Neighbor vs. neighbor as homeowner fights get ugly. 'As more are unable to pay homeowners' fees,
associations pit neighbor against neighbor'. Today, one in five U.S. homeowners is subject to the will of the
homeowners' association, whose boards oversee 24.4 million homes. More than 80 percent of newly constructed homes in the U.S are in association communities. And of the nation's 300,000 homeowners' associations, more than 50 percent now face "serious financial problems," according to a September survey by the Community Association Institute. An October survey found that 65 percent of homeowners' associations have delinquency rates higher than 5 percent, up from 19 percent of associations in 2005.'
[more inside]
posted by VikingSword
on Jul 9, 2011 -
167 comments
How Small, Mostly Conservative Towns Have Found the Trick to Defeating Corporations. 'As the Right pushes privatization as a solution to the economic collapse, one organization is teaching communities how to defeat corporations.''For the past 30 years, there has been a deliberate effort to deregulate industry and to choke off federal support for public services and public spaces, paving the way for greater corporate control.''The goal is the same as it's been for decades: "The elimination of the public sphere, total liberation for corporations and skeletal social spending," 'One of the places where this strategy can be most detrimental is the corporate takeover of public water sources and infrastructure, which is elemental to our survival.'
[more inside]
posted by VikingSword
on Feb 12, 2011 -
60 comments
Designers'Couch is a new community of creatives whose goal is to create a vibrant community of passionate writers, artists and designers by providing them a space to
showcase their work - encouraging them to network and share critiques. They also feature
helpful articles to inspire, teach, and inform artists.
posted by fantodstic
on Aug 28, 2010 -
5 comments
Harmanz ha haz b
bargan ahn za MMARBG
Ahban Bahb [
brahbazazzah ] ar zambahz. Zambahz haz AAGHZ g!bz gab azzar zambahz: a, b, g, h, m, n, r, z. Zambahz maz hab gab, za Zambahz zgrabbarh
Zamgrh, a gab grh a
gab bag,
a grammah, n
zhranzazzaz. Habganna
barbaga zaarz grh za
bra!nz?
posted by xthlc
on May 8, 2008 -
33 comments
Diigo (Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff) is a new "social annotation" bookmarking site with the standard save-and-share, tags, etc., and also sharable
Web page annotations.
posted by davcoo
on Aug 17, 2006 -
6 comments
Doctors suing patients Are you angry and upset because of what a doctor did or did not do during a medical procedure? Did you express your anger online? Now doctors are suing patients for expressing their anger online.
posted by halekon
on Sep 17, 2005 -
31 comments
Rise of the Creative Class followed by the Flight of the Creative Class. Following up on The Rise of the Creative Class (2002), Florida argues that if America continues to make it harder for some of the world's most talented students and workers to come here, they'll go to other countries eager to tap into their creative capabilities—as will American citizens fed up with what they view as an increasingly repressive environment. He argues that the loss of even a few geniuses can have tremendous impact, adding that the "overblown" economic threat posed by large nations such as China and India obscures all the little blows inflicted upon the U.S. by Canada, Scandinavia, New Zealand and other countries with more open political climates. Florida lays his case out well and devotes a significant portion of this polemical analysis to defending his earlier book's argument regarding "technology, talent, and tolerance" (i.e. that together, they generate economic clout, so the U.S. should be more progressive on gay rights and government spending). He does so because that book contains what he sees as the way out of the dilemma—a new American society that can "tap the full creative capabilities of every human being." Even when he drills down to less panoramic vistas, however, Florida remains an astute observer of what makes economic communities tick, and he's sure to generate just as much public debate on this new twist on brain drain.
posted by mk1gti
on Jun 1, 2005 -
107 comments
[TheFaceBook]: It comes in the genre of
LiveJournal,
MySpace, and
Friendster - except with a focus on digitally connecting pre-existing friendships on college campuses rather than finding new friends worldwide. Subsequently, it has thus far avoided the stigmas I’ve seen attached to its predecessors by non-users. Its use has skyrocketed: about 15% of my campus has signed up since this past winter. All of it through word-of-mouth. One of the neat tricks it does is show a visualization of your friends on the network in a spider webbed vectored graphic connecting them based on their mutual friendships. It’s also proven very useful in tracking down those “where do I know him/her?” names through a prominently displayed list showing up to two-degrees of separation to the mystery person. Oh, and you can send text messages to cell phones through it. Did I mention it also reminds you of
birthdays?
posted by trinarian
on Mar 19, 2005 -
29 comments
With the next round of
bloggies (or web log awards for those not down with the
hip lingo), there's some concern that some types of blogs with
large communities may not be included. Specifically, communities that are well known for
tons of online events, and large
gathering places whose interactions leak in to and out from real life. So, the food bloggers (floggers?) have done what they do best, and
started their own awards - with 14 nomination categories, the results plan to, at the very least, make us all drool, if not inspire a few feasts here and there.
(and yay to mefi for winning
last year's best community blog!)
posted by jearbear
on Dec 8, 2004 -
7 comments
Dunstan Orchard designed his site header to mimic the view and weather of his parent's home in Dorset. To do so he created
90 illustrations reflecting the local weather such as cloud condition, wind, humidity, etc. and matched the pics with a XML feed from
weather.com. The design features a panel which folds out from beneath the current illustration and presents detailed local weather for both San Francisco & Dorset. Dunstan's
talent and attention to detail are astounding. I've only scratched the surface of what he does with this site.
posted by filchyboy
on Nov 9, 2004 -
25 comments
Gas prices are out of control and will continue to rise
[NY Times]. However, I was looking at
Matt H's Social Software ideas and decided check out one that already exists - gas prices.
