Favorville - Old Fashioned Community Values At Work On The Web

Need a favor? We used to run across the street to our friendly neighbor and ask for a hand. But many people live in communities where they don't even know their closets neighbors name and wouldn't dare to knock on their door to ask for an egg or to borrow a ladder. Twenty-somethings are much more comfortable building relationships with online social networking sites. But still, I don't think they'd ask one of their 500 MySpace acquaintances to come over and take a look at the lawn mower that mysteriously quit working in mid-mow.

And there in lies Favorville's niche. If there was a social networking site where you built friendships and community values would people use it? Favorville's Canadian developers said yes.

On Favorville you register as a community member then begin perusing the needs of other members in your city. You can post a need for a favor. Maybe you need help understanding a computer program or you have a broken vaccuum cleaner that just needs a new belt. You can offer a favor. You're a painter, or an electrician, or a landscaper with extra time and left over plants and your willing to offer your services to someone in need.

Favorville has over 3,000 members in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It's a highly active community that has grown substantially since the sites BETA launch a few years ago. Things have been slower to take off in the US. In my large city I found less then 20 members but cities like New York and Boston have over 100.

Sites like this rely on the trustworthiness and integrity of its members, even more so than most. It reminds me of Freecycle.org but there it's just the exchange of a free item not the exchange of time, goodwill, and ideas - which is exactly what lies at the basis of friendship and community.

I applaud their efforts and hope that in this building of artificial communities something real emerges, like neighborhoods of friends interacting face-to-face jumping to help each other out in the simple and the tough times. A flashback to the 1970's neighborhood I grew up in with its neighborhood parties and mom's talking and kids playing in the yards. I can wish, can't I?

Take a look at Favorville and help them grow their membership. After today my city will have one more willing soul to count on in a pinch. So if you join and need a cup of sugar or a stick of butter..call..drop by..I'll help you out.

Global Communities Award - The World is Getting Smaller

My friend, Francis, owner of Caught in the Stream, passed on this new award to me. He has Hanna to thank for this honor. I like this one because it definitely encapsulates the impact of blogging on my life. When I started LifePrints I never imagined how many doors it would open around the world, how many friendships I'd make, or how it would make the world feel so small and intimate.

As for the world, instant access to news, streaming video feeds, fast airplanes, and the unfettered opinions of bloggers are causing us a few growing pains. Sometimes we don't know how to process all the information. There are too many causes, too many voices crying out in the dark.

But there is an upside to our new global closeness. Just as problems become more immediate and intimate (an example yesterday was the burning of the US embassy over the independence of Kosovo. So far away but so close at the same time), solutions and problems solvers can be quickly implemented and identified. That is if they are willing to step forward to offer their services. I do worry that the Internet has spawned a revolution of talking instead of doing.

In my life, blogging has definately brought this point home. I have lots of big ideas but how often did I do anything about them? Not often. Articulating them on this blog through the stories of the accomplishments of others was a start but soon it wasn't enough. I reached a critcal mass of information. I had to do something about all that I'd learned.

Now, I'm in the phase of networking with other bloggers, working at the grassroots level for a candidate I believe in, and speaking my mind when I get the chance. And when I begin to promote my new book I hope to use it as a platform to discuss the state of foster care in our country.

I feel part of the global community. Blogging was the catalyst for my revelation. I'd like to recognize a few blogging friends from around the world who are intregal parts of "my" global community.

August, an inspiring friend from Denmark.

Lisa, an American ex-pat in France.

Wen, a beautiful woman living in Malta.

Anna, my photographer friend in Canada.

Peter, my insightful friend from Australia.

Thank you for showing me the world through your eyes. Every correspondence with you is priceless.