… But of late, more people in this hardscrabble town of 5,000 have shifted from sharing the latest news and rumors over eggs and coffee to the Mountain Grove Forum on a social media Web site called Topix, where they write and read startlingly negative posts, all cloaked in anonymity, about one another.

And in Dee’s Place, people are not happy. A waitress, Pheobe Best, said that the site had provoked fights and caused divorces. The diner’s owner, Jim Deverell, called Topix a “cesspool of character assassination”…

Ouch.  More motivation to keep FPF moving in a positive direction.

“I see FPF as a place where every day we demonstrate our commonalities & our willingness to get along together & even help each other – regardless of what sort sort of shitheads we might be underneath it all.”

A lovely sentiment from a Front Porch Forum member in Middlesex, Vermont.

The obligation to stand behind your words has also been a core principle of journalism and this newspaper for many years.

The Sun Journal does not use unidentified sources in stories. When our readers write a column or letter to the editor for the newspaper they use their real names.

That, we believe, makes them accountable for what they say, plus it adds weight and credibility to their words.

But we have deviated from that principle for the Web, believing for several years that “online” was somehow different than “in print.” Nearly all newspapers have.

While we have known the identity of many people commenting on stories at sunjournal.com, it was difficult or impossible for users to know. As a result, some comments have been factually incorrect, reckless and mean-spirited.

While the technology of the Web is very different, our core principles should remain the same.

Both our website and print newspaper are, in fact, like a town meeting or community gathering.

So, beginning Feb. 1 all online comments at sunjournal.com will be accompanied by the real names of the people commenting. Only registered and verified users will be able to make comments. Anonymous comments will not be allowed.

All commenters, including subscribers and those registered now, will have to re-register under the new system.

Many newspapers, including the Portland Press Herald and the Bangor Daily News, are now taking steps to make Web commenting more responsible and accountable.

But our new system is the most ambitious effort we’ve seen to elevate the level of online discussion.

Plus, most of our current commenters seem to agree. In an online survey, 57 percent said they would prefer that real names accompany online comments.

The Sun Journal’s motto is “Connecting you with your community,” and for more than 160 years this newspaper has knit together Western Maine communities.

The advent of the Web has given us powerful new ways to connect people and allow anyone to become an active part of every discussion.

We know this decision will not please everyone. In time, however, we believe it will result in a better online experience for all.

Principals like feedback, right?  Well, we need feedback but it can be difficult to deal with at times.  I’ve been thinking a lot about a new web 2.0 type of feedback has affected my school.  Our little town in northern Vermont has a web forum called the “Front Porch Forum” and folks have been using it to discuss our upcoming school budget.  There have been a wide range of opinions voiced on this forum.  It has seemed a bit divisive to me with a range of opinions from  “Teachers make too much money, they should take a pay cut” to “Our teachers work hard and deserve their pay.”  So why does this seem different to me?  People have always held these kinds of opinions.  We used to have an annual meeting where people would openly discuss the budget before casting their vote.  In my years as a Vermont principal, I have heard many similar comments go back and forth at the annual meeting, but comments stopped when the meeting broke for lunch.  Now the comments go on for days in an open forum.  And the comments seem a bit sharper – perhaps  because you are not looking at your neighbors when you are typing on your keyboard.  My superintendent and I have been talking about the urge to respond to these comments.  Certainly, some erroneous information needed to be corrected, but many of the comments took care of themselves.  When one person insinuated that we spent too much money on busing high school students, another person chimed in to say that she has to drive her child to high school every day because there is no bus.  The conversations have died down now  and I kind of miss them.  We vote on our school budget in a few weeks and I want to know what people are thinking.  Reading the forum was like lurking and listening to conversations at the gas pump or the parking lot after a ball game.  While I didn’t like everything I heard, it was better to know what people were thinking and saying.

And my response…

Glad to hear that Front Porch Forum is proving valuable in your town. My wife and I started it about three years ago in the South End of Burlington where we live, and now it serves 25 northwest Vermont towns by hosting 140 online neighborhood forums (the one you mention is but one of them). Remarkably (to us at least!), 17,000 area households subscribe with more joining every day. Nearly half of your town subscribes to FPF now. And, as you know, each posting comes from a clearly identified nearby neighbor (not anonymous or distant folk). It’s our hope that this kind of communication helps neighbors connect and build community locally… that comments on our virtual front porch lead to real face-to-face conversations on actual front porches (and country stores, town libraries, sidewalks, etc.). Best wishes with the upcoming vote… hopefully more discussion up front (via FPF as well as face-to-face around town) will lead to the best results.

Well, it turns out that “civic engagement” is a robust field, full of think tanks, academics, consultants, and the like.  And, given President Obama’s call for community involvement, many of these players have come together to get organized… to try to seize this rare opportunity to advance the state of U.S. civic engagement… to take a leap forward.

Recently, a collection of such parties issued Seven Core Principals for Public Engagement…

In practice, people emphasize or apply these principles in many different ways, and often embrace additional principles. These seven principles reflect the common beliefs and understandings of those working in the fields of public engagement, conflict resolution, and collaboration.

