Placewatch

A good place to collect, organize, share, and preserve knowledge on things you care about.

One community — multiple thematic projects.

Take a look at some of them:

1201:future

Riga is not ready (but at least it tries). City development updates and ideas.

1201:past

History of Riga. The project where it all started.

Valmiera

Exploring history of Valmiera, Latvia. Managed by the town's local history museum.

Projects are made of notes.

From one-liners to full-fledged articles, here are the latest ones:

www.lsm.lv/raksts/zinas/latvija/21.12.2024-piepildes-sajuta-rigas-lielajos-kapos-ridzinieks-mihails-brivpratigi-atjauno-sen-aizmirstus-piemineklus.a581250

"Piepildes sajūta” – Rīgas Lielajos kapos rīdzinieks Mihails brīvprātīgi atjauno sen aizmirstus pieminekļus

2024-12-21T07:55:00+00:00

Brīvprātīgi atjaunot un godāt sev svešu cilvēku piemiņu – rīdzinieks Mihails Parahins brīvajā laikā Rīgas Lielajos kapos atjauno vēsturiskus un sen aizmirstus pieminekļus. Paralēli strādnieka darbam uzņēmumā "Rīgas meži" un arī politiskās partijas "Gods kalpot Rīgai" valdē viņš, kā pats stāsta, par savu naudu nepilnu četru gadu laikā ir atjaunojis vairākus pieminekļus, kuru vidū ir mazāk zināmas personas. Kā vismaz gadsimtu senus kapakmeņus atjauno un – galvenais – kāpēc viņš to dara, viņam jautāja Latvijas Radio.
www.facebook.com/share/17uNYkdxxN

Latvijas Nacionālais sporta centrs

ℹ Laba ziņa! Saskaņā ar Būvniecības valsts kontroles atzinumu ekspluatācijā ir pieņemta Latvijas Nacionālais sporta centrs jaunā sporta ēka – Komandu sporta spēļu halles jaunbūve. Jaunā sporta ēka...
www.lnsc.lv/par-mums/jaunumi/params/post/4735945/ekspluatacija-nodota-sia-latvijas-nacionala-sporta-centra-jauna-sporta-eka-

Ekspluatācijā nodota SIA “Latvijas Nacionālā sporta centra” jaunā sporta ēka – Komandu sporta spēļu halle

Saskaņā ar Būvniecības valsts kontroles atzinumu 2024. gada 19. decembrī ekspluatācijā tika pieņemts objekts – Komandu sporta spēļu halles jaunbūve. SIA “Latvijas Nacionālais sporta centrs”

It’s especially useful if your knowledge fits on a map.

But that’s not required.

  • Put your data on the map
  • See all notes within polygon-located tags
  • Mark locations with issues
  • Import relations from OpenStreetMap
  • Export data as GeoJSON

… and expect more geography to come.

Preserve your knowledge.

Your efforts deserve to be safeguarded.

Every day, well-structured ZIP files with all text data and uploads are generated for each project. Project owners can make them public or keep to themselves.

Configure your project.

Make it meet your needs.

Choose who can post, switch anytime

Be the only narrator, select your co-authors — or let the world join the discussion!

Choose your licence

Protect your findings or let the world copy them like Wikipedia articles — the choice is yours!

Optionally, add your own domain

Build your brand. Hopefully you choose to stay — but if you don’t, your audience will follow you.

Start your project

Built with enthusiasm and experience.

Placewatch wasn't built in a day.

2001
A school project on 800th anniversary of Riga evolves into a popular blog on history and sights of the city.
2004
An old-school forum is added to the blog. People start talking.
2013
Zurbu, a moonshot at creating blogs and forums for local history enthusiasts worldwide, is launched. Old blog articles get migrated there.
2024
Finally, Placewatch appears. Rewritten from scratch, with all Zurbu data and new content, and an ambitious goal of providing like-minded people a convenient and safe space for the things they care about.

Who’s behind it?