Yearly Archives: 2008
One night, two national awards for Front Porch Forum
What a humbling couple of days. I’ve just returned home from Rural TeleCon 2008. Yesterday I led a rich discussion about local community building via Front Porch Forum with a room full of telecom professionals, and this evening Front Porch Forum collected two wonderful honors…
First, the RTC People’s Choice Award — Most Innovative, which included a $500 check. And then, the real shocker, the RTC Champion Award ($3,000)… this is the top national award from the Rural Telecom Congress! And a genuine honor, especially considering the caliber of the other award finalists.
Credit for FPF’s recognition is shared with many collaborators and advisers, as well as our 11,000 Chittenden County subscribers, 200 participating local public officials, 350 FPF Neighborhood Volunteers, 100 local advertisers, and many donors. And thanks to the RTC board of directors and conference staff!
See FPF’s growing list of awards and recognition, media coverage, and member testimonials.
UPDATE: Thanks to Cathy Resmer at Seven Days for her coverage on Blurt and Vermont 3.0.
Financial blow softened for those who’ve invested in community
Millions of middle class Americans are watching their savings shrink dramatically in the Wall Street debacle unfolding before us. Much is being written and said about it all… lots to digest.
But one angle I’ve not come across yet is the strategy that a small but growing number of people are employing… to invest more personal resources into building community, even at the sacrifice of their short-term savings. Put another way… to shift financial capital into social capital.
When hard times come, having plenty of cash helps, of course. But so does having a strong community. Having a network of close local friends, living in a supportive neighborhood, being part of a stable town with good schools… all of these “assets” can help cover real needs.
Front Porch Forum is in this business. It helps people invest in community and realize genuine gain from it… economic, social, emotional, and more. More later…
New Media Guru in Vermont Oct. 4
New media thinker and do-er Dan Gillmor will speak at the UVM Center for Rural Studies 30th anniversary bash on October 4, 2008 starting at 5:00 PM. I’ve been fortunate to hear Dan speak and follow his online writing for the past couple years… great stuff. And now he’s leading the newly formed Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Front Porch Forum is tickled pink to be involved (albeit in a small way). Come to the conference all day… or at least catch Dan’s talk at 5:00 PM and the panel he’ll moderate after that.
-Author of We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People (2004; O’Reilly Media)
-Director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
-Director of the Center for Citizen MediaAt the newly created Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, Dan Gillmor is working to help create a culture of innovation and risk-taking in journalism education, and in the wider media world. He is founder and current director of the Center for Citizen Media and previously founded Grassroots Media, Inc. From 1994-2004, Gillmor was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley’s daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Vermont (’81), Gillmor received a Herbert Davenport fellowship in 1982 for economics and business reporting at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. During the 1986-87 academic year he was a journalism fellow at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he studied history, political theory and economics. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist he played music professionally for seven years.
And I seem to recall some former Vermont professional connection of his. Hmm…
PBS offers Examples of New Media aiding Local Communities
Mark Glaser, New Media Expert for PBS, offers examples of the internet serving local communities…
That’s heady company for FPF… two nationally known Knight Foundation grant recipients. Everyblock and Spot.Us are both exciting projects. See Mark’s comments for yourself…
Essex Junction Neighbors Respond to Crime
Some people question Front Porch Forum‘s strategy of blanketing an entire metro area with our online neighborhood forums. Why not, instead, just provide them in the areas most likely to embrace the service?
Well… because we never know where or when FPF will catch hold. This past week we’ve seen another formerly snoozy FPF neighborhood forum light up. This area, in Essex Junction, VT, near the fair grounds, encompasses about 200 households and less than 10% subscribed.
Then a shooting occured. And someone posted about it on FPF. Several replies followed. Then the owner of the rental house where the crime happened weighed in. All of the postings were constructive and civil. Instead of being ostracized, the house owner had a chance to get her side of things out to the neighbors. Several people stated their devotion to the neighborhood and said they planned to step up their presence… walking the dog, etc. Another person stepped forward to promote the idea of a formal neighborhood watch and planned to connect with a particular police officer.
And, my favorite step, a woman said… “how about a block party so we can all get to know each other better.” That’s Front Porch Forum in a nutshell.
And, by the way, during all of this back and forth in the wake of the shooting, several new subscirbers signed up AND I noted a couple of “seeking babysitter” and “plumber recommended” postings slipped in… that “normal” neighborhood conversation is already sprouting.
Information + Communication + Civic Engagement = ??
Keith Harris in the United Kingdom writes today that “What’s missing is communication, not information” on his blog Neighbourhoods. Some of his points…
This is very definitely work in progress but maybe the argument is something like this:
- for various reasons there is a crisis of local social connections which causes evident damage
- examples of local communication (post-its on windscreens, notes on lamp-posts, message graffiti and so on) point to the inadequacies of existing communication channels, especially in contexts of high mobility and the erosion of local life
- online networks can augment (not replace) other channels of communication and stimulate more interaction (I never understood why this should ever have been in doubt)
- we need to find out what research has been done and where the gaps are, showcase good practice and clarify the lessons. This will help the system-builders, and then
- we have to go to to the housing movement and local government with incontestible arguments that this stuff works and should be developed. Might that do it?
This reminds me of some of the conversation that the Knight Foundation has been sparking through its various efforts. Knight is pushing easily accessible information at the local level as a needed element to sustain our democracy in the United States. Hear, hear! But others, including me, have pushed to have civic engagement be part of that mission as well. And here’s Keith telling us that communication trumps information.
I think we need all three to feed our democracy… an engaged citizenry that can communicate with each other and develop, access and share information. I’m thrilled that Front Porch Forum is on the cutting edge of all this.
About Blog
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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