Monthly Archives: October 2007

Neighbors get organized for local utility fix

Posted on Sunday, October 21, 2007 by No comments yet

Trouble getting your local government or utility to address a problem in your neighborhood?  People are discovering the power of Front Porch Forum in this arena.  Here’s the latest example from an FPF member today in Burlington’s New North End…

I’ve been remiss and want to belatedly express my gratitude to all my Village Green Front Porch neighbors who kindly contacted Burlington Electric.  The street lamp at the end of Van Patten Parkway and Brook Drive, which was knocked down last winter, was replaced!

Nothing like a load of phone calls from one neighborhood to get a municipality or local utility to tune in and fix the problem.

Zwaggle for sharing stuff among parents

Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007 by No comments yet

A new Colorado-based service…

Zwaggle is an online community for parents to share with other parents. Using our points based sharing system, parents spend less money, time and resources providing for their children.

More Good News for Front Porch Forum

Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007 by No comments yet

Well, this is a good week for Front Porch Forum. We just learned that we are one of 100 semifinalists out of nearly 5,000 entrants for the Case Foundation’s Make It Your Own Awards. This grant program “is about people connecting with others in their community, forming solutions, and taking action.” The top 20 will be announced in five months and the final four a month after that. Thanks to the Case Foundation for the initial interest in our work!

Front Porch Forum Earns National Award

Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007 by 2 comments

We just learned that the community-building accomplishments of Front Porch Forum are being recognized with a national award! Hooray! Congratulations and thank you to the thousands of local people who contribute to the success of this service.

The Orton Family Foundation and PlaceMatters will present the award as part of the CommunityMatters07 national conference that will take place on Burlington’s waterfront Oct. 23-25. We’re truly honored by the “Innovator in Place” award and it provides a welcome boost to our efforts. Thanks to the Orton Family Foundation and PlaceMatters.

Michael and Valerie Wood-Lewis
Front Porch Forum

Here’s the press release from Orton…

Orton Family Foundation Awards
2007 Innovator in Place to Michael Wood-Lewis

MIDDLEBURY, Vermont –The Orton Family Foundation takes great pride and pleasure in naming Michael Wood-Lewis winner of the 2007 Innovator in Place Award. Michael and Front Porch Forum http:// frontporchforum.com, his free on-online service, excel at building social capital and community capacity for change.

In choosing Michael, the Foundation decided he best fulfilled the spirit of the award, which aims to honor successful grassroots community activists and leaders not typically recognized for their efforts. Michael accepted his $3,000 award at a reception at the ECHO Center on Burlington’s waterfront during the COMMUNITYMATTERS07 conference.

“Some argue that the Internet isolates people, further tearing the social fabric,” said Orton Family Foundation President and CEO Bill Roper, “but Michael proves the opposite can be true. His innovation, civic spirit and commitment enable the kind of friendship, trust and interdependence among neighbors that the Foundation believes are key to vibrant, sustainable community. His tool is enhancing Burlington’s heart and soul.”

Michael Wood-Lewis, with his wife Valerie, founded Front Porch Forum in 2006. In its first year, the Forum’s trend setting use of the Internet at the neighborhood level brought 25 percent of the citizens of Burlington, Vermont (pop. 38,889), into community discussions. The free on-line service hosts 130 adjacent neighborhood forums covering every part of Chittenden County. About 7,000 households have subscribed, and hundreds more join every month.

“We hear from people all the time who lament not knowing their neighbors,” said Wood-Lewis. “When Front Porch Forum kicks into gear, those connections begin to form. It’s a wonderful thing to watch take root, grow and blossom.”

Neighbors put Front Porch Forum to good use, connecting with neighbors and building community by posting all sorts of messages: borrow a ladder, refer a plumber, look out for a lost kitten, organize a block party, discuss traffic calming, report a break-in, announce a school play, debate zoning, and on and on.

In addition to direct results (“Kitten Found!”), it’s the growth of community offline that is the true measure of Front Porch Forum’s impact. Each message comes from a clearly identified nearby neighbor, so over time participants get to know each other better. This familiarity spills over from the virtual to the actual front porch.

The webs spun by Front Porch Forum that connect people are strengthened by 250 Forum Neighborhood Volunteers who champion the forums in their own areas and 140 local elected and public officials who participate across their jurisdictions. Police and other government officials use the site to better respond to problems in their area.

A remarkable Burlington innovation actively cultivating the development of rich, vibrant community, Front Porch Forum is exploring replication options and has a waiting list with more than 150 communities represented. Michael Wood-Lewis’s groundbreaking social innovation is a blueprint for community development of the future.

Michael’s previous experience includes steering a regional trade association to a position of national prominence. He also led a consortium of municipal leaders from across the country in developing environmental technology. He is active on the advisory board of Burlington Telecom, a cutting edge municipally owned “fiber optic to the home” utility, providing data, voice and video. Wood-Lewis brings to bear an unusual combination of technical background (MS engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), business experience (MBA), and 20 years of community organizing.

