Did You Know? The City of Mesa Has Partnered With A Private Social Network

The private social network Nextdoor is definitely filling a void here in Mesa. However  it's not grappling with the gap in that long-empty disconnect between government and people or the failure to engage residents to make city government more effective. Nextdoor was founded in Menlo Park, California in 2010 by venture capital companies and other angel investors and was of course designed to generate income launching its first money-making products and "to help citizens strengthen local ties and enhance neighbor-to-neighbor communication."  Right!
What the City of Mesa's partnership is, or what financial arrangements there are is not stated in this news release on September 18, 2018 from the city's newsroom.
Mesa celebrates fifth anniversary of successful partnership with Nextdoor
What is stated is that it took five years in a city of over 475,000 to gain more than 56,000 users:" " . .  There has been nearly a 2,000 percent increase in the number of residents using Nextdoor with membership increasing to more than 56,000 residents. . . "
_______________________________________________________________________
According to numbers provided to How Stuff Works   by Kelsey Grady, director of global communications at Nextdoor, the most popular section on Nextdoor is "Classifieds" (items for sale or giveaway), which makes up 32 percent of posts followed by "Recommendations" (24 percent). Here, posters ask for help finding the best restaurant, mechanic or plumber in their area to name just a few requests. Turns out, homeowner's associations, supermoms, and empty nesters are the earliest adopters of Nextdoor. 
Nirav Tolia, Nextdoor's co-founder and CEO, told CNET, "People are using the technology to bring back a sense of community." And that's a good thing considering the majority of Americans only know some of their neighbors names and 28 percent don't know any of their neighbor's names, according to a Pew Research report.
According to this report by Ben Popper in The Verge on June 23, 2016, "Drama is mostly traffic, speeding, and dog waste related. Very good for local recommendations. . .  a great place to get recommendations about dentists, doctors, contractors, gardeners." In the near future, it will begin allowing local businesses to join the service and create their own profile pages, much the same way residents and local government agencies can join now. Merchants may then be allowed to pay-to-place sponsored posts in the newsfeed.
The flip side of this positive community building has bouts of paranoia or racial profiling. The service has a tab dedicated to reporting crime, and advocacy groups were concerned that it was being used to report people of color as suspicious simply for being in the area.
being in the area. The site has responded by rolling out several changes, including a crime reporting form, a warning screen prior to posting, a racial profiling flag, and updates to member guidelines. According to a spokeswoman, racial profiling has been reduced by 40 percent in the test markets where these changes have rolled out.
To its credit, Nextdoor responded by completely revamping its crime and safety reporting system and creating a Racial Profiling Resource Center. Now, before a user can post a report, they're prompted to consider whether they'd report the same activity if it was done by somebody of a different race. And reports must include specific identifying characteristics of the suspect, not just race or sex.

"We are very proud of our work to address racial profiling on Nextdoor and have seen a tremendous response from our community," Kelsey Grady, director of global communications at Nextdoor, writes in an email. "We have seen a significant reduction in problematic posts and this number continues to decrease."

In her research, Farzan found that while safety is definitely one of the motivating factors for wanting to connect with your neighbors online, it's not anywhere near the top. And Nextdoor's own user data bears that out.

As it gets ready to try and launch its first money-making products, the company is also planning to roll out its first big international expansion.

It's also good when taxpayer-funded public city assets are not the first responders as related in this one story:
 

---

Mesa celebrates fifth anniversary of successful partnership with Nextdoor

September 18, 2018 at 10:35 am

The City of Mesa will celebrate the five-year anniversary of its partnership with Nextdoor, the free and private social network for neighborhoods established to improve citywide and neighbor-to-neighbor communications.

An awards ceremony will be held Saturday, Sept. 29 to recognize "Good Neighbors" and Mesa neighborhoods dedicated to building stronger and safer communities through the use of Nextdoor.Blogger Note: One researcher found that while safety is definitely one of the motivating factors for wanting to connect with your neighbors online, it's not anywhere near the top. And Nextdoor's own user data bears that out.
The City's awards event will take place from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Chelsea Park, 145 S 40th St. The program will celebrate the progress of the Nextdoor partnership and recognize residents and five neighborhoods that use Nextdoor in their commitment to build stronger and safer communities:
Nextdoor Neighborhood Champion: West Greenbelt
Most Connected Neighborhood: Encore at Eastmark
Most Engaged Neighborhood: Suhuaro Hills/Granite Reef
Neighborhood with the Most Growth: Dobson Ranch West
First Neighborhood to Join Nextdoor: Hermosa Vista

______________________________________________________________

Nextdoor and More: The Good, Bad and Ugly of Neighborhood Social Networks

by Dave Roos Feb 27, 2018
Here's one story when public taxpayer-funded city assets were not the first-responders: After an elderly couple's basement flooded in Columbus, Ohio, in 2014, they posted urgent requests for assistance on Facebook, Twitter and the neighborhood-based site Nextdoor. But it was the Nextdoor connections who actually showed up.
"It was like living in an Amish community, and somebody had rung a bell, 'cause people just came out of the woodwork to help," the grateful husband told The Verge.
Stories like these explain the draw of locality-based online social networks - and how California venture capital firms plan to make-money

Based in San Francisco, California, Nextdoor was founded in 2010 and is funded by Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Tiger Global Management, and Shasta Ventures as well as other investors and Silicon Valley angels.
Source: https://nextdoor.com/about_us/

Nextdoor: First private social network for neighborhoods

Nextdoor, which goes lives today, helps citizens strengthen local ties and enhance neighbor-to-neighbor communication.

by Laura Locke October 26, 2011

Writer Walter Kirn tweeted something mid-summer that rang so poignant and true, I immediately "favorited" and re-tweeted: "The brilliant dark governing insight of social media is that most people prefer socializing alone.
Sure, all of this newfound sharing and real-time communication is awesome indeed. But the very same digital tools that heighten our reach and accessibility are somehow alienating us from each other more so than ever before. Human-to-human connection and communication, it seems, tends to get too intermediated by gadgets and gizmos.
Today, there's a new social network rolling out nationwide to help bridge the distance between folks who couldn't be physically closer: neighbors.
READ More > CNet