We often see Streetlife users swapping and sharing skills, advice and belongings with other local residents, groups and businesses. A growing number of people are using the site to suggest and coordinate bulk buying of groceries, office or gardening supplies, heating oil, and of course, blood oranges!
Collective buying is a great way to save money and fuel, unite members of a community, and help those who may not otherwise be able to afford or access certain products or services. And now you could be further rewarded for your efforts, simply by sharing your ideas and experiences in The Buy Better Together Challenge.
This brand new initiative from Co-operatives UK and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills aims to inspire new models of community buying, and promote shared learning. A £60,000 pot will go towards training, mentoring and seed funding for outstanding projects, including £15,000 for the overall winner.
Get your entries in by 15th May
Applications are welcome from groups and organisations focused on developing new or existing community buying schemes, within the public, voluntary and business sectors.
Entries need to address one or more of these challenges:
create a platform to help individuals come together and form a community buying group
enable community groups to develop their purchasing power by working collectively on behalf of individual consumers
empower employees or consumers to group together and buy as a community
The judges are on the lookout for entries that:
show great potential to save money and get better quality
achieve long lasting impact or sustainability
successfully engage a community
demonstrate social benefits, such as helping disadvantaged consumers
Find out more about The Buy Better Together Challenge and judging panel, and complete your online application here.
streetlife.com is a fully funded social networking startup based in Covent Garden, London. We recently launched a new iteration of the site (including a viral video voiced by Stephen Fry), and we’re looking for an experienced UX / graphic designer to help us make it even more awesome as we add new features and (lots!) more users.
We’re a small, passionate team. Our meetings are informal, our fridge is always stocked with diet coke and beer, and we’re out to change the world. You’ll have a unique opportunity to help shape as well as realise our vision of local social networking.
We’re open to freelance, part-time or contract engagements (and in time expect to have a full time position for the right candidate).
We want someone who
will champion usability and user experience in everything they do
is focused on delivery – of features, of quality, and of a great user experience
is as comfortable producing pixel-perfect layouts and icons as they are at sketching out ideas on a whiteboard
can strike the right balance between evolution and revolution (some parts of our site need some love, but we’re not looking to throw everything away and start again)
is an excellent communicator
has a great portfolio available online
shares our enthusiasm for helping people get more out of their local community.
Experience with design for traditional print (e.g. newspaper / magazine advertising and features) would be a huge plus; if you can draw jolly people and scary monsters we’ll be overjoyed.
Pay and benefits are negotiable, depending on your experience, skills and the type of contract. But we aim to be competitive, and will pay the best to get the best. Performance-based bonuses and equity (shares) will be available for anyone who works with us long-term. While you’re at our office then meals and snacks (from the best eateries in Covent Garden) are included.
Get in touch with us. Be a part of something big.
Please send CV / covering letter (including details of previous work) to jobs@streetlife.com. No Agencies.
Some telecommuting / home working is OK, though we’d prefer you to work alongside the rest of the team as much as possible. This means you’ll need to be able to commute to, and work in, our Central London, UK office.
We love good old-fashioned street parties; they encourage a sense of community, provide a great opportunity to get to know a few local faces, and help build friendlier, stronger and safer neighbourhoods.
With The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympics and Paralympics this year, there’s no shortage of excuses for celebrating in 2012 - in fact, over 3,000 parties are being planned so far, and there’s still time for you to get involved.
Whether you’re holding a small get together in the garden, a picnic with neighbours at the park, or a traffic-stopping street party with music, games and decorations, these websites have all the information and resources you need to plan your event:
Communities and Local Government
This downloadable street party guide from Communities and Local Government provides practical advice about road closures and associated charges, playing music and insurance.
Most local authorities are making it as easy as possible to organise street parties this year, but you should check the specific requirements for your area. You can do this via the DirectGov website or your local council’s website.
The Big Lunch
The Big Lunch is a simple idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to encourage as many people in the UK as possible to have lunch with their neighbours once a year, for a few hours of friendship, fun and food. Since the 2009 launch, thousands of Big Lunches have taken place in communities across the nation, and last year over two million people participated.
This year’s event will proudly support The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Sunday 3rd June, and a record number of people are expected to take part.
Visit thebiglunch.com or call 0845 850 8181 for more information and to receive your FREE Big Lunch Pack, including a step-by-step guide, invitations, posters, ‘crowd cooking’ recipe ideas, stickers and much more.
Streets Alive
Streets Alive promotes community spirit at the street level through street parties, swap shops, street meets and other neighbourly activities. Since 2001 they’ve helped thousands of residents, community workers and councils to creatively support communities.
