There is more to the City of Good Neighbors than blizzards and chicken wings. Just ask Anthony Dicembre, founder of Buffalo's own social network site dedicated to bringing the people closer to each other and to their city.
Dicembre officially launched Buffalome.com, a central place for people to communicate events happening in Buffalo, in July 2008.
Dicembre, a graduate student at Medaille College, started the site for a class project to create a feasible business. News of the site spread through local media channels by word of mouth, quickly making a school project the hot new destination for residents.
"It wasn't really intended to be as big as it has gotten already but it just kind of happened," Dicembre said. "Everything that I've wanted to accomplish we've done; we've exceeded what we thought would happen."
Contrary to other social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, Buffalome has a strong and distinct local flavor that highlights the brighter aspects of Buffalo.
What makes the young site unique is the degree of dedication and swarm of activity its members commit to, according to Dicembre.
Members not only post blogs, forums, groups and events honoring their neighborhood city-they respond abundantly to updated material, creating a particularly close-knit atmosphere.
"They can see everything that's going on in Buffalo and they can get more involved," Dicembre said. "We've kind of blurred the line between online and offline as far as a social relationships go."
One member who acted as both a participant and developer was Tania Servos, UB graduate and Cheektowaga native.
Shortly after Servos joined she reported user problems and even made suggestions on how to improve the site. Dicembre recognized the special interest Servos had and soon offered her the position as director of user experience.
"I just kind of took it and ran with it," Servos said. "It was something I wanted to do so I stuck with it."
Even after moving to Allentown last November, Servos admits that before her involvement with Buffalome she hadn't experienced much of the area she lived in.
"Until I joined the site I really kept to myself a lot and I pretty much didn't go anywhere," Servos said. "It's really opening my eyes to the city a lot more. I think that Buffalome really has an emphasis on all the positive things that are going on in the city and the development that's going on."
Although contributions like those from Servos are rare, member participation is due in part to a rating system that encourages activity by rewarding points to those who are social and promote the site.
"What we've found is that the more content people put up the more people go to the site and the more engaged they are," Dicembre said. "Basically we reward people simply when they do things on the Web site."
By January, Buffalome will extend membership to businesses administering the site's second objective of facilitating the revitalization of Buffalo.
Unlike the individual members who can join for free, local businesses will be able to purchase a promotional membership that will direct traffic to their business with blog and event features.
According to Dicembre, the site's traffic has increased by 180 members each month, far exceeding previous expectations, and is projected to surpass 5,000 members by 2009.
With Buffalome receiving about 10,000 visits a month Dicembre hopes that local businesses will join and take the opportunity to not only get valuable exposure for their business and events but also to connect and learn from their patrons.
Already Buffalome has inspired a similar social networking site in Cleveland, Ohio that will have its official launch in a few months.
