New Technology in a Model Community
In order to be the next step forward in online communication & social networking, Go2s wanted a real-life community to give its platform a real-life workout.
Enter Brunswick, MD, Go2s official “hometown.” Located on the banks of the Potomac River, Brunswick was a quiet farming community until the turn of the twentieth century when the B & O Railroad constructed a major rail yard there. This tremendous investment spurred the City’s incorporation in 1890 and a population boom. The town grew from just over 200 to 2,000 residents in the space of a couple years and continued from there to its current 6,000 residents. It was a quintessential “company town,” where the Railroad was the major employer and the shops and businesses that thrived there did so in service to the needs of the B & O and its employees.
The new millennium brought a fresh wave of technological development and with it came another reshaping of the economic and employment landscape. For most communities like Brunswick, companies have fallen short when it comes to translating the promise of digital communication into a truly better quality of life. Almost all major social networks put their company headquarters in major coastal cities, collect “followers,” and then mine their pages for the benefit of mostly non-local advertisers. They emphasize ad-driven “click bait” over messages from people with whom we have actual relationships. This translates to net money-outflow and retail “sales leakage” from the local economy and lower tax revenue for local government. Go2s stands apart from this trend.
By making connectivity and productivity possible from any place, high-speed internet should strengthen local economies. Go2s makes this promise a reality in Brunswick by translating a strong, rooted physical community and its small businesses into a successful, connected digital community.
Another way that Go2s supports community health is its belief that social networking should be about keeping people connected, not collecting marketing data and selling advertising. Having made the commitment to show users offers only from business resources that they’ve recommended, Go2s focuses its digital marketing power on small business. With Go2s, businesses can communicate inexpensively and directly with their most loyal customers, leveraging the power of word-of-mouth (the best form of advertising) into new business.
Go2s’ impartial timeline is another feature that works to strengthen communities. By allowing individuals, businesses, civic groups, local government, churches, and teams to announce news and events in an environment where content is fairly distributed and consistently displayed (chronologically, rather than subject to hidden algorithms), Go2s gives equal treatment for every post. The result is that more people hear the update, help with the request, learn the facts, attend the event, support the organization…become MORE connected to the things that are meaningful to them.