Chico, California

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

O.K., I will take a lead here and establish my home town as a discussion thread within the NorCal group. I welcome others to create a group specifically for the city and even to create their own social network linked to Area Light.

My wife and I were talking about what restaurant to go to this weekend. I twould be great to have other members from the same area shed some light on their experiences and recommendations. However, I think I've yet to invite anyone locally yet. I suppose I should get to it!

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Chico is known as a college town. School's back in for the Fall and the town is bustling. When the students leave, it seems almost empty. However, the locals enjoy the peace and infrastructure.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

I've just started contributing to www.chicowiki.org. I saw a flyer posted up on a bulleting board at Chico State and decided to look into it for obvious reasons. That is, I have a serious intention to use Area Light to support networking by geographic location. I liked what I saw and decided to join. It's not surprising to see something like this come out of Chico. I was a little surprised to find Chico is one of the first communities to be doing this. As i tackle the challenge of designing this site, the thought crossed my mind we're more organized for interaction than content building. The collaborative process of wiki's is perfect for this though. I'm working on some wiki applications for my ancillary business projects outside of Area Light. i may even create some applications for use by members. It's pretty easy once you figure out a few of the peculiarities. Go ahead and take a look at my home town and I'll be happy to offer any insights to others who want to contribute or start their own for their own community. If you're from Chico then great! I look forward to meeting you and perhaps we'll even meet face to face!

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Here's a nice Ning set up to cater to Chico. Nothing's going on there yet. Perhaps Area Light can help to remedy this. Check out Chicoplace

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Well I have started with a local promotion of Area Light primarily starting with local Chico businesses. I'm starting slow to give myself some time to learn what I like and don't like to do. It should give the businesses who do join some time to play around with the available features and services before we really start driving local traffic. Now I have pointed out another Chico Ning but I have been unable to draw a response out of the owner. So I am not sure that is where we want to feed our local Chico traffic. I don't really want to be the one to create a Chico Ning. I am comfortable with Area Light starting out of Chico. Thus, this is an option for whoever wants to try and support it. If you are from Chico and are looking into this after discussing with me...then thanks for joining!

Anthony

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

I made some rounds to some local Chico businesses this week. Part of what makes Chico a neat place is the approachability and community factor. One business I ran into was a total surprise. It's a new charter school that combines facility with home-based schooling. I thought there was some local legislation passed not too long ago that removed the option for home-schooling. Perhaps it was a change directed at State compensation or tax breaks to parents who home-school. I also think there was some new rule where the parent's had to have some ECE units. I was really fascinated to run into this new school that apparently had to form to fit within the State's perameters. I'll probably be doing an expose on them on our group Area Light Explorer as I research them.

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

If you haven't noticed, I created an expose video of the Euro Cafe in Chico. I also created a group for it. I met the owner and he seems nice. However, I'm not so sure he's really interested nor is willing to put any time into supporting an online social presence for his business yet. Anyways, I think I did O.K. in showing what I can do based on a list of courtesies I'm offering to local businesses. As far as this one is concerned, we've only done a small fraction. I'm really looking forward to finding a business or few that will work with me while I show the rest of what I can do to support their business.

Now I've made it through a few small business sectors in the Area. I hit the offices behind and along the Safeway over by P.V. I got the Cohasset offices over there by the Chico Sports Club/ Haley's Martial Arts. I also made my rounds to a couple business near the intersection of East and Cohasset. I really enjoyed meeting many of the businesses in the Dolce Plaza over by East Lassen/ Cohasset- including the Euro Cafe. After trialing out my approach, I've slept on some of the lessons learned and will probably continue doing more outreach. I should revisit those areas now that I have an example to work with. I'll also be making my way around to other areas.

Now I'm interested in working with others on this. I'm also looking for someone to create a social network for Chico on Ning that is willing to work with and be featured by Area Light. We are starting out of Chico!

Best,


Anthony

[Nascent Dynamics ( )]

Neighborhood Night Out

I just posted the first event on Chicoplace. It's really terrific how our community gets out there and puts on all these free family events. It also kind of showcases why Chico is a community that actually gets out there to network.

I've been noticing how e-mail lists are a tool some people actually enjoy using. When they get news and information they are actually interested in, then they are happy to get it. Having a geographic based social network could end up being a great tool for me too. Not just in the dynamic way I can market and network myself, but as a way to get the news and info I actually want. I didn't even know this event was happening, and would like to have gotten a note to let me know. So pretty cool.

Best,

Anthony