By Michael A. Lindenberger / The Dallas Morning News

Good fences might make good neighbors, but Web site developer Jamie Thibodeaux of Colleyville wants nearby residents to know more, not less, about each other.

Ms. Thibodeaux's new business, About My HOA, develops members-only Web sites for homeowners associations, and already 148 local neighborhoods have signed up for the free service.

"Some are more active than others," Ms. Thibodeaux said. "In some neighborhoods I just pick a volunteer Web master who will submit community news on a regular basis. In others, I use the homeowners association."

The idea arose from a project started close to her own home in Caldwell's Creek, Ms. Thibodeaux said.

"I did it here first in our neighborhood," she said. "We wanted a way to provide information to homeowners who could log onto the site at any time. It has meant quite a lot of cost savings. There are no printing or postage costs, and there is no space limitations for what you want to say."

The Web sites – found at www.aboutmyhoa.com – now offer neighbors password-protected access to baby- and pet-sitting bulletin boards, announcements, interactive calendars and links to dry-but-essential information such as property restrictions and homeowners association finances.

Ms. Thibodeaux's efforts come at a time when social interaction – from dinner parties to time spent at neighborhood bars to league bowling – is said to be declining.

Professor Robert D. Putnam of Harvard University made waves this summer with his new book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, a work that suggests the day-to-day social activities that have traditionally tied American communities together have all but disappeared.

His book takes its title from what he says is the fact that more Americans than ever before are bowling, but fewer are doing so in groups or leagues.

Dr. Putnam said this week that ideas such as Ms. Thibodeaux's are growing in popularity.

"This sort of business is rapidly springing up around the country," he said. "I'm quite sympathetic to the idea, though it's much too early to know how effective and durable it will prove."

He said the Internet – and technology – has the potential to bring neighbors together.

"Internet technology could conceivably be an important part of the solution to the problem of social disconnection, but it is way too early to be sure," he said. "Projections of the probable social effects of the telephone or the TV or the automobile during their first few decades proved to be way off the mark, so we pundits and journalists need to be very modest in our projections. Our counterparts a century ago made projections that seemed to them reasonable at the time but now look silly."

Still, he said, if technology is going to strengthen communities in the way that bowling leagues and fraternal service organizations once did, it is ideas like Ms. Thibodeaux's that will probably play that role.

"The use of Internet technology to strengthen and deepen real, grounded – not purely virtual – communities seems to me the most promising avenue for experimentation," Dr. Putnam said.

In any case, the idea has taken off quickly for Ms. Thibodeaux. She designed the site for Caldwell's Creek in September and said that by October, she was convinced there was a larger market for her efforts.

Including some communities in Austin and other cities outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Ms. Thibodeaux said she has about 170 "front pages" – as she calls her neighborhood sites.

One neighborhood group that has signed on to the project is the Woodfield Homeowners' Association, which serves 168 households in Bedford.

"I think it is one of the greatest things that has ever happened," said Henry J. Henning, president of the association. "I have put more information out to the homeowners than I ever got since I moved here. I put the treasurer's report out there, the agenda and the board meeting schedules so they know when we are meeting. It is just fast and easy, and suddenly everyone knows what is going on."

About My HOA generates its revenue from ad sales to local sponsors, Ms. Thibodeaux said, adding that a neighborhood dry cleaner now has the ability to market to a specific audience – neighborhood by neighborhood. She said her ads are between $50 and $250 a month, and each site is designed to accommodate up to seven ads.

So far, she has commitments for about $3,000 a month in ad revenue, she said, though she expects that to increase significantly as more of the 170 sites begin generating revenue.

Business in the first couple of months has been strong enough that she hired her first employee – an advertising sales representative – this week.

Horticulturists Kurt and Donna Kauffman own Unique Landscape Design and Construction in Grapevine and are among Ms. Thibodeaux's earliest advertisers.

Ms. Kauffman said About My HOA allows businesses such as hers to target goods and services to specific markets.

"People who are members of homeowners associations are more likely to be interested in our services," Ms. Kauffman said. "Because of covenants, they may be subject to minimum standards of quality for the landscaping."

That makes for an ideal advertising tool, she said, but Ms. Kauffman added that initiatives such as Ms. Thibodeaux's Web site offer something more profound.

"We have all these gated communities out here, and people are just coming in through their gates and off the street and not looking up," Ms. Kauffman said. "But I think they will be more comfortable in their living rooms ... finding out more about their neighbors. I just think they are more likely to find out more about their neighbors and then be more interested in socializing."

That would be great news for Dr. Putnam, who says that America has resurrected its civic connections before and can do so again.

Staff writer Michael A. Lindenberger can be reached at mlindenberger@dallasnews.com and at 817-410-9602, ext. 4961.

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