Speeches
Promoting community bonds through mobile social app
Sectors
Community
7 June 2016
Speech by Ms Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, and Finance, and Advisor to Holland-Bukit Timah Grassroots Organisations; at the launch of Suburb
Ladies & Gentlemen
Social media and community bonding
With every new public or private housing project, a new community numbering hundreds of households is formed – a community that shares common living space, requirements for municipal services, and a distinct geospatial identity.
It used to be that people would form such communities only after moving into a new development.
But now, with social media and mobile technology, new homeowners can form virtual communities' way before they move into their physical new homes, by creating Facebook groups for instance.
This trend is particularly evident for new BTOs and DBSS projects because buyers tend to be younger and more tech savvy.
The challenge of being 'cyber kampong chiefs'
Often, these online communities would continue to be active long after people have moved in. They exist in parallel with offline groupings formed later on, such as Residents' Committees or RCs.
Sometimes, RCs are formed from the most active administrators and members of such online communities, because fellow residents have come to trust and like them based on the quality of their online postings and replies, and recognise them for being helpful and public-spirited.
These people are our “cyber kampong chiefs”.
The trials and tribulations experienced by cyber kampong chiefs in serving their community are often not that different from what all ground volunteers face.
Sometimes, they receive thanks and “likes” from residents who appreciate what they do. At times, they deal with scepticism or even hostility from residents who do not. They have to strive to be fair, impartial, prompt and responsive, or risk losing the support and trust of the community they serve.
But cyber kampong chiefs face special cyber challenges too – the hardest of which is verifying the identity of members and ensuring that only residents of the estate are included in the group; not vendors or external parties with no genuine ties to the development.
I was told that one such estate created 3 separate Facebook groups. Only members who passed certification procedures in the first and the second groups were allowed to join the third FB group, which was the real one. All verification had to be done by volunteers painstakingly asking people for proof of residence, and manually determining its veracity. That is a staggering amount of work!
How Suburb serves online estate communities
Suburb aims to fill a gap that is not fully addressed yet by the major social networking platforms or by other apps that are designed to serve communities over larger geographical areas.
It utilises a simple system to verify that users indeed live where they claim to live, and features functionalities to suit the socialising needs of each estate.
It will have a designated place for vendors that allow targeted advertising of goods and services to residents who require them, doing away with the misunderstanding and nuisance caused by false identities.
Trivelis - where it all began
I'm especially delighted to be at this launch today because the founders Mark Wang and Damian Sia are themselves prime examples of the cyber kampong chiefs I talked about, and Suburb was created as a direct result of their journey as cyber kampong chiefs.
They started off as new homeowners of Trivelis, a DBSS development in my Division. They then became administrators of the Trivelis FB group, and later Trivelis RC volunteers.
But they are also technopreneurs, who decided to help themselves and others overcome the challenges they faced by creating a mobile app for estate-based social networking that works for the Singapore context – and we hope, for many other cities as well.
Trivelis has a special place in my heart because it was the first new development that our Division had seen in many years, and Trivelis homeowners were the very first major group of new residents that I welcomed as MP and Grassroots Advisor.
If you have followed the news, you would also know that we went through a lot together. Throughout it all, I have been deeply impressed by the resourcefulness and the friendliness of the resident volunteers. And now, as the creation of the Suburb app has shown once again, 'Trivelis got talent'!
Early responses to Suburb
Since news about Suburb first went online last Tuesday, 160 communities have formed using the app, with more than a thousand sign-ups.
On the Apple Store, it ranks 21st on Singapore's local social network ranking.
Now, you can find communities representing Trivelis as well as Clementi Ridges and Clementi Gateway (two new BTO developments also in our Division) on Suburb, all created via organic growth with no initiation from the company – and many more.
The Suburb team told me they are in the midst of doing instant verification on-site for Trivelis and are going to do it for Clementi Ridges and Clementi Gateway.
Conclusion
Given the encouraging response so far, I believe that the Suburb team have tapped into a real need.
I wish Suburb all the very best. May it make its mark on urban community building, and showcase the innovation of Singapore technopreneurs.
Thank you.