Know your “Nextdoor” neighbors

Serena Romero’s report about Nextdoor was really intriguing. I have never heard of it until she presented it to the class. So, I did further research and discovered Mr. Nirav Tolia’s session at Stanford University about his company on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8166JC1wUbA

Mr. Nirav Tolia—when he started Nextdoor—was shocked to find the statistic that 28% of American could not name a single neighbor by name. He wanted neighbors to have roots in their community. So far, the major cities that are contributing to Nextdoor’s growth are San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Austin, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Manhattan, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington Dc. These cities are constantly engaging on the website.

 The benefits of having such an app is the recommendation from your local area. There is an alert system for missing animals and crimes like break-ins. Nextdoor also report any suspicious activity in your neighborhood. It basically exists to keep the neighborhood informed and build a sense of community.  

It’s sad that issues such as racial profiling and sense of paranoia is marring such an appealing social networking service.  The issues are similar to what Airbnb is going through with fair housing implications and discrimination. Another thing that I discovered about this app was that there are petty posts on Nextdoor. An example of such posts are “the lawn is too long,” or “the neighbor’s dog is barking throughout the night,” or “a neighbor’s car is parked in my space,” or “that holiday decoration has been there for far too long.”  One way to resolve these issues is by having a video clip to educate new and current members about the seriousness of these issues especially racial profiling. The company needs to fix these problems for Nextdoor to have longevity and a superb quality experience.  

Overall, I do believe that Nextdoor will be around for a while. It won’t join the list of deceased dot com sites. However, I think the current issues will continue to cast a dark shadow over Nextdoor. I don’t see the issue of racial profiling going away any time soon. Privacy concerns will always be an issue when it comes to social media in general.   On a positive note, I do believe that this app would flourish more so internationally than here in the states. The app is already available in United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, and France. Only time will tell how Nextdoor will truly perform.