outside.in should have a charity/causes/events/volunteers aspect to it - now that would get viral
narnia
· 2 years ago
I'm still confused as to the utility of outside.in, but I'm optimistic.
Sameer
· 2 years ago
Brilliant.
I can't help but think of Hoboken411.com, a site that in my opinion has discovered the secret sauce when it comes to creating the definitive community forum for its town. If you live in Hoboken, that's who you rely on to get a heads up about that pothole or broken fire hydrant, the new steak house in town or how your local politicians are performing (or not). Comments on stories have gone as high as 2000 in some cases.
Granted, Outside.in is looking to build a scalable model and these new developments definitely help build a platform that can be replicated but there are some sobering lessons to be learnt from how Hoboken411 has connected with its community so darn well. And we are thrilled to be powering notifications for the site. :)
kenberger
· 2 years ago
This site/service could be amazingly cool and useful, and seriously valuable with some public uptake.
But the speed at which that happens will be limited until the front page draws one in to what the site is about. Right now, the first-time user (and everyone else) just sees the following before the fold: a list of news stories, a small map, and a terse vague idea of what the site's about. I can not figure out what that map does-- drilling down in Manhattan does not show me any POI's like the enlarged one does. Dragging the map to a new location doesn't generate a new list of stories for the new location, etc.
On a tech note, interesting is that they "moved [the entire site] from PHP to Ruby on Rails". Cool.
andrew
· 2 years ago
I still don't get outside.in, maybe I am not thinking ahead but I just don't understand what problem this service solves. Please explain.
Ethan Bauley
· 2 years ago
Steven's post is brilliant.
Have you guys seen EveryBlock.com?
[created by a grant from the Knight Foundation to The Django Guy Adrain Holovaty]
Chris Hauser
· 2 years ago
I just did and frankly, there's nothing to see but worthless buzz.
Ethan Bauley
· 2 years ago
Considering they haven't finished building anything yet, that seems to be expected.
Holovaty has written some brilliant essays on reformatting news stories in XML. They're posted on his home page:
EveryBlock is intriguing because the Knight Foundation requires that the projects it funds be open-source. My theory on EveryBlock is that they are making an open-source web app that will scrape local government websites and organize the data. That data is will then be made freely available online.
Anyone in any geography would be able to apply the open-source framework to their locality.
In theory, EveryBlock would amass useful government info [like the construction permits outlined in Steven's post] and make it accessible...
All Comments
I can't help but think of Hoboken411.com, a site that in my opinion has discovered the secret sauce when it comes to creating the definitive community forum for its town. If you live in Hoboken, that's who you rely on to get a heads up about that pothole or broken fire hydrant, the new steak house in town or how your local politicians are performing (or not). Comments on stories have gone as high as 2000 in some cases.
Granted, Outside.in is looking to build a scalable model and these new developments definitely help build a platform that can be replicated but there are some sobering lessons to be learnt from how Hoboken411 has connected with its community so darn well. And we are thrilled to be powering notifications for the site. :)
But the speed at which that happens will be limited until the front page draws one in to what the site is about. Right now, the first-time user (and everyone else) just sees the following before the fold: a list of news stories, a small map, and a terse vague idea of what the site's about. I can not figure out what that map does-- drilling down in Manhattan does not show me any POI's like the enlarged one does. Dragging the map to a new location doesn't generate a new list of stories for the new location, etc.
On a tech note, interesting is that they "moved [the entire site] from PHP to Ruby on Rails". Cool.
Have you guys seen EveryBlock.com?
[created by a grant from the Knight Foundation to The Django Guy Adrain Holovaty]
Holovaty has written some brilliant essays on reformatting news stories in XML. They're posted on his home page:
http://www.holovaty.com/
EveryBlock is intriguing because the Knight Foundation requires that the projects it funds be open-source. My theory on EveryBlock is that they are making an open-source web app that will scrape local government websites and organize the data. That data is will then be made freely available online.
Anyone in any geography would be able to apply the open-source framework to their locality.
In theory, EveryBlock would amass useful government info [like the construction permits outlined in Steven's post] and make it accessible...
Paging Tim O'Reilly...