We need another communication platform... fb/Twitter/email don't cut it

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3253736

by krausejj • 15 years ago

15 21 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

we have created so many ways of pushing/pulling content from friends/followers, but often these are closed networks - my friends are your friends... we follow the same thing. how do you reach actual communities - like your neighborhood?

we've tried to solve this problem with a website called http://skychalk.com, and we'd love your feedback.

ours is a new spin on sharing - you post something to a location - like fastening a flyer to a tree - and people view information by location.

please give us your thoughts / feedback - do we need to talk to our neighbors? do we already have too many avenues of communication? is there room for another platform?

thanks for reading!

TMK• 15 years ago

Seems actually pretty cool, though no-one near me using it yet.

krausejj8• 15 years ago

well get us started in your area haha! it's the classic chicken/egg problem. any advice on how to solve it?

jacksondeane• 15 years ago

I see this as just another channel, which might not be what we need. I'd love to see a truly innovative service that combines the existing communication platforms (fb, twitter, email, sms).

krausejj8• 15 years ago

i just realized i wasn't replying correctly earlier - sorry about that - see my response to this above

krausejj8• 15 years ago

jacksondeane - here's our opinion on that: the problem is communication intent - twitter/fb are about communicating to followers. you tweet a beyonce video from a cafe and your neighbors don't need to see that. but if you want to advertise a garage sale or send a missed connection, you don't need (or want) all your friend in nyc to see that. that's what we think the difference is.

jaypreneur• 15 years ago

It seems like this is also overlapping with Craigslist then?

If you want to advertise anything based on location, Craiglist is free and widely used.

If you can really provide something uniquely useful to bring members then people will come. I just don't know how much local neighborhoods care. You could target neighborhood watchs, get-togethers, clubs, and, as you said, advertising.

The thing is... all of those things are available in different forms (meetup.com, craigslist, etc.).

I suppose bringing them together isn't a bad idea though. Surely if meetup, craigslist, and other location-based services work, then there is a market for this.

krausejj8• 15 years ago

we hope so! what we don't like about the other services is the neighborhood bucketing... you have to choose a (sometimes arbitrary) label for the area you're looking at and can only browse in that way....

if you live in SF you know that these labels are constantly changing - better to just give the user complete control. one person may want to look at two blocks, someone else may want to browse an entire metro area.

thanks for the feedback!

jared302482• 15 years ago

Interesting idea. Wonder if it is too abstract for average users though

chacotaco• 15 years ago

Yeah. Agreed. I didn't get it at first until I zoomed out and saw what they were doing in sf. Could be useful if they got more users and figured a way to manage the noise.

krausejj8• 15 years ago

thanks for the feedback. we definitely need more users. HN is denying me another post because i'm posting too much but i'm actually curious of social startup hackers on here have good ideas? mashable won't write us up so we're trying to figure out how to get the word out.

also on the noise - we hope that eventually we get enough content that people will vote and help us sort through the noise.

again, thanks for trying the site

paul_stanley• 15 years ago

Give all email a URI. email is essentially a file on a server but not accessible by a URI. Invent email and text messaging that has a URI for each message.

For local broadcasting within a neighborhood, develop a system where you can send a message to cell phones with TV and radio as a failover.

krausejj8• 15 years ago

wow, interesting ideas. i love this out of the box thinking!

sjd3• 15 years ago

looks a lot like what I did chatnearme.com check it out

sjd3• 15 years ago

btw I have a mobile web application at the same url and you can see how many people online in your circle

sjd3• 15 years ago

actually it looks suspiciously an aweful lot like chatnearme.com that has been out for awhile :)

krausejj8• 15 years ago

we never saw your site before we built this, and our ui is entirely different. everyone is doing location right now

fsethi• 15 years ago

I think we do need to talk with our neighbors, but I suspect doing it in person rather than online would strengthen your community connections more so.

dave22• 15 years ago

I guess there is already a proliferation of these sites popping up.

likealittle geosay chatnearme yours

more to come ...

frafdez• 15 years ago

I like the idea but when I first read your description and went to the site, I expected the equivalent of a cork board in an office lunchroom, which it does do with "gatherings", but the rest feels like Foursquare tips or Yelp's reviews. Basically, I thought it was something your going to read while you wait for the coffee to brew that has targeted information about the office "community" or "neighborhood". "I'm selling my car" or "Employee meeting on Friday the 13th". I'm using the office as an analogy like you used the flyer on the tree. But the true question here is why would I go to your site to find this information? When I walk down the street I have no choice but to run into the tree with the flyer. Then I might tell my neighbor that Cindy lost her kitten and that she should look out for it. Maybe it's easier to start spreading the local info on your site via word of mouth (existing social networks) so that people hear about your tree (your site) and at some point they'll get used to looking for the flyer on the tree.

Ok, sorry for the analogies and generalities.

I think it's going to be a challenge to get people to use it since most people feel saturated by status updates / check-ins / review apps. I'd suggest trying to leverage other social network api's in order to automatically group people by location and also facilitate posting to your site. Maybe create a light weight Facebook app that looks like a tree with flyers on it?

Hope this helps and good luck.

krausejj8• 15 years ago

thanks for your thoughts. we'd like to have more gatherings/marketplace type stuff on the site but that takes a certain critical mass - people know that on craigslist their ad will be seen. our site is still trying to build traffic.

that's an interesting idea about trying to use facebook and then group by location. but are facebook apps really the ticket anymore? it seems to me that most facebook users are extremely hesitant to use apps anymore - especially apps that post content automatically to walls, etc. and since our site only collects an email address from each registered user, we just felt the integration wasn't worthwhile.

We need another communication platform... fb/Twitter/email don't cut it

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