Neighborhood establishes its own online social network with “Nextdoor,” while Mayor Laura Rosenthal investigates citywide possibilities.
By Jimy Tallal / Special to The Malibu Times
Western Malibu now has its own private website, thanks to Nextdoor, a new company based in San Francisco that offers free social websites specially designed for neighborhoods. The site includes some of the same features found on Facebook and Craigslist, as well as other features that can help bring neighborhoods together by improving communications and information.
Members of Nextdoor can look up neighbors in a directory, see a neighborhood map; buy, sell or give away items; ask neighbors for advice on things like gardeners, tutors and babysitters; and share neighborhood information—everything from local construction projects to finding a lost dog. There’s also an “urgent alert” feature that lets any member immediately alert all neighbors of fire or emergency by instantly sending out text messages and e-mails.
One of the first Nextdoor conversations in western Malibu came from new residents wanting to know the best place to view fireworks in Malibu on July 4; and they got plenty of advice.
Eric Myer, CFO of the Trancas Highlands HOA, said he first read about “Nextdoor” in The New York Times in May, in a business section article about new technology. When he approached neighbors about the idea and they liked it, he decided to launch a local version of Nextdoor.
“We’re all in our own little worlds, and it’s a chance to communicate with neighbors in a nonobtrusive manner,” Myer said. “I like the fact that it’s free, and that the interior pages are private and only visible to fellow members so marketers can’t poach names or e-mails.”
Nextdoor uses Maponics (a geographic data provider) to automatically generate neighborhood boundaries when a new neighborhood decides to launch. So, instead of just Trancas Highlands, Nextdoor’s computer outlined a neighborhood it named “Western Malibu,” which has a western border of Mulholland Hwy. and an eastern border of Bonsall Drive, covering neighborhoods such as Malibu West, Broad Beach and Malibu Park.
Myer liked the fact that the neighborhood designated by Nextdoor’s program wasn’t just Trancas Highlands.
“It forces you to get outside the bubble of your own mini-neighborhood,” he said. “We can use it to spread the energy we all put into the water project here and let everyone know what’s happening with that, and it will be good to garner support for other community issues.”
Another feature of Nextdoor, the “community resources” section, allows neighbors to share documents, files and important links; as well as upload events information and photos. The company is still beta-testing a “groups” feature that would allow subgroups like neighborhood watch volunteers, book clubs, residents of a specific block, cyclists, gardeners, seniors, HOA members, dog owners, bridge players, parents of toddlers, etc. to communicate.
The Western Malibu roll-out has been intentionally slow over the past several weeks in terms of neighborhood sign-ups, since there was no publicity and member invites were limited to Myer’s e-mail list of Trancas Highlands. However, those who have signed up so far also include residents of Malibu Park and Malibu West, and word seems to be spreading as one or two new people join each day.
One of the neighbors now signed up is Mayor Laura Rosenthal, who said she is also researching this and other types of social networks and on-line forums for possible use city-wide. She and Councilmember Skylar Peak head up a recently formed ad-hoc committee on technology, and this is one of the areas they want to focus on.
“We’re also going to try to use something like this for the ad-hoc Civic Center Land Use group,” Rosenthal said, referring to the ad-hoc groups that are currently investigating the possibility of purchasing vacant commercial property in the Civic Center with a public funding measure in order to retire it as open space.
The idea, Rosenthal said, would be to “increase public participation and communication from people who can’t get to meetings.”
Rosenthal has learned that cities like Austin, Sacramento and Fort Lauderdale have all launched city social networks; and that some cities have achieved a participation rate as high as 70 percent.
Any resident of Western Malibu can join the Nextdoor group by asking a neighbor who’s already a member to email an “invitation.” They can also join by visiting Nextdoor.com and choosing one of several methods for address verification. Each member is asked to complete a personal profile, but most information is optional.
Other neighborhoods interested in launching their own Nextdoor social network can also go to Nextdoor.com.