PUBLISHER'S BLOG

Last week internet and Peak Oil activist Randy White launched a unique new social networking site called Bright Neighbor.  The service has some similarity to social networking sites that allow you to create customized networks of people with similar interests or background such as Tribe.net or Facebook. It is also an interactive resource site and asset mapping tool that in some ways behaves like a combination of Craigslist and Yahoo Maps.  The underlying principal, however, is focused on sustainability and building connections between Portland area residents.  Bright Neighbor users can post items to 'swap and share', can use interactive maps to locate neighborhood features like community gardens, and in general link with people who live close by, but whom users might not know or otherwise connect with.

A license for the technology that drives Bright Neighbor has been purchased by the North Portland Neighborhood Service office, which last month took down the city driven site known as North Portland Online.

The Oregonian quotes Laurel Butman, chief analyst for the city's Office of Management & Finance, as saying this of the old North Portland Online site:

"We thought we had a pretty good system for giving free online space to neighborhood groups, but funding being what it is, we're having to take it down," she says. "I'm not sure if the gap from taking down the North Portland site will be filled by something the community creates."

Bright Neighbor's social networking technology is suppose to be a component of a new North Portland portal that will go online sometime early next year.  What else will be included in the new North Portland site is still unclear.  A citizen committee has been organizing to meet and discuss the issue. Whatever the new online site becomes Bright Neighbor is sure to be a promising and unique component.