Love thy neighbour

Technology has, as Marshall McLuhan argued, electrically contracted the globe so it is no more than a village. The implication being that we can connect with people across the globe as easily as we can with people across the street.

Neighourhood and community participation is declining and ironically, the same technology is now being used to encourage people to meet their next door neighbours.

• In the the UK, UpMyStreet is helping people have conversations about local community issues.


• Across the Atlantic, Jared Nissim has launched a similar venture called Meet the Neighbors.


• Keith Hampton, sociology professor at MIT, hopes to encourage neighbourliness through his web-based i-neighbors project.


• John Geraci at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program is connecting neighbours by placing wireless nodes with bulletin boards, called Neighbornodes, on each street.