• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 1, 2014

Every week seems to bring a new social network -- or two, or three, or twenty. And while everyone is all excited about Ello, a social network that promises to be the anti-Facebook by banning ads and instead charging people for special features and functions, there are some other interesting new social networks on the radar. One newcomer worth considering is MyCoop (pronounced “koop” like “chicken coop,” not “did you get the vegan gluten-free granola at the co-op”), a social network for tenants of apartment buildings and condo owners.

There’s already at least one social network for neighborhoods out there, Nextdoor, which has been adopted by a number of city governments and police departments across the U.S. But in a place like New York City, framing a social app by neighborhoods doesn’t quite work, even if you zoom in to create thousands of mini-neighborhoods, as Nextdoor users have: a typical NYC neighborhood on Nextdoor still encompasses 12 midtown city blocks, with a population in the thousands.

MyCoop.com founder Alex Norman figured a more sensible approach would be linking up people in the same building. After all, tangential as the connection may be, you do have a closer relationship with someone you see occasionally in the lobby of your building than someone who lives two buildings down; presumably if you are at least on a “smile and nod” basis, it wouldn’t be outrageous to knock on their door and ask to borrow a cup of sugar. If things go swimmingly, they might even agree to look after your cat when you’re away (or not).

And of course you also have shared interests when it comes to things like building maintenance, or lack thereof: it’s far easier to organize a group complaint to the landlord virtually than trudging door to door in person, especially if you have the misfortune to live in a walkup. Norman was apparently inspired to create MyCoop by the hassle involved in simple maintenance issues in his Chelsea co-op.

MyCoop also allows users to circulate documents like bylaws and safety regulations, and conduct polls of building residents (e.g. “do you want a bike rack in front of the building?”). As far as the app’s business model, although it’s not making money yet, MyCoop should eventually enable super-targeted marketing by local businesses.