Yearly Archives: 2008

“The possibility of human-sized communication”

Posted on Sunday, September 14, 2008 by • No comments yet

We keep stumbling over pieces about the value of “local” in the digital universe (and vice versa)… right out of Front Porch Forum‘s playbook.  Today it was a couple of journalists…

Mark Potts writes in part…

Anyone who questions that people are interested in talking about their communities hasn’t dug in to the plethora of listservs, Yahoo groups and organization sites that already provide coverage of many local communities.

And I definitely recommend reading Howard Owen’s full post.  Here’s his opening…

Some people think the web makes the world bigger. I say, it makes it smaller.  Some people say the web makes us neighbors with people in Kenya or the Ukraine.  I say it makes us better neighbors with the family next door.

There was a time in United States history when newspapers served as a centralizing force for drawing communities together — and then came  television, and cable, and satellite — all the forces that did nothing to humanize communication, but made mass communication more mass and less personal.

The Internet brings back the possibility of human-sized communication.

At a time when too many glass-eyed Americans turn to network TV for their “Heroes” and get “Lost” in whatever flimflam Hollywood is dishing out this season,  the Web opens up new possibilities for people, local people, people who share a common interest in a common community, to partake in conversation and pursue change with conviction.

FPF nominated for award

Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2008 by • No comments yet

I just learned that all the great activity surging through Front Porch Forum is being recognized by the Rural Telecom Congress as a finalist for its RTC Champion Awards!  The final selection will be decided at the Rural TeleCon 2008 conference at Smugglers’ Notch, VT on October 8, 2008.  It’s a great honor to be included with several wonderful projects on the short list of finalists.  Thank you RTC!

NOTE:  If you plan to attend the RTC, please sit in on my sessions and please vote for Front Porch Forum!  😉

Talk “community building” with FPF: dates and places

Posted on Thursday, September 11, 2008 by • No comments yet

I always learn something valuable, so it’s a pleasure to converse with an audience about Front Porch Forum.  So I’m grateful for the invitations to address these upcoming events.  Please come!

• Connecting with your Essex Neighbors using Front Porch Forum
Brownell Library, Essex Junction Village, Lincoln St
Sept. 15, 2008, 7:00 PM

• Building Community Online: Leveraging the Web 2.0 World for 21st Century Classrooms and Communities
Sept. 26, 2008, 10:15 AM with Dr. Rob Williams
Action Coalition for Media Education
GROWING UP DIGITAL: Kids, Commercialism & New Media Culture
Rock Point School, Burlington, VT

• Sponsor
Intervale Center‘s 20th Anniversary Harvest Barn Dance
Oct. 3, 2008

• Sponsor
UVM’s Center for Rural Studies 30th Anniversary Symposium
Oct. 4, 2008

• Front Porch Forum: Helping Neighbors Connect and Build Community
Oct. 6, 2008, 9:30 AM
• Vermont e-State: National Model for Broadband Community Building
Oct. 7, 2008, 9:30 AM with Lauren-Glenn Davitian and others
Rural TeleCon 2008
Smugglers’ Notch, VT

“Bite Me”… now is that how your mother taught you how to talk?

Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by • No comments yet

When neighbors start heating up over a topic through Front Porch Forum, our local traditional media often picks up on it and writes a story.  Some issues are of larger public concern, e.g., violence, multi-million-dollar development projects, etc., while others are more modest.  Take today’s story by Suzanne Podhaizer in Seven Days: Right to Bite: New pizzeria offends some sensitive South Enders.  I can attest… it’s been a firey back and forth.

