#TEDxSacChat: From Traditional to Digital Communities

TEDxSacramento is proud to announce our first Tweet Chat -- an online event that focuses on a community-based session.

What is a Tweet Chat?

A Tweet Chat is an open discussion on Twitter. Anyone with a  Twitter handle will be able to connect their ideas simply by following the hashtag, #TEDxSacChat. Include the hashtag in your tweet to be part of the conversation.

Watch First Then Chat

Join us for our first tweet chat this Tuesday, April 29 using the hashtag #TEDxSacChat.

Prepare yourself for this interactive event by viewing the following TEDxSacramento talk beforehand, Sarah Leary's "The Neighborhood -- The Original Social Network."

#TEDxSacChat Topic: From Traditional to Digital Communities

Technology is changing the way we interact with our communities every day. This #TEDxSacChat session will revolve around the change from traditional to digital neighborhoods and how that affects residents.

Participants are encouraged to share their unique experiences.

Help us ignite a conversation with our community by sharing through email, Facebook or Twitter. Don’t forget to use the hashtag, #TEDxSacChat! We look forward to seeing you Twitter on Tuesday, April 29 at 7pm!

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Sarah Leary: Girl Nextdoor

Sarah Leary, Nextdoor.com's Co-founder

By Bianca Sievers

Sarah Leary spoke at TEDxSacramento’s City 2.0 back in September 2013.  In her talk, she reminisced about a time when Americans not only knew who their neighbors were, but considered them to be their friends.  As she grew older, Leary noticed a steady decline in neighborhood camaraderie.  According to Robert Putnam, a Harvard Professor, “Social isolation has well documented side effects.  Kids fail to thrive.  Crime rises.  Politics coarsens. Generosity shrivels.”  In an effort to solve this problem, Leary created a social network called Nextdoor to help facilitate reconnecting communities across America. 

To be honest, after watching Sarah speak, I felt guilty.  Guilty for not even learning a single tenants’ name in my building after moving in six months ago.  I have kept to myself and assumed that we must not have anything in common.  But Sarah had reminded me in her talk of how good a community feels: it can offer support, advice, and friendship.  After some self-reflection, I admittedly recognize that I know very little about Sacramento and its culture.  I also recognize that I fell into many of the categories Sarah highlighted in her talk, specifically, being a part of the “28% of Americans [who] know none of their neighbors by name.”

No longer wanting to stay isolated, I took Sarah’s message to heart and decided to take action.  I created my own Nextdoor profile in an attempt to reach out to my fellow Sacramentins and discover the hidden beauty of the neighborhood in which I have chosen to live in. 

The format of Nextdoor is very similar to Facebook.  It has a newsfeed, event postings, crime alerts and much more.  The catch is, prior to creating your profile, you must verify that you are in fact a resident of a particular neighbor.  This feature reassured me that I would be participating in a secure and trusted environment and made the experience feel more intimate.

"I took Sarah’s message to heart and decided to take action." - Bianca Sievers, TEDxSacramento volunteer

Upon joining this network, I received many welcome notes from my neighbors.  This simple gesture felt surprisingly nice, in that people were taking time out of their busy schedules to encourage new members like myself to participate.  When I posed the question, “Where are good places to eat in Sacramento?” I received a couple of responses within a few hours.  This relatively quick response from my neighbors was exciting because it signified an active and thoughtful community.  I could literally see my neighborhood connecting with each other through this network in ways that would not have been possible in the past.  I sensed there was an unspoken mutual obligation to help others when they needed suggestions or advice.   

Another unique feature in Nextdoor that really helps to intertwine the community is a humble “thank” button.  In exploring the interface, I noticed immediately the high usage of the “thank” button when someone posted a crime update or a new listing for an upcoming event.  This button encourages everyone to be thankful for each other and to appreciate that all of us have advice to give, stories to share and lessons to learn.    

Sarah Leary has inspired me to reach out to those around me and to discover what Sacramento is truly about.  To those of you who are reading this, I recommend -- as your neighbor -- that you watch Sarah Leary’s TEDxSacramento talk to see for yourself what you have been missing. 

Sarah Leary on "The Original Social Network." At TEDxSacramento's TEDxCity2.0 in 2013.

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Nextdoor's Sarah Leary To Speak About "The Original Social Network"

TEDxSacramento is pleased to announce that Sarah Leary, Co-Founder and Vice President of Marketing at Nextdoor, will speak at TEDxCity2.0. Sarah will speak on the topic, "The Neighborhood: The Original Social Network."

Sarah began her career at Microsoft as product manager on the teams that launched the first three versions of Microsoft Office. In 1997, Leary left Microsoft to attend Harvard Business School, graduating with a BA and an MBA. She went on to work as an associate at Greylock Partners, later serving as Vice President of Product and Marketing at Epinions which subsequently relaunched as Shopping.com and was eventually acquired by eBay.

“There’s a longing to reconnect with the people who live around us to build stronger and safer neighborhoods - after all, the neighborhood was the original social network.”

— Sarah Leary

The Neighborhood: The Original Social Network

 As a seasoned product and marketing professional, Sarah observed firsthand the way technology connects people far and wide, creating networks of individuals across the globe, while leaving us with a sense of disconnect toward those who live right outside our front doors. Concerned about this decline in community, Sarah -- then an Entrepreneur in Residence at Benchmark -- felt a longing to reconnect people who live near one another with the explicit purpose of building stronger and safer neighborhoods. Her passion for community led her to co-found the company that became Nextdoor, the free and private social network for neighborhoods.

As a child, Sarah spent summers in a tight-knit Cape Cod community where kids could stop at any house in the neighborhood for lunch and ride their bicycles in the street until midnight. Sarah has always carried with her that sense of community she experienced during those childhood summers. She aims to make possible that same idyllic safety and community in neighborhoods around the globe. Sarah adds, "There's a longing to reconnect with the people who live around us to build stronger and safer neighborhoods - after all, the neighborhood was the original social network."

About TEDxCity2.0

Numerous cities around the globe, including Sacramento (click to attend), have been selected to be a part of TED's City 2.0 Day, a global event during which cities from around the world will be sharing ideas around the theme of the future of our cities. On September 20, we will be bringing in great thinkers and doers who are making great things happen in cities around the globe to share their ideas and stories. Such topics as Art, Education, Food, Housing, Play, Public Spaces, Urban Design, Health, Safety, Technology and Transportation will be discussed as well as a series of calls to action for our city by local change-makers who are trying to make a difference.

TEDxSacramento presents TEDxCity2.0, an independently organized TED event for urban innovators, organizers, stewards and builders - with live speakers, streamed speakers from TEDCity2.0 in New York City, live performances, and the ability to coalesce around specific calls to action for our city.

Expect to be challenged. Expect to be inspired.

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