Their website has a guide to planning your party, plenty of ideas and advice, plus useful information about how to deal with road closures, insurance, and where to get flags, bunting and other decorations. Find out more at streetparty.org.uk.
Streetlife
We recently surveyed our users and found that one in 10 Streetlifers attended a street party or neighbourhood event last year after hearing about it on streetlife.com. We’re hoping to see that number increase in 2012.
Streetlife is the perfect place to suggest, discuss and spread the word about local events, and to ask other people about their previous experiences organising them. And of course, once the party’s over, you can share your stories, pictures and videos, and start planning your next get together with the neighbours!
It’ll always be free to talk about local community issues on Streetlife, and it’s advertising that makes this possible. But it’s not just about covering our costs…
Adverts provide a way for local people to promote useful services like cleaning, dog-walking, craft workshops and foreign language tuition to the community. They make it possible to sell second-hand possessions to people who live nearby, saving on fuel and delivery costs, they help users discover traders in their area and encourage people to support their local high street.
By enabling local businesses to talk openly, we aim to help them gather feedback about what they’re doing well and how they can adapt to better meet the community’s needs. We also hope to remove any temptation for a local trader to mislead by pretending to be a happy customer.
As there’s now a charge for selling stuff, we’re looking forward to seeing more Streetlifers offering smaller items to neighbours for free.
How do adverts work?
When you start a conversation, in addition to chat, event and poll, you’ll see a new advert option. Select this if you’re:
selling something (like a second-hand bike)
offering a paid service (like babysitting)
promoting a commercial event (like a comedy night).
At the bottom of the message we’ll tell you how much it’ll cost; this is based on how many people you’re reaching, so varies by area. Pay via our secure gateway by credit or debit card, and your advert will go live right away.
What if I’m irked by ads?
People have mixed views on adverts, and we’re doing our best to cater for everyone. You’ll easily spot an ad by its green border, and as with any conversation, you can hide it from your news feed by clicking the options button on the right. You can also go completely ad-free by becoming a Streetlife Supporter.
There are more features coming soon to help businesses engage with locals and offer deals, and to enable everyone to further customise their Streetlife experience. We’ll keep you posted.
It’s chilly out there, but we’re feeling warm and fuzzy reading about Streetlifers getting together to help their neighbours out. Here’s a story that we had to share…
Selina S. had used streetlife.com in the past to collect jam jars from a neighbour when she was making chutney, and to meet some familiar faces around the park, but she was overwhelmed by the response she received when asking for support for an elderly client who was feeling down and lonely. Not only did Selina get a wealth of advice and recommendations for local services and charities offering support for the elderly, but she discovered that she’s surrounded in her everyday life by kind people, who want to help others in their community. She told us “it’s heart-warming to know people care”.
Anyone who doubts that community spirit is alive and well should read this conversation among people united only by their postcode and a desire to be neighbourly.
Sharing local knowledge, ideas and experience is what makes Streetlife great. That’s why we’ve introduced badges - our little way of thanking you for contributing to your local community.
There’s more to them than just brightening up your public profile though. In the same way that many sites have user ratings, badges help build trust which is important to any online community. If someone recommends a tradesman, you’ll be more inclined to trust their suggestion if they’ve verified their address with Streetlife and been a regular contributor on a variety of topics, than if they’ve only ever piped up to tell you that Bob the Builder’s brilliant.
Before rolling them out we ran some trials and found that badges motivated people to visit Streetlife more regularly, contribute more often, and encourage others to get involved - which is what it’s all about.
You can see the full list of badges here. We’ll keep adding to them, so if you have an idea for a new award, tell us.
streetlife.com is a fully funded social networking startup based in Covent Garden, London. We’ve just launched a new iteration of the site (including a viral video voiced by Stephen Fry), and we’re looking for a big-hitting, battle-scarred technical lead to help us make it even more awesome.
We’re a small, passionate team. Our meetings are informal, our fridge is always stocked with diet coke and beer, and we’re out to change the world. You’ll have a unique opportunity to help shape as well as realise our vision of local social networking.
You’ll have proven experience with
Python (including web frameworks like django or flask)
NoSQL databases like MongoDB (as well as relational databases such as MySQL or Postgres)
Operations, system administration and monitoring, including config management systems like Puppet
Distributed version control systems like git or mercurial
Messaging middleware such as AMQP and RabbitMQ
Streetlife is about to get really big, really fast, and we want someone who can think about our future architecture at the same time as diving in and delivering features. Our developers have world-class smarts and unbridled energy, but need a veteran to go running to when they corrupt the database for the fourth time that day.
Our codebase is a well-oiled machine, and we’re proud of it. We need someone to help keep it running smoothly, and who can adapt it to our changing needs.