1. Careful Planning and Preparation
Through adequate and inclusive planning, ensure that the design, organization, and convening of the process serve both a clearly defined purpose and the needs of the participants.

2. Inclusion and Demographic Diversity
Equitably incorporate diverse people, voices, ideas, and information to lay the groundwork for quality outcomes and democratic legitimacy.

3. Collaboration and Shared Purpose
Support and encourage participants, government and community institutions, and others to work together to advance the common good.[A]

4. Openness and Learning
Help all involved listen to each other, explore new ideas unconstrained by predetermined outcomes, learn and apply information in ways that generate new options, and rigorously evaluate public engagement activities for effectiveness.

5. Transparency and Trust
Be clear and open about the process, and provide a public record of the organizers, sponsors, outcomes, and range of views and ideas expressed.

6. Impact and Action
Ensure each participatory effort has real potential to make a difference, and that participants are aware of that potential.

7. Sustained Engagement and Participatory Culture
Promote a culture of participation with programs and institutions that support ongoing quality public engagement.
————-
[A] In addition to reflecting the democratic ideals of liberty, justice, and freedom for all, the term “common good” refers to things that optimize the well-being of all (like a traffic light in a dangerous intersection) or conditions that serve to benefit all involved (as in a consensus agreement focused on cleaning up the water supply).

An interesting footnote…

A note about technology: We believe the use of technology should be generally encouraged whenever appropriate to enhance and not impede these seven values — and also that these seven principles apply to both online and offline efforts to engage the public.  However, there is not yet consensus in our field on standards for the use of technology that would warrant the inclusion of specific online or electronic guidelines in this document.

Front Porch Forum is a fantastic tool to share these sorts of concerns, ideas, and more… whether we agree, disagree, or simply are not sure. I am grateful to have such a communication tool available.

I’ve been parroting Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 true fans” model so much recently that I forget how many people still haven’t heard it…

BTW: This principle dovetails nicely with Caterina Fake’s philosophy that you build a real community by greeting each early user at the door. Among the most essential skills that I believe must be taught to tomorrow’s journalists is community management — a skill entirely lost in today’s discussions about newsroom training. Technical training will be obsolete in a year. But the best community managers on the Web today employ principles refined over a long history of community leadership.

The value of community management to Front Porch Forum‘s early success becomes more apparent every day.

Many people, I think, still feel that it’s improper to talk about such matters among neighbors… at a block party, a school event, or on Front Porch Forum.

Recently, a member of the popular and rural Westford FPF forum posted a note about civil rights and gay marriage… an issue that is picking up steam in Vermont.  This led to a response from another resident…

If our Neighborhood Forum is going to turn into a political soapbox then I will remove myself from the mailing list.  I appreciate being kept informed on our community’s events, and knowing about lost dogs and items for sale, etc. I do NOT want to hear about somebody’s political or sexual orientation. I do not think this is an appropriate venue for such discussions.

And then a third neighbor responded to the above with…

online dictionary definition of a forum (#3)
an assembly, meeting place, … for the discussion of questions of public interest.

I like the Westford Neighborhood Forum from lost dogs, to school district issues, house sitters, farmers markets, and political issues… a place for the discussion of questions of public interest. We all won’t agree but let’s keep the forum open.

I am not interested in every posting on the Forum, but I am always eager to open the email marked Westford Neighborhood Forum and check out what is there.  I feel it is is a great resource for our community and hope it continues to grow.

It’s a tough question… some people are interested, able and willing to engage civilly about almost any topic, while others feel that some popular issues are simply out of bounds and should not be discussed openly.  Front Porch Forum’s mission is to help neighbors connect and foster community at the neighborhood/town level.  And to accomplish that we need lots of people to be involved… not just those of one political persuasion or another.  We also support open, civil and construction conversation among neighbors about many topics.  It’s a balancing act for all involved.

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!

And I know I’m not alone.  Many of our subscribers love the political back and forth, while others are clearly fed up and ready to move on.  I got a lovely note today from an FPF member in South Burlington that was a pleasant surprise…

The other day, I decided to resist posting my emotional response to [a City Councilor's] posting re. a police station on the Calkins Natural Area.  I was very angry, feeling that [he] misused a position of power to promote something that is very politically controversial.  I had considered using the FPF in the same way and decided that my neighborhood forum is a “place” for me to share and gather information on topics or issues that relate to our neighborhood and it isn’t a “place” for me to lobby my neighbors for one position or another. (Even though, our neighborhood probably has the most to lose on this specific topic.)  And… since [his] posting is out there, I may very well post my position, too.

Anyway, I want to say thank you for your commitment to FPF and what it provides all of us.  It is almost impossible in this era, to build a sense of “neighborliness”.  I’ve lived in my neighborhood for over 14 years and the FPF has introduced me to neighbors I would otherwise never know.

Sometimes, when we have responsibility for providing or “facilitating” a service and we have negative reactions to the facilitation, we wonder if it’s appreciated.  I want to tell you, it is.

Thank you for facilitating our ability to being good neighbors.

Don’t forget to vote on November 4!