How To Use The Local Web

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So long tumblr, and thanks for all the posts.

All future posts will be at 1000ways.org

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0238: /ask.history

AMA for places

Every since /history split off from /about, the heavy posters have been looking for a way to keep the quality high without putting people off.  The decided to create /ask.history and direct users in /history to put all their questions there.

How did they go about creating a new slash for the global community of history seekers to use?  It’s a two step process.  First, come to a consensus on a name and a way that the new slash will be used.  Second, type the name into a browser.  Localweb.is/history was born.

If you are reading interesting posts a /history and want to go deeper, just put your question into /ask.history and the knowledgeable folks around you who are maintaining /history will enlighten you.

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0237: /history

Travel back in time, no Delorian needed

The slash /about started as an experiment to provide info about certain locations.  Many people wanted to use it for mostly historical facts, but soon those folks were overwhelmed with the creativity and uses for /about, so the historians broke off and started their own /history.

Many historical landmarks have some sort of plaque that has been there for decades.  Thanks to /history, there also have additional historical info and even photos which you can access just being standing near the landmark and checking localweb.is/history.

The main participates of “slash history” are quicker to moderate out wasteful posts and encourage other users to ask their questions on /ask.history instead.  Now most landmarks have a digital placeholder on the local web that is filled with historical photos, facts, and stories.

This isn’t limited to popular landmarks either.  Placing a weather resistant sign or plaque on land mark is expensive.  Posting on /history is free and quick.  So many places that don’t make it into the textbooks have posts in /history.  Bridges, farm houses, grave yards, are some places that now have more context, if you have your phone and an internet connection.

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0236 /about

And about page, for where you are standing

People are accustomed to clicking that ‘about’ link to find out more about a website or an organization.  But what if you could do that out in the real world.

/about or “slash about” is a convention that local web users have created and adhere to.  If you are in an interesting place and you know something about it, just post that info to localweb.is/about.

The Childs Restaurant is an interesting part of Coney Islands history, but it doesn’t have a website.  But it does have several posts on /about both from knowledgeable experts and also interested passersby.  How to read about the Childs Restaurant on /about?  The first thing you need to do is go there.  Most people filter /about with a 300 feet radius so you have to be pretty close to see what people have posted.

“slash about” isn’t always perfect.  It’s like a decentralized location based wikipedia where anyone can contribute so as you would expect, you get all sorts of info from all sorts of people.  But at the very least, it provides an interesting narrative to the world around you.

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Image via Bill Badzo on Flickr

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0235: /trailercakes

Social media marketing that is actually... social...

This account is fictional. The local web is not affiliated with Trailercakes.  The local web isn’t available yet, these are just examples of what could happen.

Trailercakes is a bakery in Dallas that serves up delicious cup cakes each day.  Heather who runs the place engages in all forms of local marketing platforms like Yelp, Facebook, Google Adwords, and Instagram.  It’s a lot to manage, especially for some one whos core competency is baking awesome cupcakes.

Recently, instead of trying to make sense of her various analytics dashboards, she decides to make a presence on the local web.  

She startups up /trailercakes by simply going to localweb.is/trailercakes and posts a few pictures of her baked goods.  Then she posts pictures of her daily specials every day to /trailercakes.  She puts a sign in her store that customers can interact with her on the /trailercakes ‘slash’ and some do, asking questions or posting their own selfies with her delicious cupcakes.

What does this all mean?  Well, by being active in /trailercakes and responding to customers it causes her ‘slash’ /trailercakes to rise to the top of the front page of the local web.  It doesn’t mean she has a worldwide audience, or even a city wide audience, but it does mean that those who are browsing the local web within a 10 minute walk can see this activity and wonder whats going on.

Fortunately, the people who can see this activity are also the most likely to be her customers and regulars.  Yelp is great for figuring out good places when you first move someplace or when you have a specific need, like searching for a bakery.  But the local web offers a bit more serendipity.  You may live near Trailercakes but not even know its there, until it’s ‘slash’ starts surfacing while browsing the local web.  You may choose to ‘hold’ the slash for a few weeks, just seeing what goes on there, and when you are ready, going into the store at that point makes you already feel like a regular.

For Heather it works out great because what matters on the local web is activity and simply be being social with her customers and fans, she is promoting her business.  There is no need to optimize local SEO keywords for the odd person googling “cupcakes Dallas”.  There is no need to pay Facebook to reach the people who have already ‘liked’ your establishment.  The local web just amplifying Trailercakes already warm and inviting presence.  The local web was built for local businesses.