CONTACT:
John Barstow
Director of Communications
The Orton Family Foundation
152 Maple Street, PO Box 111
Middlebury, VT 05753
www.orton.org

Film Series focused on Community

Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007 by 3 comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 18 October 2007

COMMUNITYMATTERS07
Growth and Character: Having It All

COMMUNITY FILM SERIES

Tuesday, October 23
7:00 – 10:00 PM
The Film House
Main Street Landing, On the Waterfront, Burlington, VT
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

BURLINGTON, VT—The Orton Family Foundation and PlaceMatters are pleased to announce our mini film series, an evening of documentaries on what it means to live, work and play in true community—and the consequences of destroying community. The event is free and open to the public.

Patrick Farrington, Director and Producer of The Champlain Street Urban Renewal Project, will tell you about making his film and answer questions from the audience. See bio below.

The Champlain Street Urban Renewal Project
Ponderosa Productions Presents a Patrick Farrington Film
Opening Theme by Stephen Harrington. Produced by Patrick Farrington and Julie Dutra Farrington. Written, Edited and Directed by Patrick Farrington
Running time: 30 minutes

Imagine being forced out of your home to make way for commercial development. It happened to families living in the Champlain Street Urban Renewal Area in the 1960s. A seemingly forgotten piece of Burlington’s past comes to life in this documentary through heartfelt interviews with former residents and individuals close to the process. Childhood memories and rare photographs tell the story of an established neighborhood that was once the heart of downtown Burlington.

Grow Up Fresh! Vermont School to Farm
Vermont FEED: Food Education Every Day
A partnership of Food Works, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), and Shelburne Farms www.vtfeed.org
Produced by Bruce Gibbs, Betsy Rosenbluth, Cabin46Studios, 2007
Running time: 23 minutes

Vermont Feed raises school and community awareness about healthy food, Vermont farms and good nutrition. We act as a catalyst to rebuild health local food systems by cultivating links between classrooms, cafeterias, local farms and communities.

Made possible by the generous support of the Argosy Foundation, Vermont Housing and Conservation Board—Farm Viability Program, and the Center for Whole Communities.

Growing Together: Consensus Building Smart Growth and Community Change
A film by Melissa Paly, Cross Currents Productions, for the New England Environmental Finance Center. Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service. With Support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Running time: 52 minutes

Many communities are finding the issue of how to grow a divisive one. This film offers an alternative to the discord and stalemate that too often occurs over how to approach change as a community—“consensus building.” Speaking in their own words, community officials, concerned citizens and developers of smart growth and revitalization projects discuss how difficult issues can be approached collaboratively to find successful paths for change.

“An inspiring film about how communities and developers can transform can transform typically adversarial relationships into ones that enhance community character, sustainable development, and economic benefit.”
—Patrick Field, Managing Partner
The Consensus Building Institute, Inc.
Cambridge, MA

The Lost People of Mountain Village Jury Award Winner, Mountainfilm in Telluride
Written, Produced, Directed, and Edited by Neal Marlens ands Carol Black
Narrated by Christine Dunford; Director of Photography, Doug Berry; Associate Producer and Additional Photography, Jim Hurst; Sound, Stash Wislocki; Original Music, Mark Leggett; L.A. Producers, Mark Grossan and Raman Rao
Running Time: 15 minutes

Anthropologist Wade Davis calls it “no less than the most spectacular archaeological and anthropological discovery of our lifetimes.” Dr. Jerrold Sapphire, author of Vanished: Why Bad Things Happen to Bad Civilizations, calls it…well, you’ll find out what he calls it. But when a lost backcountry skier high in the Rocky Mountains stumbles on a monumental complex of structures—apparently completely uninhabited—the only thing that experts agree on is that we may never know what really happened to “The Lost People of Mountain Village.”

Patrick Farringtoin BIO: Patrick grew up in South Burlington, the son of Albert and Monica Farrington, both native Burlingtonians.

After living in Los Angeles for a couple of years he returned to Vermont and started working with the video medium in 1992. After several years of producing corporate videos and working on local television spots Patrick looked to produce a story with deeper meaning.

Events surrounding The Champlain Street Urban Renewal Project became the logical choice because there were several family connections to the renewal area. So, in 1998, to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the first home demolished, Patrick began production of his film cleverly titled “The Champlain Street Urban Renewal Project”.
____________________________________
CONTACT:
John Barstow
Director of Communications
The Orton Family Foundation
P.O. Box 111
Middlebury, VT 05753
802-388-6336
www.orton.org

More on the Apocalypse, aka Start-Up Acquisition Fever

Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 by No comments yet

A couple interesting  pieces  this week about the booming  dot.com investment arena…

First, Robert A. Guth at the Wall Street Journal Online reports that Steve Balmer predicts that he (aka Microsoft) will buy about 20 start-ups per year for five years for between $50M and $1B each.

