There's nothing quite like a cold shower on a winter morning to encourage tenants to get vocal about their landlords' accountability. Hoping to put their views to good use is Neighbo: an online platform that brings tenants, property managers and landlords together to improve relationships and efficiency, similar to New York's LifeAt, which we covered a while back.

Neighbo offers a suite of three core products: Neighbo Lite, a free service for communities to create neighbourhood networks; standard Neighbo, a private community tool with collaborative widgets, calendars and forums; and Neighbo Manager, a B2B version full of bells and whistles that help property managers keep tabs on their buildings. Prices vary depending on how many apartments or units are in each community.

Founder and managing director Paul Fox was inspired to create the site for UK residents after living in a faceless, poorly managed apartment block for many years. After joining with several property management experts, he launched Neighbo last month. As our social worlds become increasingly virtual, Neighbo taps into the counter trend of seeking connections in our local spheres. Want more nuggets of inspiration along these lines? Check out the "warm bodies" section in trendwatching.com's off=on briefing.

Website: www.neighbo.com
Contact: hello@neighbo.com

Spotted by: Katrina Lincoln

It was about a year ago that Pandora—the first community-sourced thriller from book collaboration site WEbook—was officially released. Pandora features the work of 17 different authors, and now a similar project from Random House and Borders Australia aims to combine the work of 29 authors in what it calls the world's first chain novel.

Best-selling crime author James Patterson will write the first and last chapters of AirBorne, a 30-chapter thriller that will be released one chapter at a time beginning next month. For those in between, Borders and Random House held a contest to find 28 writers who could each create a fast-paced and thrilling chapter in less than 750 words. The contest closed on Sunday, and now judges are in the process of selecting the winners, each of whom will receive a copy of the finished book; one lucky author will also get a one-on-one master class by phone with Patterson himself. Once completed, AirBorne will be released one chapter at a time beginning on 20 March. Readers will be able to download each chapter electronically, but the final book will be published in print only for participants in the competition, according to digitalOZ. Meanwhile, one aspiring collaborator's entry is posted online.

Though clearly being held primarily for promotional purposes, the AirBorne competition makes smart use of Generation C's wild enthusiasm for creating content of every kind. As the saying goes, the pen is mightier than the sword—or, in this case, the mass-market ad campaign! ;-)

Website: www.borders.com.au/chain-thriller/
Contact: www.borders.com.au/customer-enquiry-form.asp

Spotted by: Emma Crameri

There is no shortage of ways for music lovers to share and even have a hand in selling their favourite music, as we've noted on several occasions before, but it wasn't until just last week that we had seen a tool specifically designed to let them edit and rearrange recordings of individual songs.

SongMap is a new web application that allows users to create custom arrangements of songs and then download the corresponding audio files and sheet music. The technology was developed by Nashville-based LifeWay Worship to give church leaders new flexibility in arranging their services, and creating it involved what the company says was the largest known recording project in Nashville history, involving more than 150 professional musicians, vocalists and engineers to record as many as eight different versions of each of nearly 1,000 songs. Users of SongMap begin by selecting a song they're interested in from LifeWay's corresponding library. Starting with the traditional, default version, they can then make changes at will, such as rearranging the order of verses, choruses, introductions or transitions and even changing keys. Along the way, they can listen to the result of each change. Once they're satisfied, users can then download the audio files and sheet music for the arrangement they created. The cost to map a song ranges from USD 1.49 to USD 1.99 per part.

Though intended for religious contexts, SongMap obviously has far bigger implications in the mainstream music world, where the creative masses known as Generation C(ontent) will surely jump at the chance to make their own mixes just as eagerly as Generation C(ash) will snap up the ability to sell them. iTunes, Napster, Amazon—are you listening...? ;-) (Related: An online music store of one's own — Viral music sales through widgets — Music promotion with a profit-sharing twist.)

Website: www.lifewayworship.com
Contact: worship@lifeway.com

Spotted by: Judy McRae

Language barriers are one of the online world's most prickly challenges, largely because no single translation solution has yet managed to combine speed, accuracy and low cost. Enter myGengo, a Tokyo-based company that aims to change the way translations are done.

Whereas machine translators are notoriously inaccurate and traditional human agencies are often slow and expensive, myGengo taps a global team of pretested translators working from home for a quicker and cheaper solution. The service currently provides just English-Japanese translation, but more languages are coming very soon, the company says. Users of the site begin by typing or pasting the text they want translated into the myGengo site. There are three service levels to choose from: Standard, which is done by a native speaker for basic, informal communication; Pro, which is conducted by business-qualified translators for more critical translations; and Ultra, which provides extra assurance through the use of two quality-checked translators per job. Once the request is made, qualified myGengo translators are alerted through a dedicated portal, and one immediately begins translating. When the job is complete, the user is sent an email with a link to pick up the translated text. Per-word pricing ranges from USD 0.05 for standard translation to USD 0.15 for ultra services; payment is made via PayPal.

myGengo keeps its pricing low in part by focusing on short lengths of nonspecialized text, it says, as well as by relying on automated administration and economies of scale through the large numbers of jobs it handles. Next on the company's list is Spanish, which will launch in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, myGengo is hiring translators around the world through a team of professional 'Super Workers' who find and qualify translators in each language.

Will myGengo prove to be the solution the translation world has been waiting for? Time will tell. In the meantime, one to watch—and try out! (Related: Real-time IM translation — While-you-wait editing service.)

Website: www.mygengo.com
Contact: info@mygengo.com

Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz

Industry-specific social networks are something we've written about before, including FohBoh, which is dedicated to restaurateurs. Recently, though, we learned of another such vertical community that's dedicated specifically to designers, makers, purveyors and others involved in children's clothing and accessories.

Based in New Zealand, Skout Trade Fair is an online community that aims to help those in the children's products industry find each other and connect. To maintain the narrow industry focus, membership on the site is by invitation only, and only members can view its content. Participants can also lose their membership for engaging in unethical practices. Once granted membership, though, participants can join business forums, connect with other members, list events, upload photos of their work, join groups and contribute to blogs. A service called Skout Guide Dog is even available for mentoring, market research and consulting at a rate of NZD 85 per hour. Finally, members can also advertise on the site or join Skout Trade Fair’s Kid Products Directory for NZD 45 per year.

Skout is built using the Ning platform—which stands ready and waiting to help you create a community of your own for the vertical of your choice. Time to bring the shop talk online! ;-)

Website: www.skouttradefair.com
Contact: louise@skout.co.nz