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Image via Claire K on Flickr

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0234: /bus.stop

We, the people, of this bus stop...

Ah the many things to do while waiting for the bus.  There is 1, using your phone. 2, using your phone. 3, staring blankly out into space, and 4, using your phone.

Waiting at the bus stop is a daily activity that millions of Americans partake in every day.  Often, in silence, on their phones.  Even if there is other people waiting with you, its a pretty anti-social affair.  

But it doesn’t have to be.  Using the local web, you can communicate with your fellow bus stop brothers and sisters.  When you get to a bus stop just pop on localweb.is/bus.stop and set your filter to 100 meters.  You will see messages people have posted, to that very bus stop and its dwellers.  It could act as a digital bulletin board, or just a place to drop some bus stop wisdom, or bus stop jokes.

You probably know about /bus.stop because some one put up a local web sticker with the localweb.is/bus.stop URL on it.  That’s really all it takes to visit or create a slash.  Each bust stop is different, and savvy bus riders follow the /bus.stop slash on their mobile location group, which means that as they are riding the bus, from stop to stop, they can briefly see all the /bus.stop messages people have left, before the bus starts to drive away to the next stop.  

Yeah, the content at various /bus.stop slashes isn’t Tolstoy, but it isn’t “The 13 Best ClickBait BuzzFeeds of 2016 You Can’t Miss” either.  It’s local content, written by locals.  It’s content from your fellow bus riders.  It’s just one of the many stories that are told in your city using the local web.

Pro tip: The Number 55 Admiral bus line in Providence has a rider that writes a poem each day, and drops a single line at each /bus.stop.  In order to read it, you have to be going inbound and following on a mobile location group.  If you are riding the bust outbound, the poem is backwards. but still cool.

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Image via Rene McGurk on Flickr

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0233: /u/popo

Whoop whoop that’s the sound of the police

If you hear someone shout “popo” and you are engaged in illegal activities, then you know what to do: stop the activity and casually walk/run away because the police are nearby.  But those are the old days.  Today everyone has a phone so shouting “popo” deserves a more advanced solution.

If you spot the police rolling by, or you spot undercover checking I.D.s at a bar, or you know a party has been broken up, just leave a post on localweb.is/u/popo for your friends, campus buddies, or other evildoers to find.  That way, they can save themselves the trouble of dealing with the police.

The /u/ means that it is an unlisted slash, so it won’t appear on the homepage of localweb.is.  Ideally, this means the police don’t know about it’s use, but you can never be sure.  Maybe the police are using their own unlisted slash to fight crime themselves.  Either way, following /u/popo is a good way of keeping your criminal record to a minimum.

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Image via Michael Burns on Flickr

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0232: /pay.to.pickup

Ok, no one wants it, now what?

So you couldn’t unload your stuff at /free.to.pickup.  Apparently those vintage and stained chairs just are not anyones style any more.  Well... you just can’t leave it on the curb, it needs to be removed.

Renting a dumpster will cost a few hundred bucks at least, and there is no way all that stuff will fit in the back of your Subaru.  It’s time to post to localweb.is/free.to.pickup.  Just take a photo of the lot and post what you are offering, maybe $50.  Anyone with pickup truck could take that stuff to the dump and probably profit $20 or so for 20 minutes of work.  Not bad.

Or maybe someone will just want to take on your “problem” for 50 bucks and keep the stuff in their garage.  Who knows, who cares.  You are willing to pay $50 to have this stuff moved off your curb.

All of the slashes like /free, /free.to.pickup, and /pay.to.pickup are not categories that were created by the folks at local web HQ.  They were created by patrons themselves, and spread by patrons themselves.  By allowing patrons to use the local web the way they want to, it creates the most efficient avenue to getting stuff done, sold, or just moved.  If there is no /pay.to.pickup in your area, just make it by simply going to the URL and posting.  Someone will see it.

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0231 /free.to.pickup

Set it (on the lawn) and forget it.

So maybe you are not giving away hugs and you really do need to just get rid of this stack of cooking books.  Well just take a photo, and drop a post on localweb.is/free.to.pickup and there is a good chance someone will come by to get it.  The posts you see there aren’t just from your state or city, they are from within 3km and might be right next door.

If you are having a yardsale and it’s getting late in the day. Start snapping pics of some items and post them to /free.to.pickup to drive some attention to your yard sale.  It’s a clever way to promote some “loss leaders” for the tail end of your yard sale.

