Ghost of Midnight

… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum

Online tools to help local communities

Posted on Saturday, November 15, 2008 by No comments yet

Matt, on the LocalMouth blog, writes recently

Personally, I think there’s great potential for simple online tools to bring local communities more closely together. It may be a struggle at the start to get together a critical mass of neighbours, and it may need a liberal dash of coaxing, but once you’ve got the ball rolling, people’s natural desire to communicate with others should take care of the rest. Good stuff will happen. ‘Good’ won’t always mean that people get along well or that arguments won’t take place. Far from it. When people are talking about stuff that matters, conversations are bound to get heated at times, and that’s where the delicate job of moderation comes in. But generally, I think, more communication between local people can be a very positive thing.

Right on!  He goes on to list several UK websites that each focus in a different way on their local community… and Front Porch Forum.

I look forward to checking out the local sites he mentions.  Thanks Matt!

Posted in: Citizen Journalism, Community Building, Community Management, Democracy, Front Porch Forum, Good Government, Knight Foundation, Local Online, MacArthur Fellows, Media, Neighborhood, Online Civility, Politics, social capital, Social Media, Social Networking


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