Monday, September 01, 2008

Fruit sharing networks



One of the things the Internet enables us to do is to connect people to under utilized resources. My favorite example is Fruit maps. The first one I came across was in Australia called Feral Fruit Maps.

Next came this example:Fallen Fruit.

The most recent is from that leader in innovation: Cleveland! Cleveland Fruit Share is identifying area fruit trees on public or abandoned land, or in yards of people who don't want the fruit. Notice they are using Ning.

The role of the Network Weaver here is to set up an interactive site and a google map app --and catalyze the process with discussion and/or (as in Cleveland) with a pear picking activity.

What other similar matching activities could we do using the Web?

3 comments:

Valdis Krebs said...

I think Twitter would be a perfect place to point to "available fruit" -- mention the place, ripe fruit, and link to a Google map of the street it is on all in < 140 characters.

Maybe even have a Twitter ID that all locals can follow or Reply to?

June Holley said...

You can embed a Twitter account in a web page so people could access it that way, too.

Dread the Cost said...

I suggest that you check out www.neighborhoodfruit.com Although it looks like they're still in BETA, they're using Web 2.0 protocols to help people find and share fruit! Cool, eh!?