Sure you can post an add to craigslist as well, but there might be more people looking at /free.to.pickup and chances are they are closer, which means your stuff has more value.  The free stuff on Craigslist isn’t such a great deal if you have to drive 15 minutes to get it.  Some patrons even have alerts on their phone when stuff is posted to /free.to.pickup within walking distance of them.

Of course if there is no takers, then you might have better luck at /pay.to.pickup.

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Image via Derek Hatfield on Flickr

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0230: /free

If you love something, let it go...

What started as a simple way to get rid of free stuff you had accumulating has turned into something much more.  Sure you can put that old desk and winter coats on /free and someone might pick it up, but these days /free has evolved into a different purpose.  

People started putting “free hugs” on /free, then “free conversations”, and “free friendships”.  Some people are naturally giving, and when they run out of hard good to give away, they give away part of themselves.

The people of /free are just looking to make their small corner of the world a better place by offering up their time and emotional energy.  There aren’t many places online where you can get a “free coffee conversation” because out current platforms are not really set up to do that.  The “free” section of Craigslist is mostly mattresses and other piles of semi-garbage.  Dating apps and other “connect to those around you” type apps come will all sorts of expectations.  

The local web is created and defined by the people who use it.  And patrons are using /free to share a part of themselves that is hard to commoditize.  Where else will your find your neighbors offering free garden planning, free art lessons, or free painted portraits (in exchange for being a model).  When you have a platform that is as open and flexible as human nature, you end up with a product that is closer to the human heart.

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Image via Marcel Hauri on Flickr

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0229: /christmas-trees

The tree is trimmed, time to share

For some people, the Christmas tree trimming is an annual family event.  To others its an expression of their decorating skill.  If you have a good looking tree going on, while not share it?  You earned it.

Just snap a photo and post to localweb.is/christmas-tree where you can see what your neighbors are up to with their tree.  It’s not really a competition.. ok.. it’s a little bit of a competition, but it’s all in merry fun.

If you haven’t bought your tree yet and see your neighbor has posted a great specimen of a blue spruce and you want to know where he go it, just ask!  Do you love your neighbors ornaments, drop a compliment. /christmas-trees is a celebration of this one aspect of Christmas and because all the posts are from people in your area, it’s an opportunity to get to know them a bit as well and spread some holiday cheer.

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Image via Selbie Lynn on Flickr

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0228: /munch

Social media?  Try local media.

Sarah Johnson is an influence food blooger in Providence, Rhode Island.  Whenever a new restaurant opens up, her reviews on her blog, “Munch,” can be an important part of that opening success or failure.

While she get’s a lot of traffic to her blog, her other social media accounts just aren’t moving the needle.  She often instagrams her meals but on that platform she is competeing with hundreds, perhaps thousands of other food bloggers across the world.  Providence is her domain, and she is a big fish in a small pond there.  These global platforms are like the ocean and it can be hard to get some attention.

She posts her food thoughts on twitter as well, but readers really aren’t on twitter.  Or at least not often enough to catch her tweets.  Her readers are localized to Providence.  That is where she has the most influence.  So instead of social media, she has turned to local media to get the word out.

While she posts full reviews of new restaurants to her blog, she gives short thoughts on most meals at localweb.is/munch.  She has followers there too and since she knows all her followers are in the area, she can get a lot of interaction. /munch or “slash munch” as its called in Providence can be useful tool to fill seats at any restaurant.  When Maria raves about the eggs benedict at the Seaplane Diner (not on the menu, you have to ask for them), it creates a lot of activity in the slash.  This causes /munch to rise to the top of localweb.is, which is like the front page of the local web.  When /munch is near the top, people in the area take notice. The next day, the Seaplane Diner has to print new menus since everyone is asking for the eggs benedict.  This is the power of local media vs social media, where most hashtags just get lost in the wind and noise.

Local media is just a natural extension of the local web.  Global platforms force global competition, when most of the time, what matters most is what you can walk to.  What you can actually experience.

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0227: /blues

What’s that sound?  Someone is playing the blues.

Where is the blues in your town?  Go ahead, google it.  You will find some club dates, maybe a festival in a few months.  But there is much more blues going on below the surface.

The blues are being played in garages, basements, schools, and small bars and coffee shops.  Places that don’t have an official booking, or a website, or an affiliation with Ticket Master.

Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.

