Ghost of Midnight

… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum


5 comments

  1. Murray Carew says:

    I am a high school teacher and community organiser. I love the Front Porch Forum concept, and have tried to do the closest thing I could think of in my local part of Brisbane, Australia… which was a simple email list. I distributed hundreds of letters to the houses around me, introducing myself and explaining the concept as best I could.

    I did get some interested responses, but not enough people providing content to get the thing off the ground. I also was unsure about how to run it: an email group where people can all post and reply? (Disadvantage = they have to work out how to use email groups)… or just accept and collate content and send out regular newsletters, eg: weekly or fortnightly (Disadvantage = centralised, dependant on one person, lack of interactivity, slower.)

    In the end I went for the latter option, setting up an email address which was mystreetname@gmail.com… with my street at the centre of the are that I distributed flyers to.

    If anyone has any better ideas about how to run a solo operation along the lines of FPF, I’d love to hear them. Or ideas about how people like me/us could connect with each other to collaborate on a mutually supportive project.

    Cheers,
    Murray Carew

  2. Murray Carew says:

    Have found an Australian tool called Neighbourhood Networks. Have signed up and am checking it out:

    http://neighbourhoodnetworks.com.au/

  3. Murray Carew says:

    Looks like they still have a fair bit of work to do before it becomes fully functional. Worth singing up however, to register interest and receive updates.

  4. Murray Carew says:

    Another comment re the website I mentioned above – 3 months later and I have not received any reply to my email enquiries. Looks like nothing’s happening anytime soon
    🙁

    On the other hand, check out this facebook group I’ve created:

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/hyperlocal/

  5. Michael says:

    Hi Murray… sorry to read that you haven’t heard from them. And I’ll take a look at your fb page.

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