Transition From Watch Jefferson County

Ron and I launched Watch Jefferson County in January 2005. The past four years have been rewarding and exciting – we’ve had the opportunity to work with community members and local law enforcement.  We’ve had the opportunity to present Watch Jefferson County and discuss the underlying concepts and technology with researchers and representatives from many well known web based companies.  We’ve also received interest from other neighborhoods outside of Jefferson County – many of them have inquired about using our system for their own neighborhoods.

Today we’re pleased to announce that we are discontinuing Watch Jefferson County and replacing it with Nation of Neighbors. Nation of Neighbors will continue our mission to enable Citizens and Law Enforcement to work together to fight and deter crime and improve our communities – on a national scale.

Nation of Neighbors has been in development for the past two years and has been built from the ground up to facilitate Collaborative Neighborhood Watch.  While the goal is the same, the interface and user experience are vastly different than Watch Jefferson County.

Here are a few of the major differences:

• Nation of Neighbors is much faster and more responsive
• Nation of Neighbors makes it easy to add content.  In addition to reports, you can also share news, events, links, photos and files with your community.
• Report Alerts work again.  Select email or text message alerts for events up to 3 miles away.
• Members take on an active role in moderating incoming reports.
• Membership is still free but now based on referrals from existing members.
• Each community is a separate group with it’s own homepage and news feed.  Members may belong to multiple Community Groups.  Watch Jefferson County will continue to be maintained as a County level community group within Nation of Neighbors and most of the content that has been added to Watch Jefferson County will be transferred.  Existing Community Groups will also be transferred – we will contact group managers with additional details.

We will send welcome emails to existing Watch Jefferson County members on or about June 1, 2009.  Watch Jefferson County (watchjeffersoncounty.net) will be closed to new content effective June 1, 2009.

Thank you for helping us build Watch Jefferson County and we look forward to working with you and your community as Nation of Neighbors.