Understanding Neighbors and Places

Posted by steven on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 10:54 am

As you can see, we’ve rolled out a ton of new features this morning, along with a significant streamlining of the design. We’re going to walk through some of the changes on the blog in the next day or so, but for now the most important thing to understand are the basic new categories we’ve added that now form the underlying architecture of the site: Neighbors, Places, Stories, and Comments. We’ve only scratched the surface of what we can do with these different variables, but we think you’ll see why they’re going to be a lot of fun to explore.

Neighbors are registered users of outside.in. Each neighbor has a profile page that shows a bio, photo, neighborhood, website, plus all the stories, comments, and places they’ve contributed to outside.in. (Right now it’s a little tricky to find a specific neighbor, much less communicate with them — but we’re working on it!)
Stories and Comments are the content you add to outside.in about your area. When you add them to the site, they appear on the home page of the area you specified for everyone to see, as well as on your neighbor pages.

Stories are content that comes from other sites, like blogs or newspaper websites, that you submit to the site via the submit a story link in the right column of the page. Add stories to outside.in that relate to your neighborhood and that you find interesting and want to share with your neighbors.

Comments are content that you write yourself, directly to the outside.in website. You add comments to Places, which are any location or venue in your area. Add a comment to any Place you want, either to point out something you like, or just to talk about something interesting in your neighborhood.

Places can be everything from restaurants to playgrounds to schools — or even more subjective categories (most dangerous intersection, best spot for winter sledding.) Any story or comment can be attached to a Place. The cool thing about these Place pages is that the become an archive of everything that’s been said online about a given place — comments from outside.in Neighbors, blog posts, newspaper reviews, discussion threads.

Check it out and let us know what you think. (You might start by registering or updating your neighbor page with a bio and photo.)

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  • http://coryforsyth.com/2007/02/27/outsidein-20/ Cory Forsyth » Blog Archive » outside.in 2.0

    [...] Steven has written up a couple of good posts describing neighbors and places and a post introducing the new investors on the site. [...]

  • Jon Husband

    Will you have any sort of API that will let this service interact with blog editing tools .. say, such that it is pinged by a blog post about a business or a service or an event in a given neighbourhood composed in an external blog editiing tool … or maybe posting an external hreview-microformat (standardized format) Review post about a restaurant or a gas station or whatever ?

  • Jon Husband

    Will you have any sort of API that will let this service interact with blog editing tools .. say, such that it is pinged by a blog post about a business or a service or an event in a given neighbourhood composed in an external blog editiing tool … or maybe posting an external hreview-microformat (standardized format) Review post about a restaurant or a gas station or whatever ?

  • Suzanne Leonard

    The subject of a Wood Park Home Owners’ Assn. website arose at our last annual meeting and the Board’s unanimous response was that they aren’t set up to communicate with the homeowners through the internet. Perhaps this site will be a good alternative information sharing opportunity.

  • http://WoodParkHomeOwnersAssn. Suzanne Leonard

    The subject of a Wood Park Home Owners’ Assn. website arose at our last annual meeting and the Board’s unanimous response was that they aren’t set up to communicate with the homeowners through the internet. Perhaps this site will be a good alternative information sharing opportunity.

  • http://warmhunting.wordpress.com/2007/03/08/the-heros-journey-by-telepresence/ THE HERO’S JOURNEY by telepresence « warm hunting

    [...] The new vessels for myths might not be a poem, as T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland had been when Campbell was a student in the 1920’s. (The Wasteland is a condition of the soul not a place, people living inauthentic lives, deadened to mythology.) Or a radical story structure, like James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, had been. Or even a new storytelling format: film, for instance, which George Lucas had used to essay Campbell’s ideas within the Star Wars series. Google maps is probably the single most powerful mythological device in our society, linking fluid ideas and myths and social and spiritual rituals (as well as advertising, climate change reports and other practical information) to many places. Google maps can allow us to be everywhere at once, and to connect more deeply to where we are. Outside.in, the placeblogging site built upon Google maps, is the new campfire the people of the town gather around to tell stories. [...]

  • Test

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  • http://notesonaparty.blogspot.com NYCInsider

    I just discoverd Outside.In and it is really well designed. I love the functionality and the ability to learn about my neighbors so that I can put their comments into context. Very helpful. I am a marketing exec and seasoned event planner….I hope to contribute a lot of insider information about cool restaurants, clubs, bars, caterers, florists, DJ’s and other vendors that I have worked with over the years. My blog Notes On A Party (notesonaparty.blogspot.com) will keep you updated on all things related to events and entertaining.

  • http://notesonaparty.blogspot.com NYCInsider

    I just discoverd Outside.In and it is really well designed. I love the functionality and the ability to learn about my neighbors so that I can put their comments into context. Very helpful. I am a marketing exec and seasoned event planner….I hope to contribute a lot of insider information about cool restaurants, clubs, bars, caterers, florists, DJ’s and other vendors that I have worked with over the years. My blog Notes On A Party (notesonaparty.blogspot.com) will keep you updated on all things related to events and entertaining.

  • http://Discounters.com Dr.Brown

  • Rayne

    I need help finding a place for a small free concert during the Summer. I’m looking for an outside venue with a small stage/amphitheater, possibly a park or something. If anyone has any information please contact me at RaveRayne@hotmail.com. Thanks so much.

  • Rayne

    I need help finding a place for a small free concert during the Summer. I’m looking for an outside venue with a small stage/amphitheater, possibly a park or something. If anyone has any information please contact me at RaveRayne@hotmail.com. Thanks so much.

  • http://www.spotesya.com/ Hans

    Will you have any sort of API that will let this service interact with blog editing tools

  • ikincielim

    nice post

    your tips is very useful

    thanks

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