My desk is becoming cluttered with bits of paper recording the URLs of various websites that look interesting. So I'm going to park the list here so that I can throw the slips of paper away.

Lotsa Helping Hands. (*****) From a quick survey of the site, this looks like it could be immensely useful. I can imagine our Sunday School class latching onto the system for caring for families of newborns and others who could use a helping hand.

It could also be used for coordinating contributions of labor and gifts-in-kind for a couple who are getting married and relying on the help of a circle of good friends to pull the "big day" together. Some years ago I was a part of a community that threw such a wedding, and from my vantage point as an observer/minimal participant, the administrative apparatus required was absolutely terrifying (as if there wasn't enough to worry about with a fleet of professionals putting on a wedding). But something like this could actually make it managable.

Spinthebottle. (***) I wasn't aware that Pop-Up Video was no longer on the air. (How often do I watch VH1? Twice a decade or so?) How sad, since Pop-Up Video is the only way I know to watch music videos without experiencing brain atrophy. It seems they put up a different video each week.

Neighborwork. (*) I predict that this one will be gone and forgotten in record time. A look-alike social networking website that will never achieve the volume of the big names, and therefore never be functional for its stated purpose: helping people to meet their neighbors. Unlike LotsaHelpingHands, which harnesses the power of the internet (can you believe I just used that phrase? "harnesses the power of the internet?" Who the heck talks that way? Other than Amazon and Vonage?) to serve existing communities, Neighborwork offers another layer of technological isolation to excuse us technophiles from building RL community. Wish you knew the people who live in your building? Then go meet them! Don't stalk them on the internet!

What's really sick, though, is that this website made it onto my list of sites to check, which means, yes, I would rather look up my neighbors on the web than sit with them on my front porch and get to know them.