Local Networks

So I was all thinking about FarmVille the other day, right? And I'm all like, why don't people, you know, stop growing magic elephants and stuff and start growing actual vegetables? And start to think, well, maybe it's because FarmVille is all social and fun and stuff, but gardening, especially in the suburbs is pretty lonely and depressing...so why doesn't someone (me) start a site devoted to bringing all the amazing benefits of social networking to real people growing real stuff?  Well, it turns out someone, and by someone I mean pretty much everyone, thought of that too and so here's a list of some pretty amazing sites devoted to making gardening cool and social again. Read this article, it says all the stuff I was going to say about this here.

• Gardening Network: http://www.gardening-network.com/
• Folia - Social Garden Tracker and Organizer: http://myfolia.com/
• Oh My Bloom: http://www.ohmybloom.com/profiles/members/
• Your Garden Show: http://www.yourgardenshow.com/
• Freedom Gardens: http://freedomgardens.org/

Oh, and you have some other really cool ones, too, that bring Gardening enthusiasts together with people who have extra land. If you know anything about suburbia, you know that everyone has extra land. 

• We Patch: http://www.wepatch.org/
• Yardsharing: http://yardsharing.org/

I am thrilled to hear about these online ways of bringing folks together. But ultimately, they represent a way of coping with rather than addressing the root of the problem. These encounters are still "point to point" and generally away from public view. They won't take the place of genuine public spaces, public gardens and neighborhoods full of people invested in the common good.

In any event, the specialized and then localized garden sites pointed me in the direction of a new and growing trend in networking, that is, hyperlocal and neighborhood social networks. Residents organizing, sharing ideas and interacting with management to better take charge of issues that effect them, creating real physical communities that break the isolation of urban life. Cool:

•  DeHood: http://www.dehood.com/home
• Meet the Neighbors: http://www.meettheneighbors.org
• Life At: http://www.lifeat.com/
• i-Neighbors: http://www.i-neighbors.org/