The amount of information available for any given area controls the levels of zoom. The information on outside.in and EveryBlock are aggregated from publishers (news sites) or bloggers (user-submitted blogs). For areas like New York, San Francisco and Chicago, there are a wealth of news sources and blogs from which to pull information. However, in areas like Champaign-Urbana, there are only three sources of information submitting content to the site. Obviously, the amount of information produced by these sources is restricted, which limits the possibilities of zoom and layers of localities.

To further address issues of relevance, outside.in features a search bar where users input a category and location and returns results within 1000 feet of the location given. The location may be as general as a metropolitan area (Chicago, IL) or as focused as a particular address (233 S. Wacker Drive). Previously, the feature, known as “Radar,” attempted to add levels of zoom as well as covered areas where social proximity may override geographic proximity. Radar allowed users to zoom any location down to the very intersection or neighborhood block at which he/she was standing while simultaneously reading news and gathering information from locations around the country which also interested the user. Like the microblog, Twitter that asks users to answer in 140 words or less the question “what are you doing right now?” Radar asked “where are you right now?,” allowing users to further connect the online representations of their identities to location. The feature displayed the various layers of zoom for each user in real time. If you were at Navy Pier in Chicago, Radar showed your current location at: 600 E. Grand Avenue. Under your current location a kind of “news feed” of users who talked about or posted pictures of your location appeared. The next level of zoom included news feeds in and around Streeterville (the neighborhood which houses Navy Pier). The city of Chicago would be the next level of zoom and finally “Elsewhere on Radar.” Each layer of zoom included posts, comments and pictures from other users. Currently, the search bar is intended to function as a layer of zoom but in practice, it works more like a filter as the driving purpose of outside.in seems more focused on collecting and archiving than inviting user participation. The metaphor seems to have shifted from a neighborhood block party where anyone can create a flow of conversation or news to a neighborhood store where users filter information based on their interests but aren’t necessarily contributing to its production.

EveryBlock creates layers of zoom through its use of maps. Instead of relying on third-party applications such as GoogleMaps, EveryBlock designs its own maps in order to have more design control as well as increase the layers of zoom. Using the map, one literally zooms in and out until the location in which they are interested comes into focus. Clicking on a link takes you to the specific stories related to the level of zoom.

Layers of Zoom in action on EveryBlock

Users are able to determine their level of involvement in terms of zoom, moving through the site from the and pausing on particular stories or real-time data to create place based on emotional proximity as well as geographic.

Outside.in and EveryBlock are just two examples of how New Media technologies are helping users convey and deepen collective identities through hyperlocal content. The connections users make with one another in social media are typically based on proximity, either social or physical because users are no longer residing in online spaces and then moving offline but rather moving between the two in a myriad of ways, most significantly creating web presences online for their geophysical location as a way to further construct and represent their collective identities.