We want someone who
can take technical ownership of our whole product
is focused on delivery – of features, of quality, and of a great user experience
is as comfortable getting stuck into the code as they are architecting a new feature on a whiteboard
embraces agile development and lean startup techniques
plays with new libraries, languages, frameworks and tools
is an excellent communicator
maintains a github profile, a blog or portfolio
doesn’t mind being rick roll’d from time to time.
We’re offering a highly competitive salary, with performance-based bonuses and equity (shares).
You’ll receive 28 days of annual leave, in addition to national holidays. Breakfast, lunch and snacks (from the best eateries in Covent Garden) are free, and if you want your workstation on a standing desk with three monitors, running the latest nightly build of Ubuntu, then we’ll make it so.
We build our site with the best tools and technologies for the job, such as: MongoDB, Flask, LESS CSS, Git, gunicorn and jQuery. We actively contribute code to them too, so if you’ve ever wanted to be paid to give back to the open source community, this is your chance!
Get in touch with us. Be a part of something big.
Please send CV / covering letter (including details of previous work) to jobs@streetlife.com. No Agencies.
Sorry, no telecommuting (though occasional working from home is fine!). You’ll need to be able to commute to, and work in, our Central London, UK office.
We’ve put together a referral program that rewards people for spreading the Streetlife word in their area. Read on for details and please pass this to any individuals or groups in your community who might be interested in fundraising.
What’s a local champion?
Someone who cares about their community, thinks it’d be useful if locals were better connected, and can help spread the Streetlife word in their area and get conversations started.
Streetlife recently launched nationwide, so we’re on the lookout for local champions across Britain, and we’ve put together a little something to reward you for your support.
Who can become a local champion?
Absolutely anyone! A community group, social club, school or PTA, neighbourhood watch, residents association, business, charity or individual. If you have a network of people to spread the word to and some conversations to start about your local area, you’re the perfect candidate.
How does the fundraising work?
We track all the Streetlife users you refer, either by postcode, or using a unique referral code. Every time you sign up 100 new users we send you a cheque. How you use the cash is your choice - you might support a local project or charity, or simply enjoy a bit of extra spending money.
So we’ve built this great site that we’re continually improving and adding features to based on what you tell us you like, want and need. We’ve made it secure, robust and scalable, and we’ve opened it up so that people can sign up at any postcode in Great Britain.
But it’s no secret that what makes Streetlife really useful (which is kind of the point) is our users: local-minded people pooling their knowledge and experience to create a powerful resource.
If you’re the first to sign up in your area it can be tricky to imagine how streetlife.com is going to help you make the most of where you live, daunting to break the ice, and you may wonder why you should tell everyone you know to join.
To help people “get it”, and to give them something entertaining to share, we put together a short explainer video with the help of the ingenious team at Epipheo Studios, and brought to life by the mesmerising voice of social media guru Stephen Fry.
We hope you’ll enjoy it. Please pass it on, and help us unite neighbourhoods across the nation!
streetlife.com is a fully funded social networking startup based in Covent Garden, London. We’re gearing up for a massive relaunch in Autumn 2011, and we’re looking for another talented and enthusiastic web developer to help us make it even more awesome.
We’re a small, passionate team. Our meetings are informal, our fridge is always stocked with diet coke and beer, and we believe in changing the world. As the eighth member, you’ll have a unique opportunity to help shape as well as realise our vision of local social networking.
You’ll have demonstrable experience with
JavaScript and jQuery
HTML5 and CSS
Distributed version control systems like Git
Python web frameworks like Django and Flask.
Bonus points for design and Photoshop skills.
We want someone who
can take ownership of a new feature and implement it from start to finish
is focused on delivering an excellent user experience
is as comfortable writing Python as they are crafting clean, beautiful HTML
plays with new libraries, languages, frameworks and tools
can communicate well in their feature specs and commit messages and in person
maintains a github profile, a blog or portfolio
doesn’t mind being rick roll’d from time to time.
We’re offering a highly competitive salary, with performance-based bonuses. You’ll receive 28 days of annual leave, as well as the chance to join profit sharing and equity schemes.
Breakfast, lunch and snacks (from the best eateries in Covent Garden) are free, and if you want your workstation on a standing desk with three monitors, running the latest nightly build of Ubuntu, then we’ll make it so.
We build our site with the best tools and technologies for the job, such as: MongoDB, Flask, LESS CSS, Git, gunicorn and jQuery. We actively contribute code to them too, so if you’ve ever wanted to be paid to give back to the open source community, this is your chance!
Get in touch with us. Be a part of something big.
Please send CV / covering letter (including details of previous work) to jobs@streetlife.com. No Agencies. Sorry, no telecommuting (though occasional working from home is fine!).
