The Block Connector was born out of a desire to help the community, at the community level. While we are working on a formal policy, at this stage we don't have one. What we can tell you is:

  • Your data is your data. We do not sell, view, or make your personal data accessible to other people or entities.
  • Your community owns its data and you decide how it is used. If you decide The Block Connector is not for you, you can fully delete your data. There is no recovery.
  • We minimize the data collected. Currently, the only required fields are the street address (because we've come knocking at your door) and a first name. Optionally, a person can choose to provide their last name, email address, phone number, and year of birth. Essentially, contact information. The same information that might be provided when someone signs up for a community membership or that you might store in your phone's contact list.
  • We do make some non-identifying data available to non-member. If you've used the application, you've seen the pie charts and graphs that can be generated. We may make the data necessary to generate those charts accessible. What does that mean? It means we make the aggregate data available, such as counts and categories, but not the underlying respondent details. We do this for one main reason:
    • Communities have asked for it. Many communities want to make those graphs accessible to the community. They want existing and potential neighbors to see what the community values; what its interests are. It sparks conversation and triggers action. If an overwhelming number of people feel the park needs to be improved, that might spur someone to start a campaign. After all, that's why we're doing this; to generate discussion and trigger change. While we do have an API that allows communities to generate and embed those charts in their own website not every community has the technical expertise to do so. Providing those images allows every community to benefit.
    Simply put: We may let non-members see that the majority of Community X like cycling and feel the paths need to be improved, but we will never publish 'Fred at 123 Elm Street likes cycling'.

The safety of the data falls to everyone. While it is almost impossible to guarantee 100% safety, all reasonable steps are being taken.

  • First and foremost, as mentioned above, we minimize the data collected. By not storing sensitive information, you reduce the appeal. Data theft is a risk/reward proposition, much like other crimes. We do not store financial information. Currently, the only required fields are the street address (because we've come knocking at your door) and a first name. Optionally, a person can choose to provide their last name, email address, phone number, and year of birth. Essentially, contact information, the same information that might be provided when someone signs up for a community membership, or that you might store in your phone's contact list.
  • We ensure the servers are kept up to date with the latest versions and patches. We also use HTTPS, which provides encryption of the back and forth traffic.
  • Our service provider ensures the security and reliability of the actual network hardware.
  • The onus is on the community to protect access to its data. User accounts, passwords, and the like.

That's a great question! We're not sure either. The short answer is: nothing, unless you can. The Block Connector arose out of a desire to help communities and that's a commitment we will honor. If your community can benefit from The Block Connector, your community can have The Block Connector. We won't want turn anyone away. Regardless of your situation, please contact us.

Having said that, as we've grown in popularity so have our costs. Our ideal, and what we are working fervently towards, is to to be funded elsewhere. If we can have charities, cities, and community organizations provide funding, we can continue to offer The Block Connector for free. We aren't there yet. While we've grown substantially in the past couple of years, we still don't have the recognition necessary to secure that kind of commitment. Frankly, we also lack the expertise in that area. We haven't had to raise funds before. If you know any experts in that area, send them our way. Full details can be found on our sponsorship page.

In the mean time, we're remaining optimistic in the support of communities that believe in us. Think PBS or Wikipedia. If you have the funds and you want to help, great. Some communities have received grants to set up software such as this. We've worked with them to provide access, training and customization, with that funding allowing us to continue to offer it to others.

We've come up with a list of potential price points and value-add, optional features. If you can contribute to keep this application running, we'll offer the following services in exchange. Please, again, bear in mind that these are only guidelines. We won't turn anyone away. We're still a small company with flexibility and we want to help. Please Contact Us

Introductory

Everything you need to get started including a single Community/Neighbourhood Connector and full free-form conversation abilities.

Free
Intermediate

Everything above, plus:

  • Unlimited Connectors
  • Document Storage
  • Reporting

 $175/yr
Advanced

Everything above, plus:

  • Connections

 $250/yr
Complete

Everything above, plus:

  • Alerts
  • Private API

 $325/yr
Fully Completely

Everything above, plus:

  • E-mail Integration

 $400/yr
Future Proof

We're always improving! This includes everything above, plus guaranteed access to any new features deployed that year.

$500/yr