Archive for February, 2009

Your Town’s Central Park – Connect in Person

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.

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Establishing a HyperLocal Social Network

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.

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