"Who's That?" - Building a Better Block Club
By Margaret Heinhold and Crystal Zeh
University of Michigan School of Information, Community Information Corps

"Ariel is five years old. She and her family are block club members. I took her picture with the digital camera, and now she regularly comes to visit me in the afternoons... and to see if I have the digital camera." - From 'Stories' on the Who's That? Web site (www.whothat.org)

What do digital cameras have to do with block clubs? Everything, if you are part of a pilot project called 'Who's That?' at the University of Michigan School of Information. Ariel and her family are some of the first people to participate in this new way of creating block clubs, which uses modern technology to build community through small-scale block clubs. 

'Who's That' is a simple block club methodology that facilitates neighbor interaction. Traditional block clubs are often created to mobilize around issues affecting their communities. While this is a useful and important type of neighborhood association, the issues are of primary importance. 'Who's That' is different in that it places emphasis on neighborhood sociability for its own sake. This is especially relevant as people's lives become ever more privatized - and neighbors become strangers. 

The Tools

To say that people today are less connected with their neighbors than in times past is not particularly controversial. Various theories lay blame on the prevalence of television in the home, fewer houses with front porches, or even the electric dryer - people no longer have the opportunity to chat over the fence as they hang laundry on the clothesline. 'Who's That?' seeks to reverse that trend by using information-sharing devices to reconnect people in their neighborhoods. 

'Who's That?' block clubs use digital cameras and databases to create neighbor directories that are distributed to everyone on the block. Neighbors can connect a name to a face to an address. Blocks where many people have e-mail can create e-mail distribution lists. E-mail lists make it easy for any member to send announcements to everyone, or for the entire block to discuss issues, problems, or plans. 

Field Experiences

In the past few months, Paul Resnick, a professor at the School of Information, and three students - Marc Miller and the two authors of this piece, Margaret Heinhold and Crystal Zeh - have been conducting 'Who's That?' field trials in their own neighborhoods in Ann Arbor and Jackson, Michigan. Initially, we were concerned that our neighbors might feel we were invading their privacy or that the entire block club idea was strange. But most people were enthusiastic. They invited us into their homes, told us about themselves, and were happy to participate. A couple of our neighbors even fed us and invited us to parties. 

We are still in the early stages of the project, and most of the benefits have accrued to us, as the people who have been knocking on our neighbors' doors. We know our neighbors names, have found people with common interests, and feel more at home in our houses. The true test will come when we distribute the directories to our neighbors. We hope our fellow block club members will have the same positive experiences that we have enjoyed. 

Looking Ahead

This summer the 'Who's That?' team will be working to refine the methodology of building better block clubs. We plan to package our tools, concepts, and methods to enable more people to start block clubs in their own neighborhoods. 

Paul Resnick is currently seeking funding to pilot 'Who's That?' in five U.S. cities next year. The funding will provide for an outreach worker, who might be located in a library or police station and who would encourage the creation of block clubs in their city. The outreach worker would oversee the usage of materials needed to build the directories - a computer, printer, database application, digital camera, and various templates for flyers and forms. 

We are also investigating methods that will allow us to evaluate the substantive effects of introducing directories and e-mail lists into neighborhoods. 

To learn more about 'Who's That?', visit our Web site at www.whothat.org. The team can be reached at whothat@umich.edu. Please feel free to contact us with comments and ideas.