Shareable has now existed for two full months. In that time, 15,000 people have read an average of four and a half pages each. We've won rave reviews from some of the biggest sites on the web, including Boing Boing and Treehugger. If you're new to Shareable, here are some of the best pieces to have appeared during the past month:
- Hands down, "How to be a Carfree Family," by Angela and Dorea Vierling-Claassen, is our most popular article to date. What's interesting (to me, as editor) about this piece is that most of the readers came from the front page or from our various social media pages, instead of from links at other sites–meaning that Shareable's core audience really wanted to read this kind of DIY story.
- Indeed, many of our readers seem interested in the question of how and why to share transportation instead of owning a private vehicle: My short essay on "Five Ways My Son Benefits from a Carfree Life" was also popular, along with ongoing coverage of Boston's budding bikesharing program. All these pieces provoked a lot of discussion in the blogosphere and social media. (On this topic, my Q&A with Zipcar founder Robin Chase hasn't been popular at all–but it should be. Chase has a thought-provoking perspective on sharing, so please check it out.)
- Other popular articles and essays from our second month: artist Claire Kessler-Bradner's essay about the "memory maps" she's creating of her San Francisco neighborhood; Aaron Renn's "Detroit, New Frontier," which doubles as a photo essay featuring the work of Vanessa Miller; Terry Bisson's conversation with novelist Kim Stanley Robinson; and part one of Janelle Orsi's "Slow Homes Manifesto," which I thought was a genuinely exciting synthesis of disparate ideas about housing–be sure to read part two!
- In general, our readers seemed fascinated by ways architecture and design interact with daily life in cities–quite a few people read smaller blog entries about, for example, an open air library made from reused materials in Germany; there was also a lot traffic to urban DIY pieces like starting a skillshare in Brooklyn. (And, adding to this impression, Chris Carlsson's"What is a Shareable City?" is now the most popular pieces from our first month of existence.)
- It's still too early to declare any of the pieces currently on the homepage as popular or not, but Rachel Botswan's article about "The Stranger Exchange" in Cambrige, Massachusetts, and Abby Quillen's profile of the Eastside Egg Co-op in Portland, Oregon, are surging to the top as I write–also both pieces about sustainable, shareable city living.
Please do become our fan on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and/or subscribe to Shareable's RSS. We also want your participation: Comment, pitch me stories, and get ready to sign up as a blogger when our community comes online by February 2010.