#VT - Front Porch Forum is one of the successful services being highlighted today at the Knight Foundation’s Media Learning Seminar in Miami. FPF is pleased and grateful to be included in this prestigious event.
Category Archives: Case Foundation
National gathering of community foundations feature FPF
BYO Projects focuses on Vermont success story
#BTV #VT – BYO Projects is a collection of projects curated by BYO consulting staff and submitted by readers. They showcase projects that make the world a better place through creative problem solving, experience design, technology, and community engagement. Today, on MLK, Jr. Day, they focused on Front Porch Forum!
Front Porch Forum’s mission is to “help neighbors connect and build community…by hosting regional networks of online neighborhood forums.”
State of the Re:Union looks at online communities
#BTV #VT - This NPR show weaves together several stories about online communities… lots of food for thought, including a segment about Front Porch Forum (for FPF’s part, go to the 5th section (Segment B) and start at the 7:00 minute mark).
40,000 Vermonters can’t be wrong
#BTV #VT - Front Porch Forum now has 40,000 members out of its 110,000-household area in Vermont.
Do tech start-ups belong in Vermont?
#BTV #VT - Sometimes we get this question from out-of-state folks who think all tech start-ups should be born in Silicon Valley. Well, Burlington and Vermont have been great to Front Porch Forum.
And we’re not alone. CNN today reported that the Kauffman Index ranks Vermont the 8th most entrepreneurial state, and the top state east of the Mississippi River. And Richard Florida’s latest research puts Burlington 11th on a new Technology Index of U.S. metro areas.
I’ll take it one step finer… from state, to city, to neighborhood. Our Five Sisters neighborhood in Burlington’s South End boasts several tech start-ups, including
Thanks to Fresh Tracks Capital and Vermont Business Magazine for some of this information.
Help FPF land $250,000 grant!
#BTV #VT – Update 3: Click to vote, enter “Front Porch Forum” in the business name field, AND leave city and state fields BLANK. Click SEARCH button. Then, next to FPF entry, click VOTE button. That’s it! Thank you!
Vermonters, Front Porch Forum members and friends… we need your clicks today. It only takes a minute! We’re in the running for a $250,000 grant that we’ll use to improve the FPF software, add more neighbors and features, and expand to serve more local communities. Will you help? As a small Vermont business, far from Silicon Valley and other capitals of commerce, we’re a long shot… but we’ve seen FPF members move mountains before. FPF serves 70 Vermont towns and 1 in upstate New York… 38,000 households participate in this free community service. Let’s see how many votes we can muster! The more votes, the better. 1. Vote for FPF today.
- You must have a Facebook account.
- Go to the contest website and click LOG IN & SUPPORT.
- Enter your Facebook information as needed and click Log In.*
- Once logged in successfully, enter “Front Porch Forum” in the Business Name box (do NOT enter state or city info) and click the SEARCH button. Or search by state.
- When you find the Front Porch Forum entry, click the blue VOTE button next to FPF… that’s it!
- While you’re at it, consider voting for other cool small businesses that you support (you can vote once for as many entrants as you like).
- Voting closed June 30, 2012.
2. Ask your friends to vote for FPF before June 30, 2012.
- Spread the word via FPF, Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.
- Send folks to this blog post for details (http://bit.ly/FPFgrant) or directly to the contest site (http://www.missionsmallbusiness.com).
UPDATE 2: Wow! We’re getting lots of votes! And we need more! Please vote and please spread the word. Here’s an example of what we’re seeing…
Wish you success. We LOVE FPF. It is the best mediumm for getting items of interest to the community.
- Barb, Alburgh FPF
UPDATE 1: The votes are rolling in… the MORE, the BETTER! Please vote AND please encourage friends to do the same. Answers to frequently asked questions…
- YES, to vote you must have a Facebook account and use it to register with the contest website.
- Once registered on the contest website, enter “Front Porch Forum” into the BUSINESS NAME field and leave the city and state fields untouched/blank… click the SEARCH button. Then click the VOTE button next to the Front Porch Forum entry.
And… the second most common response besides voting for FPF has definitely been something like… “I love FPF and want to vote for you, but I will never have a Facebook account.” We’d have hundreds of additional votes if voters could register with some non-Facebook option. Alas.
*More details regarding voting… If you are logged into Facebook on your computer:
- When you click to “Support Small Business”, you will be logged into the Mission: Small Business℠ site via Facebook Connect
- A permissions screen from Facebook will appear
- The Mission: Small Business℠ site will utilize your Facebook credentials for sharing your actions on the site to the Facebook newsfeed
- No information will be posted automatically but you will have the option to share in your Newsfeed your Support, and your Vote on a local merchant
If you are not logged into Facebook:
- When you click to “Support Small Business”, the Mission: Small Business℠ site will prompt you to log into Facebook
- Once you log in with your Facebook credentials, you will see a permissions screen from Facebook.
- The Mission: Small Business℠ site will utilize your Facebook credentials for sharing your actions on the site to the Facebook newsfeed
- No information will be posted automatically but you will have the option to share in your Newsfeed your Support, and your Vote on a local merchant
Fully integrated in Starksboro
#VT - I thought it was pretty neat that at 15 minutes into the Starksboro Town Meeting, Front Porch Forum had been mentioned 3 times by town officials (Town Clerk, Selectboard Chair, and I think also by the Moderator), with things like, “Watch for updates on Front Porch Forum.”
