High-tech 'smart' community planned

Blueroof Technologies, a McKeesport nonprofit, presented city officials this week with a plan to develop an "independence zone" that they said would see McKeesport grow as a leading independent living community for senior citizens in the state.

The organization built a model home in McKeesport last year and displayed how a two-story, wood-frame house could be converted into a hi-tech home designed to enhance independent living for the disabled and elderly. Now it is proposing to build at least 20 such homes in McKeesport in the next few years.

The project will be the foundation of a research and development campus known as the Blueroof Smart Cottage Research and Development Center, Blueroof Executive Director John Bertoty said.

"We already have a model house in the zone," Mr. Bertoty said. "We're now looking at how we can expand on what we have already shown we can do to create an independent living community."

The proposed McKeesport Independence Zone will be a 10-acre development in the city's 3rd Ward, stretching from Walnut and Jenny Lind streets to Penny Street and Wigham Avenue.

Blueroof has partnered with the Quality of Life Technology Center, a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh that is dedicated to researching quality of life issues. It plans to build a "cluster community" of cottages in McKeesport that are affordable and equipped with the technology to meet the needs of challenged individuals, Mr. Bertoty said.

"We are very excited about this program," McKeesport Administrator Dennis Pittman said.

"Blueroof wants to make McKeesport a working laboratory for research and development, and that is something we are excited to see," he said.

Excerpts from post-gazzette.com

Create your own social network - Ning.com

Soon kids will be using online networks for school work and, one day soon, in the workplace, this is the kind of thing I'm talking about: Ning.com.

It's a make-your-own social network web site where you can use different templates to set up private social networks to collaborate on projects, share videos and photos. As this Cnet article notes, the site has tools that allow users to customize a social network to make it unique, yet private.

One of the site's founders is Marc Andreesson, also a co-founder of Netscape. In her NetFamilyNews blog, Anne Collier links to a Wall Street Journal article on how teachers are using Ning.com to share private discussions on literature projects, and social activists are creating public ones to drum up support for causes. It's free, though you can pay for storage options if you upload a lot of photos and videos.

Social networks are not always just about socializing, but they are about communicating and community.

Orginally posted by Dory Devlin at YahooTech