rBlock

Neighbors Increase Their Safety

Today it is harder than ever for neighbors to keep abreast of what's going on right outside their front doors. rBlock helps them address this by providing an alert notification system that allows every neighbor on the block to become the eyes and ears for everyone else.  When neighbors start to use the feature, they discover the many circumstances when it comes in handy...

• lost pets;
• missing keys;
• a downed power wire;
• an unwelcome solicitor;
• an urgent call for help;
• a vandalized car;
• and the list goes on...

Neighbors Increase Their Preparedness

The idea of sharing is baked into our software, but for our emergency preparedness feature, the actual sharing of information occurs offline, and is customized based on the sharing decisions of each neighbor. The resulting shared information is printed in the form of a three-ring emergency preparedness binder, organized as follows...

1. Communications;
2. Needs and Skills;
3. Supplies and Storage;
4. Drills and Procedures;
5. Local Area Resources

Neighbors Reach Everyone Locally

One way to think about rBlock is that we provide neighbors in the community with the ability to pursue a "local strategy" to better themselves economically and socially. Two professors at Harvard explain why All Strategy Is Local in the September 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review.   So whether it's the....

• neighbor who can't share information with anyone on their block;
• resident who can't share information with other residents in their city;
• seniors who can't find rides for errands;
• new parents who can't find other new parents nearby;
• local biz owners who can only compete on efficiency and not strategy (which is bad news since local businesses are less efficient due to their limited scale);
• councilmembers and city staff who can't share information with their constituencies;
• local police who no longer benefit from community feedback;
• emergency services who struggle to raise community awareness;

...all of them will soon be able share information interactively, without targeting anyone individually.

Neighbors Share Vital Information

Many of us are inclined to share more than we actually do. But the opportunity to know what others need seldom presents itself. Sometimes we find out by chance. Can I borrow your ladder? In addition to the limited opportunities, we also harbor valid concerns. What if it breaks or gets misplaced? These concerns vary depending on who's involved and the information or object shared.

Sharing among neighbors is interesting because some of the necessary ingredients are in place (proximity and goodwill) and the benefits are great (convenience and reciprocity). Yet there is still a high hurdle to get over. The risks seem more immediate and tangible than the benefits. We say to ourselves, "if I share, I know what I might lose, but I don't yet know what I might gain." However, if everyone starts sharing, we start looking at the situation differently, and say "I see what I can borrow, so what do I have to lose?"

In micro-economics, collective action dilemmas explain why a group's efforts to take action often fail, despite the motivations and good intentions of its organizers. At rBlock, we have designed the first share engine to help a group of neighbors on a block share information that will help them to prepare for any kind of emergency, be it an accident, a medical problem or a natural disaster.

Safety and Preparedness Come First

These two paragraphs appeared on rBlock's home page for over one year.  But they really speak to a secondary benefit that the Company's end users enjoy. 

Wouldn't you like to live in a city where you could communicate interactively with all of its residents, or just with your neighbors, on matters that most interest you? Wouldn't we all like to make a greater contribution economically and socially to our neighborhoods and cities, and have them make a greater contribution to our lives?

Today there's no easy way for residents to communicate with each other, leave alone make an impact upon where they live. Most of us don't know our neighbors, and we take our cities for granted. rBlock believes most of us would engage with each other locally, if only we could in an efficient, informative, and entertaining way.

The primary benefits of using rBlock's free service are public safety and emergency preparedness.  The Company's public release will therefore focus on these benefits, which will accrue to neighbors on every residential block in the country.