From a Knight Foundation blog today…
Soul of the Community (SOTC) is a three-year study conducted by Gallup of the 26 Knight Foundation communities across the United States focusing on the emotional side of the connection between residents and their communities.
In its first year, the study compared residents’ engagement level to the GDP growth in the 26 communities over the past five years. The findings (overall report, reports by community) show a significant correlation between community-citizen engagement and the economic growth.
AOL made some changes in the second half of 2008 to the way its customers’ outgoing email is sent when using AOL’s webmail option. One result of these otherwise invisible changes is that messages sent by an AOL-using Front Porch Forum subscriber to any FrontPorchForum.com address do not arrive successfully. So, regrettably, FPF will not receive neighborhood forum postings or requests for help made by email in this manner. We’ve notified AOL many times and have received no response. Here are solutions for AOL-using FPF members…
Post to your FPF neighborhood forum…
Contact FPF…
We’re sorry about this inconvenience. It appears to be yet one more problem with AOL. If you run into this problem, please complain to AOL and ask them to fix it. Yahoo Mail has serious problems too. We respectfully recommend not using either service if you have other viable options available to you. Thanks for your participation.
CitySquares in Boston and beyond says business is good with advertisers’ coupons being hot.
Citysearch rebuilt its site. “Elements of the revamp include a more intuitive interface, an embrace of social media, a major focus on video, some new twists in mobile, and the development of a full-fledged local ad and content network that offers an alternative to Google’s dominant position.” –Local Onliner
Service Magic is doing very well, despite the general economic conditions. Co-founder Rodney Rice’s “6 Keys to Success in Local Services” via Andrew Shotland:
Angie’s List took in more VC money recently, bringing it’s total raised to about $66 million. And Shotland reports Angie Hicks saying “The biggest competitor in the space is ‘your next door neighbor.’” Interesting. In this light, Angie’s List offers another way to buy your way out of something you just can’t find the time to do… get to know the neighbors and have conversations with them. Front Porch Forum, on the other hand, is free and uses things like plumber recommendations among clearly identified nearby neighbors as a way to help connect neighbors and lead toward more vital communities.
And again from Shotland…
The thing I love the most about both Angie’s and Rodney’s talks is that they are both very much outside the local search/Silicon Valley community in some ways (well Angie did raise a bunch of $ from VCs and Rodney did sell out to IAC, but besides that), but they are both incredibly successful.
John Wonderlich at Sunlight Foundation quotes Steven Clift today…
When I was a child and my father had cancer, I remember neighbors coming to our assistance in our time of need. Today, with modern life keeping neighbors as strangers, we must use these new tools to break down barriers to community. You deserve the right to easily e-mail your immediate neighbors the morning after you’ve been burglarized without having to go door-to-door to collect e-mail addresses. We can balance safety and privacy with selective public disclosure of such personal contact information with an intelligent “unlisted to most” directory option that is not the all or nothing of today.
This is big “C” community and small “d” democracy. A collection of better-connected blocks, tied to broader neighborhood and community-wide online efforts will serve as the vibrant foundation we need for accountable and effective representative democracy right up to the Congress and president. You cannot force everyone to be neighborly, but the bonds of community can be restored and nurtured despite dual income families and the assault on time for community involvement.
Right on. We’re honored that they both mention Front Porch Forum. And thanks to The Pulse from the Knight Foundation for pointing me to this post.
Matt, on the LocalMouth blog, writes recently…
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!
I’m frequently approached by folks interested in Front Porch Forum for their neighborhood. If they live in our pilot service area (Chittenden County, VT), they are welcome to join. If not, then they can add their community to our waiting list.
But often people ask what steps they can take now and I offer some simple alternatives. Well, I just found a succinct post that I’ll direct these inquiries to in the future from Matt on the UK LocalMouth blog. He offers just enough detail to help the curious get started about a neighborhood…
And Front Porch Forum would be yet another type of option, where available.
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