Yearly Archives: 2007

New Neighborhood Assn. Software

Posted on Thursday, April 19, 2007 by • 3 comments

From techrockies today…

A new online service that aims to provide local neighborhoods with relevant news and communication is now accepting registrations. The Web site, called eNeighbors.com, includes classifieds, current events calendars, resident directories and community news. According to the company, the service will eliminate the need for newsletters and paper directories while offering social-networking features unavailable to those mediums. However, the company stressed that its site is private and secure. Founded in 2005, eNeighbors is headquartered in Denver.

The site looks well designed and professional.  It appears to be an update on neighborhood association software (bookkeeping, minutes, bylaws, etc.), with a social networking add on.  It appears to want the associations to hire the service and then hand over the list of neighbors.

By contrast, Front Porch Forum is ALL about helping neighbors connect and foster community within the neighborhood.  Individual households join when they are ready.  The service is free.  It doesn’t include any of the other association management tools.

Front Porch Forum on Big Stage

Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 by • 1 comment

Front Porch Forum just accepted an invitation from co-organizer Micah Sifry to speak at the Personal Democracy Forum on May 18 in New York City. Wow! What an honor and opportunity. Dare I say, I think we have something to add… what we’re doing is unique (from all that I’ve seen at least), off to a promising start, and potentially powerful.

This will be a great event. Speaking or in attendance…

I imagine that we’ll be tucked away in some corner… but we’ll be there! I better start combing the hayseed out of my hair.

Need Movie/Book Review? Ask Neighbors

Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 by • 1 comment

Here’s a new use of Front Porch Forum’s service from a member in the Oakledge Neighborhood Forum…

I’ll bet some of the folks in this neighborhood are reading some good books and seeing films and plays regularly.  It would be really interesting if folks would write a few words for the neighborhood forum about a book or film they have really enjoyed and think others shouldn’t miss.  -N.A.

Our mission… helping neighbors connect and foster community within the neighborhood.  This message certainly fits the bill!  Now, I hope she gets some folks to give it a shot.

Social Network Traffic Numbers Inflated?

Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 by • No comments yet

MediaVidea reported recently…

News Item #1: A detailed research from HP reveals that 43% of Facebook messages are spam. Marcus from Plentyoffish dating site puts it correctly that you would similar figures on any other social networking sites.

NewsItem #2: A recent Comscore study reports that 3 out of 10 U.S. Internet users delete cookies, which means that sites may be overestimating audiences by a factor as high as 2.5.

Both pieces of information have implications for advertisers who use cookie-based visitor counting and rates of social networking site usage.

I wonder how accurate this is?  If this ascertain is on target, how widely known is it?  It seems remarkable to me.  It might help explain in part the incredibly positive response to Front Porch Forum we’ve found in our initial service area (greater Burlington, Vermont).  Subscribe to your neighborhood’s forum and you get no spam… just your neighborhood forum in your inbox every few days.  And, our audience is very clear… we have contact information on each one… simple to get an accurate count.  This may also contribute to the initial high level of interest among small local business in sponsoring a variety of our neighborhood forums.

FatDoor on the right path?

Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 by • 3 comments

The Local Onliner previewed FatDoor today… sounds interesting.

The startup crawls the Web for publicly available info (College, job, kids, church, clubs, blogs) and is being designed to provide neighbors with publicly available info about each other so they can establish commonalities from the getgo, rather than sitting in the isolated silos of today’s typical “Bowling Alone” neighborhood.

The site’s motto is “positive social change.” The company hopes that it will help the “neighborhood get stronger, help people develop friendships in their neighborhoods, and become more civic in their involvement in their communities.” It may also be used for more annoying things (telemarketing, real estate pitches etc.) But the site has taken pains to hire a privacy expert to minimize the inherent risks. If it works at all, one imagines it could be a nice complement to something like Zillow, and more dimensional.

