Social capital, the bonds that tie neighbors and society together, has become ever more scarce in modern times. The last few places I’ve lived I only knew one or two of the many people who lived within shouting distance of my front door. (See Bowling Alone for a great examination of the phenomenon.)

From the Greener Gadgets Design Competition comes a device that could help to bridge these gaps through well applied technology. The Eco-neighbuzz lives in your apartment and broadcasts messages from neighbors like, “I need a drill,” “Car-share to Newfoundland!” or “Can I borrow a cup of sugar?” From the description on the competition website:

Even though today we are living in tall concrete blocks built in big metropolises, we are not communicating with our neighbours as we did years ago. Sometimes we even don’t know who is living in the building and what they are doing.

When thinking about green design, we need to design good services which help us to consume less and share more. This means car-sharing, free-cycling (giving unused items for free), recycling, etc. We should first start doing this with our closest community - our neighbours. Even when we have good relationships with our neighbours, we are still missing a good service platform to improve upon it. Eco-neighbuzz is a great platform to build a greener community with our neighbours. Essentially, it is a voice message to neighbours. Interaction with the device happens through a touch screen and handset, using speech-to-text functionality.