Zipcode Village Blog

We’re in a lull, as we respond to the first set of user feedback by planning site enhancements. We know it’s a long haul, and that’s okay. The underlying need for building local connections isn’t going away. The experiment to use the web to satisfy those needs has not really begun yet. That won’t happen until a group of people in a zip code are using the site with some frequency.

To help move things along, we created a flyer for users to print out and post in local hot spots in the community. The main message is, “Save Gas. Save the Planet. Live Local!” Next week, we’ll post it as link on the top of the right column. Feel free to request the flyer by emailing admin@zipcodevillage.com.

One of the biggest decisions we faced during the early stages of planning ZipcodeVillage.com was how much access users should have to villages other than their own. We felt strongly that in Version 1.0, we needed to preserve the sanctity and integrity of a village. In other words, the design and technical system should keep posts and interaction happening inside a zip code. Otherwise, the core concept of tying together a zip code and a village would fall apart.

That’s all well and good. But it’s obvious from our first users that posting to a “forum of one” produces ghost towns, rather than villages. So, we’re now going back to the drawing board and thinking about how to make our users’ homepages come to life with links to posts in other villages, and thus allow a national community of people interested in building communities to collaborate with each other–and to build up their own community connections at the same time. We will begin the process of aggregating all kinds of other news and resources about zip codes that are available on the web.

P.S. We’re creating a flyer in pdf form that any user can download and tack up at local hangouts and telephone poles, and ready to drop in mailboxes on your street. Contact us if you would like one of these flyers.

The key to making Zipcode Village work is to let your neighbors know about the site. One of our first users, doulagrammie from 32951 has exactly the right idea. See what doulagrammie is doing to spread the word.

Hi fellow Melbourne Beachers… I’ll be the first to post here. I’ve lived in Melbourne Beach for 20 years. I love it here. Several years ago I became active in a local Freecycle Group. I’ve had so much fun and many good feelings for keeping items OUT of the landfill and giving my items to our neighbors who will find them useful.

I came across this website, Zipcode village, and thought it might be a way for us to pull together to share news, happenings, etc. in our wonderful town. Let’s really reach out to one another.

I’m sending this along to all friends and neighbors to encourage them to join together….please forward this to your buddies and friends from Mel Bch.

Your neighbor, doulagrammie

PS. the sign up process is fast and easy…you don’t need to use your name!

On July 2, 2007, we sent an announcement about Zipcode Village to subscribers of the HybridCars.com newsletter—the first time we invited the world to take a look, sign up, and begin using the site. It was exciting and nerve-wracking because we didn’t know what would happen. Would everything work?

The goal of the site—to help people build connections in their neighborhood—is a noble one. And we put tons of effort into the project and we think we’re on the right track, but ultimately it’s all about the users. What would our first visitors and user think? All and all, the feedback from email (and from a few bloggers) was excellent. Amanda from Enviroblog wrote:

You mean it’s about… meeting people? Like, in person? What a radical idea!

Well, by the end of the day, more than 200 people had signed up for accounts and about 50 posts had been created. Also, a set of about dozen (mostly minor) bugs were reported. We’re busy fixing them as soon as we can.

Five days later, we’re nearly at 300 users, mostly folks who have come to their zip code and made a single post. That brings us to the biggest early challenge: encouraging users to reach out to their neighbors and let them know about Zipcode Village.

The whole point is to build connections between people. It doesn’t make sense for our early adopters to sit alone inside their Zipcode Villages. So stay tuned as we provide better tools on the site and more information in this blog about grassroots efforts to make our Zipcode Villages thrive.  A big thanks to our early adopters!  We won’t let you down.