Keith N Hampton

I-Neighbors is live! A new website to increase social contact and participation at the neighborhood level: http://www.i-neighbors.org

For the past two years I have been testing this site on three Boston area neighborhoods as part of my E-neighbors study. Some of the trial neighborhoods had very positive results – a significant increase in the number of local social ties, more frequent communication on and offline, and higher levels of community involvement. The I-Neighbors website is an attempt to extend these results to other neighborhoods in the U.S. and Canada.

The full public release of the site is not scheduled for about a week, but I wanted to share the site early with those who read my blog. Since this weekend when I sent an email to a small group of collegues and friends anouncing the site, it has grown from the three original E-neighbors communities to nearly 90 I-Neighbors communities!

The web site is ready and open to be used. I-Neighbors is a FREE social networking tool that connects people to neighbors in the same local community. Using I-Neighbors you can:
-Meet and communicate with your neighbors.
-Find neighbors with similar interests.
-Share information on local companies and services.
-Organize and advertise local events.
-Vocalize local concerns and ideas.
Members have access to services that include a neighborhood email list, a local directory, a shared photo album, a neighborhood messaging system, a tool to poll their neighbors\’ opinions, and a service that connects neighbors who work near each other for carpools. Unlike other web sites that allow global, national, or city-wide communication, I-Neighbors links members of a single neighborhood, defined by the people that create them.

You can find your local community or create a new neighborhood at http://www.i-neighbors.org. Once you create or join a neighborhood you can use use the web site to send email invitations to friends, or my favorite feature, print a paper flyer to give neighbors.