Locals share the good and not-so-good about their communities that only a
local would know
TORONTO, April 7 /CNW/ - neighbourknowledge.com, Canada's first online
community where locals share information about everything in their
neighbourhoods, launches today. Built on the premise that the most revealing
details about a neighbourhood come from the "locals" who live or work there,
the neighbourknowledge.com website relies on user-generated content to offer
insight about a community.
neighbourknowledge.com currently features content for some Toronto
neighbourhoods which were part of the pilot test. Now, the website is
launching with the ability to give all "locals" in the more than 1500
neighbourhoods across Canada the ability to immediately begin adding content
about their communities. On neighbourknowledge.com, every neighbourhood has
its own homepage. Registered users can add or reply to a page, comment, story,
event or photo in a neighbourhood - sharing information such as a dog friendly
park or which hairstylist to avoid - all based on neighbours' local
experiences.
The inspiration for neighbourknowledge.com came when Shelley Hood, a
Toronto entrepreneur, was looking for a house in unfamiliar areas. "I felt I
didn't have the right context to make a good choice and soon realized that the
best way to really understand a neighbourhood was to ask a local," says
Shelley Hood, founder of neighbourknowledge.com. "I then started thinking
about how tips from my current neighbours improved my everyday life, such as
the recommendation for the pizza shop that we've been frequenting for the past
10 years."
"Neighbours keep each other plugged in to the community by sharing their
knowledge," adds Shelley. "I wanted to open up the dialogue between people in
communities across Canada with a website where locals could share their
insights. We piloted the site with a few Toronto neighbourhoods, but there was
so much interest from people in other communities that we wanted to give
others the opportunity to post content to any neighbourhood in Canada right
away. Now it's up to locals across Canada to join the conversation on
neighbourknowledge.com and share their neighbourhoods' unique personalities
online."
Neighbourhood Content
neighbourknowledge.com defines the location of every neighbourhood in
Canada by using the first three characters of the postal code. Registered
users can add a page, comments or a photo promoting, reviewing or rating
businesses, organizations, services, schools, parks, events, garage sales and
more - virtually anything in the community that has a postal code. For
example, local business owners can add a page about their business and link
that page to their own website, and real estate agents can add pages of all
their local listings and then link all of these pages to their own homepage on
the site - all for free.
The most active communities on neighbourknowledge.com also receive a free
local mini magazine called Neighbourhood Quarterly. With editions published in
spring, summer, fall and winter, these publications highlight content posted
on the site and are distributed throughout the community in successful local
businesses. Content includes Meet A Local profiles that feature the business
owners who help make that neighbourhood a special place to live, work or
visit. Additional content includes listings of events, businesses, restaurants
and things to see and do in the local neighbourhood.
At launch time, the neighbourhoods with the most active content and
Neighbourhood Quarterly magazines include: Beaches East (M4E), Danforth
West-Riverdale North (M4K), Beaches West-India Bazaar-Leslieville (M4L),
Riverdale South-Studio District (M4M), Baldwin Village-Kensington
Market-Chinatown (M5T), Queen West (M5V), Christie (M6G), Trinity-Bellwoods
(M6J), High Park-Runnymede-The Junction (M6P) and Bloor West Village-Swansea
(M6S).
This new online community also has a presence at the National Home Show
(Booth No.4305) at Toronto's Direct Energy Centre (until April 13).
About neighbourknowledge.com
Devoted to all things local, neighbourknowledge.com is an independent
website where people share details about their neighbourhoods that only a
local would know. With offices in Toronto, Canada, the neighbourknowledge.com
concept took two years to develop into an interactive website that evolves
when user-generated content is added. Now locals across Canada can start and
join online conversations about their neighbourhoods by adding or responding
to pages, stories, comments and photos about the communities where they live,
work and play. Banner advertising enables the site to be financially
self-sustaining. For more information, please visit us at
www.neighbourknowledge.com.
For further information: Media Contacts: Cyrus Mavalwala, Advantis
Communications, O: (905) 477-5535, M: (416) 508-0486, E:
cyrus@advantiscomm.com; Joan Patch, Advantis Communications, M: (905)
510-5218, E: joan@advantiscomm.com
