filthy living room. Now I know where she lives.
Granted this woman doesn’t have to use a Flickr account, and she doesn’t even need to upload the photos to the Internet, but this does raise some very interesting privacy issues. Are people even aware of the geotagging functions for their accounts? Do they know how to shut them off?
As a website for local communities we tend to look at the amazing possibilities Geotagging will have for localizing the Internet, but the privacy issue is definitely a good concern to have. We hope to eventually incorporate ways of using Geotagging on TownSync, but the most important thing for us will be to allow users control over their own privacy.
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