FatDoor has some big names and resources behind it, so it’s going somewhere. I’m trying to picture a real-world (vs. virtual) equivalent… tacking everyone’s resume to their front door? Flipping through your neighbor’s mail to see who’s newsletter he’s getting? I like the motto and goals (similar to Front Porch Forum), but I’m not sure this approach will be warmly embraced. I haven’t seen it in action, so hopefully the sense of the site will match up with the promising intent.

Neighbors to the Rescue!

Posted on Sunday, April 15, 2007 by • No comments yet

This afternoon a Jericho Corners member posted a call for help from her neighbors. Problem solved in a few hours! She just sent in this follow up message titled “We’re Saved!”

The neighbor’s have come to our rescue! Thank you Tina and John for the emergency load of firewood since our furnace broke down and another storm is due tonight. And thanks to the others of you who called with concern. – Can’t tell you how much it means to my daughter and me. That false (but scary) perception of “isolation” has been lifted. We feel a lot better… and a lot warmer! Thanks again. -P.M.

Another great use of Front Porch Forum.

Average Age of Social Networkers?

Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 by • No comments yet

MediaVidea offers this today:

Rolling Stone will one of the first mainstream magazines entering into the social networking field... Comscore analysis shows that:

– More than half of Myspace visitors are now 35 and older.
– 71% of the Friendster’s 1 million user base is 35 and above.
– 50% of Facebook users are 25-plus, despite that it has now almost become mandatory for new college and high school students to register there.

Aiming an aging demographic is a smart idea. They have the buyer and stating power, vis- -vis the fickle younger crowd.

Adult-oriented social networking sites are already up and running, Multiply for example.

Next up: A social network fro Esquire and New Yorker magazines, perhaps?

Front Porch Forum members appear to range from teens to 80s. Since entire households tend to subscribe, I’m hard pressed to guess an average age.

Two new citizen journalism reports

Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 by • No comments yet

Debbie Block-Schwenk points out a couple new resources today for citizen journalism sites:

Citizen Media: Fad or the Future of News? The rise and prospects of hyperlocal journalism was released by J-Lab. The report by Jan Schaffer consolidates and analyzes responses from 191 people involved with or familiar with online citizen media, including 31 operators of citizen media sites.

Also enabled by J-Lab and the Knight Foundation via their New Voices program is a new “cook book” sharing the experiences of the first year of community site Hartsville Today. The site was started by Douglas J. Fisher, a journalism instructor at the University of South Carolina and Graham Osteen, Publisher of The Hartsville Messenger. The report, entitled Hartsville Today: The first year of a small-town citizen journalism site, documents in detail the steps they took, from deciding on a web site domain name to training staff.

Forum as Evening’s Entertainment

Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007 by • No comments yet

I just snipped this comment from a member of the ONE Central Neighborhood Forum in Burlington:

I loved the comments tonight. I used to read the personals when I was lonely. Instead now, I go right to the forum. Then sometimes, like tonight I just laugh happily all the way up to brush my teeth. Jason you are really cracking me up. Despite all the issues in the Old North End, I like being a part of this group. It really fills me up.

Legislators on the Vermont Autobahn

Posted on Thursday, April 12, 2007 by • No comments yet

With thousands of local members contributing to Front Porch Forum, every day brings something new… an especially insightful or inspiring post, etc. Here’s a beaut that will be published in the next issue of the Huntington Neighborhood Forum.

Where to start? I had to go to southern VT on business yesterday and on the way back had the pleasure to be a part of the mass exodus from our fine capital, Montpelier. All our elected officials were headed home… They get a nice distinct license plate so it’s easy to spot them. I had the cruise set at 70 MPH ( at 65 MPH you risk getting hit from behind). I was being passed like I was standing still!

All the cars had only one person in them… WOW

All sorts of things come to mind while this was happening… I’ll leave that up for your imagination. Well, maybe I should point that imagination in a positive direction by saying this:

Lead by example, Carpool, set up transportation hubs so folks can park and ride, make them carpool. You’re an elected official. This is how you get into work.

We have to start somewhere why not start from the top. =-) JIM

James Fecteau
Huntington Neighborhood Forum

[Thanks to Jim for his permission to publish this beyond his neighborhood forum.]

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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

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