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When a homemade bomb went off outside an Indian Peaks home in January -- badly burning a husband and wife -- Lafayette Mayor Pro Tem Steve Kracha received calls from concerned residents wanting to know more about the incident.

Kracha felt there had to be a way of sending targeted dispatches to a small group of people based on their addresses alone.

With the goal of helping neighbors connect and share information online, he searched for a website, a tool or an app that had the communicative power of Facebook but the targeted range of a neighborhood email listserv.

Just a few months earlier, a California-based startup had launched Nextdoor, a private social network that links people together, neighborhood by neighborhood. Kracha went to Nextdoor's website and established a site for his 200-home neighborhood in Indian Peaks.

Now, about half the households in his neighborhood are part of Nextdoor, sharing everything from recommendations for house painters or restaurants to concerns over repeated incidents of vandalism at the swimming pool.

"This is how we are actually communicating today as a homeowners association," Kracha said. "This is something where people build their own community within their city."

Since Kracha's initial efforts this spring, 12 other neighborhoods in Lafayette have joined Nextdoor. The city has more neighborhoods on the network than all other municipalities in Boulder County combined. Boulder has six neighborhoods on Nextdoor, Louisville has two, and Erie has one.

And now the city of Lafayette itself is involved, with plans to issue notifications and community messages to residents through the network. It is the first municipality in Colorado to do so.

"From our standpoint, having neighbors connect with each other makes for a more vibrant city," said Debbie Wilmot, spokeswoman for the city.

She said Nextdoor becomes another communication tool for the city -- joining a recently revamped website, emergency alert system, and Twitter and Facebook pages.

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Social networking goes hyper-local in Lafayette

By Umang Patodia - June 18, 2012 | Tickers: FB, GOOG, MSFT, ORCL | 0 Comments

Umang is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

First Skype and now Yammer. These are trends showing that theMicrosoft Corp(NASDAQ: MSFT)is looking to giveGoogle Inc(NASDAQ: GOOG)a tough fight on the social networking arena. Just after the rumor(reliable sources) ofthe Yammer acquisitionfor a handsome amount of 1.2 billion dollars, we seeMicrosoftstock rising by2.49% in the last 3 daysandGooglestock going down by2.75% in the last 5 days.

Is it a mere coincidence? Isn't it too early to predict?

First withOrkut then Google+, Googlehas been trying their best to create a dominance in the social networking area with little or no success.The companyhas been always dominant in the search engine (almost creating a monopoly) but by far has not had tasted the success of social networking (apart from the early success of Orkut).

Similarly, Salesforce.com just recently obtained Buddy Media Inc. for 745 million dollars, and Oracle Corp(NASDAQ: ORCL)obtained Collective Intent and Virtue Inc., giving both companies social media-based software.

The leader of the market in social networking is of course Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB)whileInternational Business Machines Corporation'sIBM connection controls the enterprise social networking realm. But Yammer has had a great impact already. This can be validated by the controversial statement made byMoskovitz (co founder of Facebook) whotold theNew York Times, Work is not a social network, with serendipitous communications and photo collections. Work is about managing tasks, and responding to things quickly." This was clearly anattempt to slam Yammer.

The acquisition of this social networking site confirms the growing trend among businesses to add social media tools for their employees.These are not the only reason why this acquisition is heading towards a positive direction from the perspective of both the companies. The other reasons why it looks to be a profitable venture are:

1.Technical Acquisition: Talking in laymans terminology, Yammer is possibly the best fit for Microsofts amazing office tools (Office etc.). Imagine the effect of networking on these tools. These products are already so well defined and on top of it the ability to integrate the rest of the world could act as a boon for many techies.

2. Microsofts entry pass to the Social world: Microsoft had two choices, either to set up its social network on its own or acquire a networking company. Well, the reason I would say the second is a better choice is simply because of the lack of expertise in this domain. On top of it if you have the required resources to expand in the domain, then simply put your feet on the pedestal.

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Who Will Dominate Enterprise Social Networking?

With the convergence of social networking and mobile phones becoming more pronounced, tech companies are working toward a future when those devices are beyond smart and become intuitive, speakers at a San Francisco conference said Monday.

Using built-in accelerometers, GPS systems and compasses, a phone can have a "sixth sense" in determining when its owner is driving to work or sitting down to lunch, speakers at the Social-Loco Conference said. And then the phone can tap into a social network to make contextual recommendations, such as routes to get around a traffic jam or a new dish to try.

"It should be able to understand you automatically," said Sam Liang, founder and chief executive officer of Alohar Mobile, a Palo Alto company that is working on just such a mobile platform.

The conference at the Mission Bay Conference Center focused on social networking, location-based services and mobile phones, trends that are particularly important to the biggest social network of all, Facebook.

