05 Public-Private Partnerships

A collaborative partnership of technology and local knowledge...

Our concept originated in a small boutique vacation community in Costa Rica to provide solutions to the common challenges of communication, organization, fund raising and self-promotion.  We quickly realized that our challenges were not unique, and when nearby communities expressed interest in our website, Just Ask Locals was born.  Our vision is to leverage our investments in technology by partnering with other communities around the globe to help them to better communicate, organize, self-promote tourism and fund good works in primary education.

Such partnerships will be informal and collaborative in nature, and simply stated is an understanding that Just Ask Locals and communities will work together to create best-in-class community websites that contain the kind of authoritative and comprehensive information that only locals can provide.  Just Ask Locals will create and host the community websites, and our local partners will take stewardship of the websites and provide local content.  Such websites will easily become the most relevant vacation destination sites on the internet, and when coupled with our global branding efforts should quickly rise to the top of search engine rankings.

Our local community partners could be individuals, schools, churches, civic groups, non-profits or government agencies.  Every community is different, and local leaders and champions of education take many forms.  Everyone is welcomed to get involved, contribute and make a difference for the community.  Our Website Stewardship Program enables communities to take full ownership of their community website. 

A strong community website provides many benefits for the entire community.  However its success is dependent on the participation of the community itself.  The community can quickly catapult its website to the top of search engine rankings and drive site traffic simply by: (i) utilizing the private social networking capabilities of Groups to consolidate community collaboration and communications on the website; (ii) sharing local knowledge to content the public facing promotional aspects of the website; and (iii) consistently referring visitors to the website via links from individual websites and emails.

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