Ok, I'm new to Gooruze but I'm going to attempt a half way useful comment to this.  Here goes...

I agree, I like the idea of this too, especially the part about using the service to report building maintenance issues which can be a chip on any residents shoulder but I’m not sure how LefAt and other similar schemes will fair in the long term. 

From the articles it sounds like the initial take up is quite good but surely once all the residents have used the service, found out about local businesses etc and know their way around this number will fall / the regularity with which people use the service will decline?  What’s wrong with a physical notice board to advertise local businesses? Or even...saying hello to your neighbours when passing them in the building?  Have we forgotten how to communicate without technology?

 

I can see how this could help increase the sense of community within a building, but let’s not forget that peoples online persona could be completely separate to the person they are in 'the real world' someone who is really chatty and outgoing online can be completely the opposite in person, do you think there could be issues with privacy / safety allowing images of tenants to be posted on these sites?  I don’t recall the articles mentioning they had dealt with this particular issue.
 

It's a nice idea, I guess we need to 'watch this space'...