Have you heard of Streetlife.com ?
It’s a fairly new website gradually being rolled put across the UK. It was launched in Essex a couple of weeks ago. They say:
“We have a simple aim: to help build stronger communities by providing a place for local residents, groups and officials to connect and share practical information, advice and resources.
Approaching 100,000 people in 500 communities across England currently use Streetlife, and over the past few days thousands of residents in Essex have joined and the conversations have already started.”
It’s worth a look, and they seem keen get to get local councils and councillors involved. It could be one way of reducing the disconnect between councils and ordinary residents that’s been discussed on onlinefocus recently.
Incidentally, Streetlife.com isn’t a charity, one big investor is the Archant Media Group, who own a lot of local newspapers and are expanding into websites.
In one online article about new investment they say:
“CEO and founder of streetlife.com, Matt Boyes, commented on the funding:
We?ve shown that online interaction can facilitate real-world meetings, encourage people to become more involved locally, and enhance their sense of belonging. It?s a very exciting time for streetlife.com; this funding will enable us to bring the benefits of local social networking to new communities across the nation.?
Serge Taborin, managing director of Archant Digital Ventures, added:
?We are delighted with the extraordinary rise of the platform, which now provides a rich source of highly relevant local stories for our journalists, and we strongly believe that this latest round of investment will enable streetlife.com to accelerate its growth nationally.?