Many Mountain View residents already have an app that engages citizens,service providers and city officials at the neighborhood level-it's called Nextdoor. A lead person in any given neighborhood volunteers as a founder and establishes boundaries and only those people living within that neighborhood can join. It establishes a safe network to share things, sell things, give recommendations for services such as babysitters, house-cleaners, carpet cleaners etc. It also is a way neighbors can send out safety alerts. If Mountain View town official contacted Nextdoor, they could guide us as to how Mountain view could maximize this social network tool that is already well established. The key to success is getting the word out and encouraging more citizens to get on board and create or join a Nextdoor forum. Nextdoor is free, already well established not only in Mountain View,Palo Alto and many other cities in California but throughout the US. Nextdoor has had lots of press and rave reviews and growing everyday. Seems like creating a new app would be taking away from something that is already gaining momentum. Once people plug into Nextdoor, they will not want to leave it for another forum-they get too attached. I am surprised the town is doing this because if I am correct, I have already seen many posts from Mountain View Police Department and Town Officials my Mountain View Nextdoor neighborhood forum.

Hi Sharron:

Yes, the City is on Nextdoor. We're also on Facebook, G+, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, YouTube... and post items on our website that we hope people will see. But the app challenge isn't just about outreach. It's anything that might make the community a little better or improve some process. For example (and these are just some ideas off the top of my own head -- and I am not a judge nor have any influence over the contest):

* an app that can determine the optimum time for a plant to be watered to keep it viable but use the least amount of water
* an app that tells you if there is parking available along Castro
* an app that tweets MVPD every time someone turns in front of a pedestrian in a crosswalk (sorry PD!)
* an app that plots small walks of MV historical landmarks or public art based on how far you want to walk
* an app that lets you scan a product and tells you how to reuse it in a DIY project to avoid adding it to the landfill

Anyway, you get the point. It doesn't need to be around communicating with neighbors, and yet it may still be a benefit. Hope this helps explain it a little more.

BTW, thanks for paying attention to our posts on Nextdoor. We don't really get to see how many people see them like we do on FB and other channels.

Keep connecting with us,

-Shonda Ranson
Communications Coordinator
City of Mountain View

Thank you for this post!