With the rise of the enormous amount of communities, the Social Web is a trend that cannot and will not be ignored.  It’s an exploding universe of sites full of talking people that multiplies with the speed of light. To map the Social Web, would be a waste of time. So, that’s not what we did. What we did do is use the input of our Cool Hunters and Trend Filters to ‘surf the social’ and analyze the explosions to determine what the next directions will be. (Click on Read Why It’s Cool for more)

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There are plenty of sites out there dedicated to helping consumers find the cheapest plane tickets for a given trip. What we hadn't seen until recently, however, is a site that looks beyond just airfares to identify the cheapest method of travel. Sure enough, Getset is a new site that helps consumers decide whether to go by plane, bus or automobile.

Users of Canadian Getset, which is now in beta, simply enter their starting point and destination—currently, only U.S. cities with an airport and bus station are covered. Getset then calculates the costs of transportation by air, car and bus. It gets distance of travel from Google Maps, while gas mileage and price-per-gallon numbers come from the AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Airline prices are provided via Kayak, and bus prices come from Greyhound. The result Getset provides free of charge to the user, then, is a bottom-line comparison on how much each method of travel will cost them.

Getset is working on adding train travel to its comparison mix; it's also still adding cities to its list. We wouldn't be surprised eventually to see the site factor in carbon footprint considerations as well, much the way the Carbon Diem mobile app does. Nevertheless, the premise is an interesting one, and ripe for emulation in other parts of the world.

Website: www.getsetapp.com
Contact: www.getsetapp.com/contact

Just as it takes a community to raise a child, so too it takes a community of peers and advisors to launch a new business idea. That's roughly the thinking behind Bloblive, which we covered last year, and it's also at the heart of UK-based Bethnal Green Ventures, a new school for people who want to use the web and mobile tools to create social change.

Starting next month, Bethnal Green Ventures Nightschool aims to help further early-stage, socially oriented web projects by bringing them together with all the people, advice and support they need to launch and grow. The 10-week program will meet every Monday evening in London to help social projects answer the question, “What do I do next? ” Answers might include coding the product or service being built, for example, or focusing on the project's own future sustainability; either way, the goal is to help projects reach the next phase in their development.

The application deadline for participation in Bethnal Green Ventures Nightschool was Sept. 1. In early 2011, meanwhile, Bethnal Green will also launch a Ventures program, through which three carefully selected teams will get a small stipend, a work space and community support for three months to help build, test and launch their startups. At a time when incubators are growing in number, according to BusinessWeek, this will be one to watch.

Website: www.bethnalgreenventures.com
Contact: anna@sicamp.org