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NEW YORK CITY | Noah Brier

Street Mining

How does exploring someone else's favorite NYC spots sound?

July 5, 2007 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 17 COMMENTS

Last weekend I had brunch with my friend Pam. After enjoying a long and relaxing meal we started walking around Soho, showing each other our favorite somewhat hidden spots. After the third or fourth stop Pam said something to the effect of, "we should make this into a thing . . . it's fun to go exploring and introduce people to new places." I got incredibly excited, as I've had a similar idea for a while and have been waiting for someone to do it with.

So, let me introduce . . .

street-mining.png

That's right, street mining. Here's the description we put up on the site: "street mining is pretty simple: once a month a bunch of people get together and go walk the streets. each month is guided by a different person showing off their favorite gems. anyone's invited, so why not come exploring? " The first one is saturday, july 28th. If you're interested, pop over to the site and sign up for emails. That's going to be the only way to find out where to meet.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited. I think it's going to be great. Pam is going to lead the first exploration and I hope to see some of you there.

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COMMENTS

1mikej

nice one Noah

I struggled last time I was in NY to find interesting places. They have this one in London. You can post it on your facebook and stuff as well

http://trustedplaces.com/homepage

July 5, 2007

2Clay Parker Jones

Do you ever stop dreaming of ways to bring people together? Ever the innovator. Nice one! I'll have to make my way to NYC for the next one.

July 5, 2007

3Noah Brier

Thanks Mike and Clay. And no, I try not to stop thinking about ways to connect people.

July 5, 2007

4AdamD

Wouldn't this be a great thing to also have in web form? You get together every month to streetmine, but the stops are also available online. Heck, I could even make a tour online if I don't have people to show.

July 5, 2007

5Noah Brier

Adam, I think we'll definitely put some stuff on the web afterwards. But I think a big part of this is about getting out and meeting some new folks in person.

July 5, 2007

6Michelle Lee

Love it! Man, you should start an enterprise with all these little businesses shooting off!

July 5, 2007

7Noah Brier

Thanks Michelle.

July 5, 2007

8heron

love it!

July 5, 2007

9Scott

i also like this idea, and i also think it would be better as a web form.

July 5, 2007

10Noah Brier

Thanks Scott, we'll definitely be looking in to how to do some web stuff.

July 5, 2007

11Clay Parker Jones

I don't know if you've seen this, Noah, but there's this great Google Maps/Google Video Mashup: http://bhendrix.com/wall/Gmaps_GVideo_Mashup_Rendezvous.html that might be helpful if you're trying to translate the streetmining experience to the web. Pretty neat stuff.

July 5, 2007

12David Castillo

Call me old fashioned, but i don't think there should be an overwhelming web presence for this at all. In fact, I kind of like the idea that you have to physically be there to find out what people's favorite/SECRET spots are. It seems exciting and sort of clandestine that way, the fact that I am going to meet up with a group of strangers and have one of them walk me around makes it exciting. If after every walk the group just publishes all these spots all over the internet seems to me like it would cheapen the experience. I think it might also disuade people from coming out to the actual event.

July 6, 2007

13headphonaught

What an absolutely beautiful idea. This could take off... like likeminded... Wow!!!

July 6, 2007

14Arthur Soleimanpour

As easily the biggest walker (wanker?) to have read this entry (trust, you don't wanna test me) I hate this idea! That's all I need is a bunch of blorks finding all the sweet spots in the city.

Ah well. See you on the 28th and I'd like to host one of these outings. Stupid friggin idea....

July 7, 2007

15Christina

I think that this is brilliant, and also that someone (not me since I don't live there) should start one of these in LA. People who go to LA always tell me how hard it is to meet people there and this would be a good way to rectify that problem. I think.

July 11, 2007

16Evan S.

Very nice idea... I'll try to make it!

July 13, 2007

17erin

i'm a little late on this post, but wanted to add this: at a cafe, a guy came up to me and asked if I was Sara* from meetup.com? I said no I wasn't, but I know of meetup.com. He said he was supposed to meet someone here a half an hour ago but hadn't connected with her yet because they didn't know what each other looked like.

if you start up this street mine thing as an online adventure, it might be helpful to have a picture or special identification option because once you arrive at the designated spot offline, networking and having fun should hit the ground running. You don't want interested people feeling out of place because they feel uncomfortable asking strangers if they're there for such and such...and otherwise have no way to identify one another. maybe combine this with flickr for pics or something. i'm sure your smart mind will come up with something!

July 15, 2007