Generating revenue from mobile users is one of the key investor concerns that dragged down Facebook's stock price after its debut as a publicly traded company last month. The company previously warned it did not have a proven method of generating revenue from mobile. But in the past few days, Facebook's stock has rebounded, closing at $31.41 per share Monday, $6.59 per share lower than its initial public offering price.

Facebook is working on different mobile advertising opportunities and has seen "really significant interest" in ads in mobile news feeds that the company has begun testing, Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions, told Bloomberg.

But the company isn't announcing any new mobile ad products just yet.

Still, taking advantage of social, mobile and location-based technologies is a key to Facebook's future, one of its executives said at the Mission Bay conference.

"The mobile phone is probably the most social device that any of us have," Emily White, the Menlo Park company's director of mobile partnerships, said during a conference keynote.

"It is the most closely held member of my family that is not walking and breathing and something I rely on to do everything from waking up in the morning, to getting me to work, to figuring out, in some cases, what I need to wear," she said.

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Conference looks at social, mobile possibilities

FOSTER CITY, Calif., June 19, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - Schools.com, a digital resource for education, recently published, "Is social media making us socially awkward?" an infographic that investigates how social networking online affects relationships and interactions offline.

According to a new study from Badoo, 39 percent of people surveyed spend more time socializing online, and 20 percent actually prefer communicating online or via text message instead of face-to-face.

"It is fascinating to see people gravitate toward social media as an accepted form of communication," shared Michelle LaFrance, spokesperson for Schools.com. "The time we spend connecting via mobile devices, while not face-to-face, allows us to expand our social interaction because they can be used anytime, anywhere."

While many people use social networks to share with friends, 24 percent of people surveyed by Badoo reported missing an important real-time event during an attempt to share the moment online.

The ease and speed of connecting online may lead to friendships that appear superficial. Conversely, offline friendships may seem deeper and more genuine. However, research shows that online social networking can help boost confidence, facilitate new friendships, re-establish old connections and even strengthen relationships with people outside the social networking sphere.

"Regardless of how people connect, they can use social media as a way to maintain real-life friendships," continued LaFrance. "The online world allows them to share good news, plan events with friends and stay in touch."

For news related to this infographic and other information about online schooling and education news, follow Schools.com on Pinterest and @SchoolsEdu on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

About Schools.com

Schools.com is a definitive source for education, connecting current and prospective students with the right information, people and schools to help them advance in life. Featuring in-depth sections with faculty interviews, campus tours and national education news, the site aims to be a hub for higher education topics and trends. Schools.com is owned and operated by QuinStreet, Inc. (QNST), one of the largest Internet marketing and media companies in the world. QuinStreet is committed to providing consumers and businesses with the information they need to research, find and select the products, services and brands that meet their needs. The company is a leader in visitor-friendly marketing practices. For more information, please visit QuinStreet.com.

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/6/prweb9602137.htm

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Social Networking Influences Real-World Relationships According to Schools.com Infographic

ARMONK, N.Y., June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that for the third consecutive year, IDC ranked IBM number one in worldwide market share for enterprise social software. According to IDC's analysis of 2011 revenue, IBM grew faster than its competitors and nearly two times faster than the overall market which grew approximately 40 percent.*

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120618/NY26022-INFO)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO)

The growing popularity of social networking continues to explode, with more and more organizations looking for ways to adopt social business practices to integrate global teams, drive innovation, increase productivity and better reach customers and partners.

According to IDC, the enterprise social platforms market is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2016, representing growth of 43 percent over the next four years.*

While this demand is on the rise, organizations are still looking for ways to embrace social capabilities to transform virtually every part of their business operations, from marketing to research innovation and human resources, but lack the tools to gain insight into the enormous stream of information and use it in a meaningful way.

"Social software is gaining in momentum in the enterprise," says Michael Fauscette, group vice president for IDC's Software Business Solutions Group. "Companies are seeing significant gain in productivity and increasing value from successfully deployed social software solutions including supporting ad hoc work by bringing people, data, content, and systems together in real time and making more effective critical business decisions by providing the 'right information' in the work context."

Today, more than 35 percent of Fortune 100 companies have adopted IBM's social software offerings including eight of the top 10 retailers and banks. IBM's social business software and services is unique combining social networking capabilities with analytics to help companies capture information and insights into dialogues from employees and customers and create interactions that translate into real value.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ibm_media/7392796398/sizes/l/in/photostream/

IBM's social networking platform, IBM Connections, allows for instant collaboration with one simple click and the ability to build social communities both inside and outside the organization to increase customer loyalty and speed business results. IBM Connections is available both on premise and in the cloud.

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IBM Named Worldwide Marketshare Leader in Social Software for Third Consecutive Year