-Amy Winehouse

Just lost your job, well now you have a blues song.  Grab your guitar and head out to the park, start playing the blues.  But also post to localweb.is/blues.  People who are looking for the blues will be following that slash and you might attract a few fellow musicians.

It doesn’t always have to be so spontaneous though.  Is your local high school putting on a blues show with some great young talent?  It’s going to be hard to get the attention of the typical music gatekeepers in your city.  Just post to /blues.  When you are at the event, take a photo, post to /blues.  The activity will cause /blues to rise to the top of the directory at localweb.is.  Others in the area will see it, and because they are all local, and this is their highschool, it has more value to them then some blues show they have to plan a whole evening around.

Of course, if you live in a city where the blues is played quite often, you can just keep an eye on /blues to see what shows are really hopping that evening.  Who are the people exited to see that may be flying under the radar of local publications.

The local web removed the traditional gatekeepers from local knowledge and events.  Whats going on right now, to the minute, within walking distance? That’s what the local web will answer.  

And if there is nothing going on and the place is totally dead.... well then you have another blues song.  Post to /blues.

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Image via Chris Beckett on Flickr

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0226: /u/caleb-beard-diary

A private collection of a beard pic a day

The journey to one ‘yeard’ takes strength, determination, and often the right genetics.  It helps to document your progress and look back to see how far you have come.

Well Caleb here is trying to grow a bear and started an unlisted local web URL where he posts one beard pic per day.  Every day he just goes to localweb.is/u/caleb-beard-diary (its bookmarked as an icon on his homescreen) and quickly takes and posts a selfie.  Sometimes he adds and thoughts about his beard as well.

The /u/ makes it unlisted on localweb.is, which is a directory of popular and trending slashes.  The only way to know about Caleb’s beard diary is if he gives the URL out.  Sure he could just take photos on his phone and save them to local storage, but he does want to share the diary with some folks.  He gives the link to close friends and to the folks on /beard-selfie.  But mostly, it’s a private URL which makes it free from trolls.

Whenever Caleb is suffering from beard induced depression and gets the urge to just shave it all off, he swipes through /u/caleb-beard-diary and gets a sense of all the work his face has done.  It gives him a little encouragement.  His friends sometimes leave nice comments in there too.  Caleb now realizes that his beard is worth growing again.

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0225: /beard-selfie

Beards of a feather...

So it’s the end of “Movember” and what do you have to show for yourself?  Chances are it could be a rocking beard and mustache.  Well it’s time to show that off and show some solidarity for your whiskered kin.

Just post your beard pic to localweb.is/beard-selfie and lavish in the man-on-man attention you have been missing.

Growing a beard for the long haul, also know as the “yeard” is hard work.  You have to face the sometimes daily score of your spouse, co-workers, or mother-in-law.  It’s a journey and it helps to share that journey with others in the area who are going through the same personal and physical growth.  While posting to other social networks may lead to abusive beard-shaming, the local web, or at least /beard-selfie is a close knit community of like-bearded souls to share your progress with.

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Image via Mike Mozart on flickr

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0224: /morning-selfie

For those times when you are not looking your best

The selfie culture can feel oppressive sometimes.  Each pic needs to look good. The right pose, the right face, the right angle.  Take a dozen, choose the best, and delete the rest.  It can feel like work.

But over at localweb.is/morning-selfie you will find people reject that obligation.  Wake up, take a selfie, and post it.  Sure your hair is a mess and your skin is breaking out, but this is who you are at 7 am.  It’s a welcoming place as the slash is full of other people doing the same thing. 

Because the slash is based around a certain period of the day, its most active in the mornings, which means that it’s often near the top of localweb.is from 7am to 10am.  Checking the slash first thing in the morning is a great reminder that “yeah, I’m a real person and we are all real people”.

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Image via Sophia Louise on flickr.

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0223: /v/selfie

You probably think this post is about you.

One of the tenants of the local web is an identity system that allows you to be whoever you are at that moment.  This can free you up from having to be a ‘brand’ all the time and all the management that goes with that.

But a superseding tenant is that the local web is what you make of it.  If you want to post selfies there and vote up or down other peoples selfies, you can do that.  

At localweb.is/v/selfie you can post a photo of yourself and others in the area can vote it up or down.  The /v/ in the URL changes the slash from one with just posting to one with posting and voting.  It’s sort of like a combination of Instagram, Reddit, but restricted to your local surroundings.  Who has the prettiest selfie in your town, in your school, or at the football game you are at right now.  Wouldn’t you like to know?

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