Jordan, Meet Seattle

By leelefever on April 18, 2005 - 9:02am.

A guest stayed with us this weekend as he looked for a place to live here in Seattle. He is a bright young guy named Jordan Rule and this is the story of how he got here.

On Friday night over dinner, a friend of ours said this before Jordan arrived: “So, let me get this straight, you left a comment on this guy’s web site and now he’s staying in your HOUSE?” My answer was yes, with a grin.

This friend was looking at web sites in the old view- that web sites and people are different things – that you can’t trust someone based on their web site. My reality was that Jordan and his site are the same thing and I trusted him.

Over the weekend, Jordan and I talked about the idea that I could trust him enough to stay at my house, partially because of his weblog. Here were the major points:

I could tell, from his blog posts, that Jordan and I have similar philosophies

His blog could not be written by someone who is a risk in my house

Jordan, as a blogger, has some reputation to uphold by being here – I could be telling a different story today.

It all worked out perfectly though. Jordan found a place to live, made new friends and even got to have lunch with Scoble, Matt Mullenweg (who organized it), Chris Pirillo among others. Here’s how this all transpired…

Nancy White subscribes to alerts for “online community”, reads Jordan’s post

Nancy IMs me “This guy is talking about stuff like you”

I leave a comment on Jordan’s entry

Jordan reads the comment, visits my site

Jordan emails me- “I’m moving to Seattle”

I reply- “Let’s hook up for lunch”

He stays at my house for the weekend

Maybe I am naïve, or too trusting, but I think this is a great example of the power of weblogs- the power to have an online identity that accelerates relationships like this one.

This reminds me a little about how Josh Peterson and I became friends.

Submitted by Keith (not verified) on April 18, 2005 - 11:22am.

Great story, and I don't think all that unusual. I mean I know quite a few people who've shared a room at conference before they ever met face to face.

As technology advances and the Web (etc.) bring more and more people together online, this kind of thing will become more commonplace I would think.

I recently had an idea (not sure if I'll get to it) to build a site that's based on a community of people who love to travel and meet new people. You'd have "hosts" and "guests" and you'd connect people for rooms, meetups, lunch, going out, etc.

I know I'd love to have some people I've chatted with a bit online available to show me around, take me out for a beer, etc. if I spent the weekend in a new city.

I don't think I'm the only one.