LocalBlox Explores Uncharted Territory... Your Own Backyard!
Ned Ludd and his 1800s band of "luddites" waged war up against the fragmenting force of industrialization. Today's technology haters repeat the familiar refrain. Until recently, their claim had not been without merit. Then along came online community, connecting friends-of-friends, distant relatives and in many cases perfect strangers.So, what's the newest thing? The web's final frontier just might be your own personal garden. Enter LocalBlox, a burgeoning new site meant to connect you with all the people where you live � those folks you pass every single day on your way to the local park or caf�.LocalBlox is the brainchild of Sabira Arefin, who envisioned a virtual space where neighbors could connect and share information regarding their unique, real-world communities. "I thought it will be nice to have a Facebook for neighbors," says Arefin, "You can share information about the latest happenings, or perhaps ping them and say hello. Who has enough time to knock on doors nowadays?"LocalBlox seeks to develop a bridge between individuals along with their communities with listings for events, news feeds, a photo album ready to accept all along with a community wall for informal discussion and recommendations. The Localblox ambassador program invites residents who will be enthusiastic about their neighborhood to get volunteers and IXL Math Grade 4 guide their neighbors inside their search to connect. In the very close to future, LocalBlox offers to hire neighborhood managers in over 40,000 communities across the United States.Engaging a person's eye and commitment of both residents and local merchants can be a fundamental portion of Arefin's vision. In an effort to help local businesses and expand this first ever hybrid of the virtual-natural community, LocalBlox is providing free advertising to small business owners for the little while. "LocalBlox was founded about the premise that physical communities would be the most basic and organic," says Arefin. "What is a natural way to interact than shopping in your personal neighborhood? Bringing the target to the community can help bolster local economies and renew a sense of belonging."Oxford Anthropologist Robin Dunbar's famous study regarding relationships and ideal community size implies that there is a limit for the number of individuals with whom we are able to forge a meaningful bond. What has become known as "Dunbar's number" (roughly 150 personal connections) has been explained by evolutionary psychologists as a product of our own long history being a species � some 40 million years � spent wandering the landscape in small, hunter-gatherer tribes. Facebook friends numbering inside 250+ range and 10,000 years of civilization notwithstanding, our biological roots crave real world intimacy and interconnectedness with people that share our physical space.And why don't you consider present day luddites � that remaining fraction of your percent of the industrialized world who will not cross the digital divide as being a matter of conscience? Will they ever acknowledge how the technological arc beginning with the industrial revolution has come full circle, from dehumanizing monster to community builder?Who knows? And who cares! They'll never see this.

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