And the thing that struck me, was that it was always said like everyone would know what they were talking about. Here we are three years after start up there, and it’s a fully integrated part of the way the community interacts (and has been for some time). Pretty cool…
That note arrived today from an observer of Starksboro’s March 3rd Town Meeting… and we’re hearing the same from other towns who met prior to Tuesday’s official Town Meeting Day in Vermont.
Free Speech TV is coming to Burlington!
#BTV #VT - Front Porch Forum is pleased to sponsor this action. Click here to donate to their Kickstarter campaign!
Thanks to the work of many in our community, Free Speech TV is bringing its 24/7 independent news, analysis and documentaries to Burlington Telecom. Starting March 1st, we’ll be able to tune in to FSTV on BT’s newest channel (122) on its “basic tier.”
But first, we need to rally to finish the task of making Burlington the first city in the country to offer a fulltime FSTV channel on cable. FSTV has until the end of February to raise a one-time $10,000 to cover its start-up costs.
Here’s some more good news: We raised half the money before we even launched this page.
A group of us founded the Friends of Free Speech TV in Burlington, and we’ve already pledged $5,000 as a Founding Friends Challenge Fund. That means that for every dollar you pledge here, we’ll kick in another dollar to match you. If we can raise just $5,000 by the end of February, FSTV will receive the full $10,000 it needs to launch its new channel in our community.
“Vermont’s Digital Development Starts on the Front Porch”
#VT – Wayne Hanson, reporting for Government Technology this week, writes about the success of the e-Vermont initiative, including this about Front Porch Forum…
As America’s cities become larger and life gets more complicated, some long for a return to a small-town lifestyle, where they are greeted by name, and the front porch — overlooking a picture-postcard main street — is a place to talk to neighbors. While this rosy view of rural living may not exactly square with reality — especially in hard economic times with high unemployment — the urge to enjoy a more rural lifestyle is attractive to many.
e-Vermont, a consortium of seven different organizations, has come together to improve the economic outlook of rural Vermont through technology, while at the same time preserving what’s most attractive about a region better known for its maple syrup, skiing and mountain vistas than Internet connectivity and job growth…
As for those conversations on the front porch, there’s a forum for that called “Front Porch Forum.” … “it’s a platform for neighborhood conversations, with the goal of things spilling over from online conversations to in-person conversations. Needless to say, public officials take a keen interest in that, not just to follow what’s going on but to have an engaged citizenry.”
Typical items on the forum might be someone selling firewood, eggs or a canoe. Missing pets are frequent items, as well as local government issues such as a proposed tax hike to pay for heating repairs at the school, which may be on the agenda for the next town meeting…
Susan Clark, a resident of Middlesex, is a sixth-generation Vermonter who co-authored All Those in Favor: Rediscovering the Secrets of Town Meeting and Community. She wanted more frequent connections with her community than the once-yearly town meetings. So when she heard about Front Porch Forum, she became a community volunteer…
Clark said that in keeping with the benefits of face-to-face meetings, Front Porch Forum isn’t anonymous, and the person’s street… is also listed… And unlike social networking sites like Facebook, she said, “Front Porch Forum wants you to know what’s going on in your community so you’ll get out from behind your computer and go out and go to the yard sale or the town meeting or the school play or the concert or any of those things.”
Clark said that the forum helps connect the public with local government, but she cautions against loading a forum with such things as planning commission documents at first. Wait until they are hooked on community events and items of personal interest, she said.
When Duane Sorrel, of Middlesex, moved to town he found out about Front Porch Forum at a town meeting. Sorrel, in a YouTube video, said that when he posted his information, he got a dozen customers for his automotive business in the first two days. “My favorite post,” he says in the video, “is ‘lately there’s been bears eating chickens.’ That’s been pretty interesting.”
Our Dream…
#VT – Posted to the Calais Front Porch Forum today…
Our Dream - A compilation of dreams and lines written by Mrs. Earle-Centers’ 5th and 6th grade students at Calais Elementary (written after watching Dr. King’s speech in 1963 in Washington, D.C.)
I have a dream that one day everyone will have a friend.
I have a dream that one day people who are poor will get homes and food.
I have a dream that one day all humans will be equal in money, and in health—that no one will be hungry or forced to work to death.
I have a dream that everyone will have food and water and that no one in this world will starve.
I have hope and faith we will be able to help endangered animals, give them homes and treat them well.
I have a dream that people will stop abusing animals.
I have a dream that one day everyone will be safe.
I have hope and faith that we will be able to adopt kids that need help, be there for them and give them care.
I have a dream that all kids will get their own rights and learn to have some kind of freedom.
I have a dream that one day all people will be nice to each other.
I have a dream that one day, everyone can just be friendly, not mean or hurtful.
I have a dream that we will stop the flow of harmful words.
I have a dream that one day we will stand up against bullying and that bullying will stop.
I have a dream that that the people who were getting bullied will be happy.
I have a dream that everyone, no matter what race, will be friends not foes.
I have a dream that one day there will be no nuclear bombs or nuclear power of any kind.
I have a dream that one day this nation will make peace with other nations.
I have a dream that one day this whole world will be in peace, and that angry wars will come to an end,
I have a dream that one day everyone will show the people of the world that they care about what they need.
I have a dream that one day our nation’s weak will be strong, and the strong will be stronger.
I have a dream that our nation will carry on together and with strength.
I have a dream that one day everyone will get along.