AdamsBlock was a complete success. I’m reviewing the site stats for last month and 200 thousand people tuned in to see what was going on at one street corner in San Francisco in a two week time frame. That’s pretty astounding and something to be proud of. I sat on the outside looking in as AdamsBlock went from a little webcam in someone’s window to being featured on Fox News and NPR and I also saw the missteps that Adam took when the project was in its infancy.
I don’t think anyone expected the site to go viral but it did and just as Myspace fought to keep their servers chugging in 2004 as millions joined every day, AdamsBlock was fighting to stay alive amidst many mistakes that were made. Each mistake was another nail in the coffin and I did some research to find out what those were.
Adam was too transparent. Everything about him was on the web and still is as I write this. That’s a horrible misstep and one of the primary reasons AdamsBlock failed. Not to blow smoke up anyone’s ass but if Adam was trying to be Batman and reduce crime, why the hell would he take off his mask on the evening news? This was a huge mistake and one that everyone agrees was pretty stupid.
The site design and approach were all wrong. Calling the camera “the worst neighborhood” was a complete lie. The site didn’t mention helping the community or lowering crime which we all know is what resulted in the camera being up but the site didn’t reflect that at all! The site just had photos of homeless people and claims that sounded like they came from a reality TV advertisement. I spoke to Adam about this in depth and I don’t think he was thinking clearly when the site was thrown up. The guy gave money to charity and reduced crime in the neighborhood but I think he was going for shock value when the site was in its infancy and he sure did get it but it was a stupid approach and offensive to a lot of people.
The chat room was hugely responsible for the fall-out of AdamsBlock. I believe the chat room is very important and one of the reasons the project was a success but it also exposed a lot of the truths and lies about the neighborhood and filth of the world would come to the chat room to discuss race, color, economic situations and social classes and pretty much be ignorant. Good hearted people who came to watch would leave and write letters because of what they read in the chat room. I was going through old emails sent to the contact address for AdamsBlock and many of them start off with, “Adam, what you said about black people in your chat is wrong….” Adam didn’t say anything like that but mainstream viewers see a chat room and assume it’s Adam speaking there. The chat room will remain but I’m taking a very unique approach to this which will be discussed more as the project is completed.
Communication from Adam was not very good. His weekly community chats were great but ensuring everyone saw the video wasn’t followed through. OurBlock will have weekly updates on our blog with traffic info, donations, new signups and more really cool stats. I want everyone to know what’s going on with OurBlock on a week to week basis and I’m going to make it very easy to give feedback. I’m creating an OurBlock social networking space for broadcasters and fans to communicate and collaborate, there will be weekly YouTube videos from me where you can spread news virally as well. Finally, this blog will be here to answer common questions on a global level. Before, complaints and feedback were answered one email at a time. If I sense a trend, I’ll post my response to the blog so everyone can be educated and it will also help me manage emails a lot better.
The final thing that hurt AdamsBlock was the lack of partnerships. I’m partnering with everyone that I can on this. I’m securing private and public partnerships and the backup I’m going to receive from everyone is going to keep the project going strong for a long time. Securing a lawyer has been very important to me as well. There are more minor details that I’m doing differently and I feel strongly that you’ll love where OurBlock is going. This is going to be an epic project that will actually change people’s lives and I’m so happy to be working on this.
Thank you very much for your continued support. There will be many more updates as OurBlock evolves into a finished project.