GasPriceWatch.com is a site that hosts gasoline prices from around the country. But the problem is, despite it's request for "non-commercial" use of the data, it relies on users to enter that information.
I'm about to have my first child so I've been looking at ways to save money -I figured finding the cheapest place to get gas would be a great way to start but quickly found that
my price entries were the only ones within a 10 mile radius of my house. Spread the word.
posted by bkdelong
on Mar 16, 2004 -
30 comments
Private kibbutzim? The
kibbutz, unique and successful socialist experiments in communal living, helped build a country.
Has their time passed? Different wages for different jobs, deeding property to individual members, and privatization of production are being instituted at 100 of them, out of an estimated 270 total. In a world where selfishness and capitalism seem to rule, is there hope for
communal living?
posted by amberglow
on Mar 12, 2004 -
7 comments
Welcome to Rawson, N.D.,
Population. 6. Are towns like these worth saving? Should these "areas" be allowed to go back to their natural equilibrium between man and nature? Is there a "natural" equilibrium? What does this mean for the future of small towns v. urban sprawl? Nicholas Kristof of the
New York Times and Drs. Frank and Deborah Popper of
Rutgers have an
idea.
posted by Bag Man
on Oct 29, 2003 -
27 comments
bloggerCON webcast Can't get enough of bloggers incessantly and never-endingly meta-blogging about weblogs? Well, now all the usual suspects are droning on
in person and you can watch them do it live.
Warning: Not recommended for anyone other than people like me who are fighting a nasty cold and looking for something to put them to sleep.
posted by theonetruebix
on Oct 4, 2003 -
38 comments
DeanLink is a new service from the Dean Campaign.
Dean +
Friendster =
DeanLink. The tech savvy presidential campaign strikes again. What's next? DeanTorrent? Where do you think all this technology will go after the campaign is over?
posted by cjoh
on Sep 11, 2003 -
10 comments
So I
Google search on the
SoBig virus' affinity for UDP port 8998, and the possibility it may be
downloading additional programs this afternoon(actually, right about now). Great, more filters on the routers. Hang on, what's
this result on that first search? A link to
PornResource? Why, it appears to be a news and technical site for porn site operators. News, guides, interviews,
top designers,
host reviews, even a
message board. Of course, a site billed as
"The Standard for Up-To-Date Adult Webmaster News" is NSFW. Unless you are
BossHawg, of course.
posted by dglynn
on Aug 22, 2003 -
10 comments
Become an eCaptain! "As an eCaptain, you'll create your personal ePrecinct: a list of online friends, family members, neighbors..."
can I be a general or a dictator?... And can I be cruel and despotic (Just a little bit)? Please?
posted by troutfishing
on Jun 22, 2003 -
9 comments
Hoorah!
Fairy Congress '03 is almost upon us. With the admiral goal of Promoting Quality Human & Fairy Relations and special guest
Dotty Maclean of
Findhorn Community fame who apparently has done more than any other person in the 20th century to popularize the idea that humans can communicate with
devas, in attendance you'd be crazy to miss it. Sure
looks like fun...
posted by zeoslap
on May 30, 2003 -
17 comments
IM just for Wifi - Trepia has developed a new method for wifi users to
connect to each other. Imagine turning on your laptop and seeing the other wifi users near your physical location and being able to chat with them.
There's only a Windows client at this time. I asked where the Mac & linux clients were and the CEO told me they were coming in the future once the Windows version takes off. I'm betting that
if enough people ask, they'll accelerate their plans.
posted by Argyle
on Apr 15, 2003 -
14 comments
Bearpath is a gated community in Minnesota. It's not all that special, except for the fact that it's the only gated community in the state. With membership fees to the golf club topping
$10,000, it's obvious they want to keep out people who aren't filthy rich, or knows someone who is.
Places like Florida, California, or Texas have many more. What causes people to want to move out to the sticks and put up a giant fence around their property, with tightly controlled access to the neighborhood?
Is fear of crime a legitimate reason for digging in behind a fence with armed security guards? Or is it just to get away from people? Why is the thought of somebody isolating themselves this much from a community so fascinating?
posted by manero
on Dec 3, 2002 -
55 comments
High school Satanism club prompts parental outrage some kids in a high school start a club called Satanist Thought Society. As expected, everybody gets offended, especially the Christian Society. It can be argued, though, that the the Satanist Society has as much right to exist as the Christian Society. Is this just a 1st ammendment issue or is there a moral question to be thought out? (via
Camworld)
posted by falameufilho
on Oct 2, 2002 -
100 comments
The Weekly Standard: Patio Man and the Sprawl People There he is atop the uppermost tier of his multi-level backyard patio/outdoor recreation area posed like an admiral on the deck of his destroyer. In his mind's eye he can see himself coolly flipping the garlic and pepper T-bones on the front acreage of his new grill while carefully testing the citrus-tarragon trout filets that sizzle fragrantly in the rear. On the lawn below he can see his kids, Haley and Cody, frolicking on the weedless community lawn that is mowed twice weekly by the people who run Monument Crowne Preserve, his townhome community. More inside...
posted by gen
on Aug 6, 2002 -
65 comments
Mindvox: The original cooler-than-thou online community. What is it now? What was it then? Anyone else here still searching to discover the person ahead of you in the grocery store line is
3jane or
Simonmoon?
posted by milkman
on Apr 8, 2002 -
18 comments
GeoCities was once the darling of the online world to every-man wanted to post his own web site. Free space for all, and all were happy. Then Yahoo! bought it, and the dot-com collapse occurred. Now, GeoCities offers
new premium packages, offering more features. But at $19.95 before you can even having scripting, traditional web hosts greatly undercut Yahoo!'s offering, and offer more in terms of features still.
posted by benjh
on Mar 11, 2002 -
13 comments
