Pundit Seth Godin hit a homer yesterday with his blog post about the trade offs of pursuing the mindless masses of speed clickers vs. seeking small groups of folks who are really paying attention. Sayeth Seth…
The net has spawned two new ways to create and consume culture.
The first is the wide-open door for amateurs to create. This is blogging and online art, wikipedia and the maker movement. These guys get a lot of press, and deservedly so, because they’re changing everything.
The second, though, is distracting and ultimately a waste. We’re creating a culture of clickers, stumblers and jaded spectators who decide in the space of a moment whether to watch and participate (or not).
Imagine if people went to the theatre or the movies and stood up and walked out after the first six seconds. Imagine if people went to the senior prom and bailed on their date three seconds after the car pulled away from the curb…
If you create (or market) should you be chasing the people who click and leave? Or is it like trying to turn a cheetah into a house pet? Is manipulating the high-voltage attention stream of millions of caffeinated web surfers a viable long-term strategy?…
My fear is that the endless search for wow further coarsens our culture at the same time it encourages marketers to get ever more shallow. That’s where the first trend comes in… the artists, idea merchants and marketers that are having the most success are ignoring those that would rubberneck and drive on, focusing instead on cadres of fans that matter. Fans that will give permission, fans that will return tomorrow, fans that will spread the word to others that can also take action…
About 45% of Burlington households subscribe to Front Porch Forum now, which is amazing considering that about 85% have access to the internet. So, that leaves about 40% of the city who has access but has not subscribed to FPF yet. How might we lure in the remaining 40%? Must we go the flashy and shallow route described by Godin? That would be a poor approach… one that might attract, but wouldn’t likely retain, subscribers. Plus, as Godin points out, “coarsening of our culture” locally would not be far behind.
Carrie Leber writes on The Christian Science Monitor website about the challenges of living with difficult neighbors. Her bottom line…
Maybe Internet forums, not fences, are what make good neighbors.
After discussing her own hard-to-live-with neighbors, she says…
Ironically, rather than face-to-face discussions, it may be that the Internet is the best source of info about potentially exasperating neighbors. You can go to sites like RudeNeighbor.com, where people post items about loud parties and bad behavior.
Although researching online kvetching about your potential neighborhood is one option, I really like the notion of the Front Porch Forum.
Started by Michael Woods-Lewis and his wife, Valerie, about 10 years ago, Front Porch Forum is comprised of groupings of neighborhoods in Vermont, each of about 400 homes. People sign up and must clearly identify themselves (no anonymous ravings), and then post items of concern or interest to local neighbors.
To date, 17,000 households across 25 towns in that state interact and discuss what’s going on in their neck of the woods.
What’s key about FrontPorchForum is that it is a micro-community, not a giant group of users such as on Facebook or Twitter. And while the geography of the organization to date has been limited to the Vermont area, FPF will set up a forum in any area for a fee. Or you could start one of your own!
From a real estate perspective, this is a great option for giving insight to prospective buyers about the nature and zeitgeist of a neighborhood. Had there been a forum for my community in Connecticut, I most likely would have seen the many qualms others in the area have had with the infamous Mary and Jerry over the years (no, their ire has not just been focused on me).
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more