And before that, Brad Stone and Matt Richtel wrote in the New York Times about a growing dot.com investment swell that may become bubble 2.0.

Local… the fifth horseman?

Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 by No comments yet

Russell C. Horowitz offers today that the Internet has…

seen four major consumer- and/or merchant-focused movements that have created or transferred hundreds of billions of dollars of value.

They are…

  1. Communications. Businesses that primarily focused on the consumer, navigating online, email and messaging.
  2. Commerce, which massively impacted both consumer and merchant-driven markets.
  3. Search, … exponentially expanded merchants’ ability to acquire customers more efficiently.
  4. Social networking. While we have yet to see how the model evolves, it is obvious that these businesses are impacting online consumer behavior.

Local will be the fifth – and it will impact consumers and merchants alike.

Each of these movements has created hundreds of billions of dollars of company value and Local will be at least as transforming. Local will not be winner take all and will be realized through the collaboration of many companies.

e-Neighbors Research: email lists build community

Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 by No comments yet

A new academic paper has just been published in Information Communication & Society (iCS) that’s really fascinating…

Neighborhoods in the Network Society: The e-Neighbors Study
Keith N Hampton, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
October 2007

Professor Hampton has worked in the “e-neighborhood” arena for the past several years and some of his research is available on his website.

This new paper presents findings from a study that provided neighborhood-level online social networking opportunities for four Boston-area neighborhoods… one apartment complex, one gated condo development, and two suburban neighborhoods. Each was provided a neighborhood email list, and a neighborhood website with a bevy of bells and whistles.

The short of it (and I’m condensing and skimming, so likely missing some key points!):

  1. The suburban neighborhoods made better use of the offer, then the condo development, and the apartments were dead last.
  2. The email list became popular in the active neighborhoods and grew from year one to year two of the study, while the web tools got almost no traction
  3. Different issues got different play… “Studies of community email lists have consistently found that their use is primarily for information seeking and household aid, but they are occasionally used to express opinions and discuss politics, civic duties, and collective action (Hampton, 2003, Mesch and Levanon, 2003).”
  4. Neighborhood organizer types love this kind of tool… “Neighborhoods that already have an interest in building community, with the neighborhood context to back it up, are most likely to profit from a neighborhood email list.”
  5. New neighbors and others outside of the inside crowd more readily jump onto this more democratic grapevine… “Within neighborhoods, those who have smaller networks on average, and consequently are the most likely to have a deficit of power and access to information, are the most likely to participate.”
  6. While non-posting lurkers get the information, they don’t get the social boost… “the benefits of an email list are only available to those who actively participate, by sending messages to the neighborhood list. Lurkers experience no change in their network size as a result of observing.”
  7. Active participants see their neighborhood social network grow.
  8. Folks left out of neighborhood social networks due to poverty and other issues will be even worse off if they aren’t able to participate online; they need support… “For those of lower socioeconomic status, residential mobility is a reduced option as they undergo changes in life-cycle and family status, and when mobility does occur, it is less likely to provide access to a neighborhood context that supports the formation of local social ties –with or without the advent of new media. Unless traditional community networking initiatives, those that provide a neighborhood email list, a technology infrastructure, and training, continue and expand the work they have done in less privileged neighborhoods, the “social network gap” between rich and poor, inner city and suburb, will continue to grow.”

Overall, much of what I read jibes with our experience running Front Porch Forum in our pilot area since fall 2006, and our flagship neighborhood forum since 2000. It’s great to get some confirmation from a respected researcher. Also, lots of details and insights that may guide FPF’s development. Thank you Professor Hampton and colleagues!

Yodle selling ads to small businesses

Posted on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 by No comments yet

Greg Sterling writes today

I had an interesting conversation this morning with Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle (formerly NatPal), a local SEM firm. Yodle is in the hunt for SMB online advertising dollars and says its growing ranks of advertisers are spending roughly $1K per month — a figure that I’ve heard from others.

This translates to an average annual spend of roughly $12K, which compares with an approximate annual spend in print yellow pages of $4.5K or so…

The company is driving clicks but selling calls. It doesn’t guarantee clicks or calls but uses predictive modeling to set expectations (e.g., for that spend you can expect to receive X calls, based on Y clicks). Cunningham said that his sales team offers what amount to small, medium and large packages that are budget based and very simple to sell and buy.

LifeAt – Social Networking in Residential Buildings

Posted on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 by 1 comment

TechCrunch reported today

New York-based LifeAt wants to create a social network around your residential building. Do you need one? Nope. But maybe you’ll use it anyway. And perhaps you’ll even get to know some of your neighbors. The building managers control the network and post information about the building itself. Residents sign up to get news about the building, interact with other users, etc.

LifeAt is in the ballpark. Front Porch Forum knows all about the demand for neighborhood-level online service. Time will tell if they’ve got it right.