We started rBlock to make it easy for block captains to form and sustain effective neighborhood watch programs.   The idea was simply that if a small enough number of residents could share immediate alerts with each other, there would not be too many of them, and each of them would be relevant.

We quickly realized that a single residential block was the perfect construct for enabling 30 residents, on average, to privately share a low volume of high-value alerts.  Today, residents share alerts on their block relating to anything they’ve just observed that may be urgent, and that every resident is grateful to know about.

The sharing of alerts did more than achieve our goal of making it easy for block captains – it effectively made everyone a block captain.   Today, block captains who have at least half their block on rBlock are always in the know and have almost nothing to do.   This is because after years of keeping their blocks informed, their blocks are now returning the favor. Perhaps rBlock’s neighborhood functionality, which is just around the corner, will get them busy again!