And on the subject of media coverage of FPF, I just looked back at Mike Ives’ well-written 7D piece about neighbors using FPF to combat vandalism in Burlington.  Here’s the traffic rank on the Seven Days website for the past week…

Skunk’s head stuck? Here’s what you do…

Posted on Monday, September 8, 2008 by • 1 comment

I love the stories that people share with their neighbors on Front Porch Forum.  Here’s one just in from an FPF subscriber…

Today, Monday September 8th, 2008, I witnessed an amazing act of heroism. I live on Claire Pointe Road in the New North End of Burlington. This morning I received a signal from my husband who had been walking our dog, when he pointed with a hurried walk I saw a skunk with a yogurt container stuck on its head. So stuck that this skunk could not see where it was going, just walking and bumping into the cement of the walkways that just jammed the container onto its head even more. When I left the condo and drove out of our garage, this skunk had made its way down the driveway. Still bumping the side cement walls and jamming the container even tighter onto its head. I had to stop and turn my car off because the skunk was coming so close to the car. At this time a wonderfully brave woman, a neighbor who’s name I do not know walked down the driveway, we both discussed for a second what to do and in a terrific fearless act she went quietly to the skunk and with amazing heroism (and if she is reading this now she will know what i mean ) and a bit of scary comedy she freed the skunk from it’s smothering , blinding jail. She did not get sprayed and the two of us ran like the wind once it was over. This woman, my neighbor is a hero. What bravery, I have always lived in a city, we do not know from skunks except picture in animal magazines. Brava to this wonderful woman who will forever have the most wonderful and odd story to tell!!!!

Blast from the past… or, Google never forgets

Posted on Monday, September 8, 2008 by • No comments yet

A friend just showed me Google’s newspaper and book archives online… wow.  He searched my name and found some oldies I had nearly forgotten from 15-20 years ago…

  • An opinion piece I co-wrote for the New York Times based on my policy research.
  • The Chicago Sun-Times about my engineering work… “Michael Lewis could do for recycling what Henry Ford did for the automobile industry.” [Disclaimer… didn’t quite work out that way.]
  • A book I co-authored published by the U.S. EPA about innovative small businesses.

Y’know… I recall physically clipping those articles and mailing them to people in an envelope with a stamp.

Find needle in haystack? No problem…

Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2008 by • No comments yet

Sometimes it’s the little stories that catch my attention on Front Porch Forum.  Like Shelly’s posting on her FPF neighborhood fourm three days ago…

Hello, Neighbors! My preschooler got off the schoolbus today missing a blue CROC shoe. He was sitting in the front seat and the driver thinks he kicked it off and it fell out somewhere in Huntington.

We know all about missing footwear, mittens, etc. in our house.  It’s the proverbial needle in the haystack search, I figured.  Well, Shelly just posted again today…

Thank you Neighbors and Thank you Front Porch Forum!  My son’s croc shoe was found and returned!

Now that’s what I call “local search!”  Let’s see Google do that.  😉

Feel Good Post of the Day

Posted on Saturday, September 6, 2008 by • No comments yet

From Sarah on the FPF ONE East Neighborhood Forum this evening…

To our wonderful neighbors: thank you so much for all of your help in finding our lost cat, Calvin.  It was one of you readers who eventually found him for us (only a block away from our house!), and I am so appreciative to have him back safe and sound after he spent 5 nights on his own.  We received several emails/phone calls from people who had thought they’d seen him, and I have been absolutely blown away by this kindness and thoughtfulness.  When I was trying to decide where to go to graduate school, I knew that Burlington would be a special place, but I had no idea how amazing the people would be.  Thank you, Front Porch Forum. Thank you, sweet neighbors.  All the very best, Sarah, Drew, and Calvin

Graffiti Arrest Made

Posted on Saturday, September 6, 2008 by • 1 comment

Posted by Officer Mike Hemond of the Burlington Police Dept. on Front Porch Forum tonight (Sept. 6, 2008)…

Hello everybody – I just wanted to make sure people saw that an arrest was made in the graffiti case that started on the 15th on Hayward Street. Officer Belleville, Mr Derbes, and I worked together to generate some good information for the case, and with the help of Front Porch Forum, the cooperation of the media and the community at large, the suspect was identified, and an arrest was made.  With that being said, I do need people to let me know if they have a “VENSR” tag on their property that hasn’t been reported. All the ones on Hayward and Marble Ave have been taken care of, but if you’ve got other “VENSR”s out there, please let me know. The “PH” tag is part of this case as well, but I have all the ones of that that we need.

Without the help of the neighborhood awareness that we share, and the willingness of members of the community to take action addressing problems in their area, this case would not have been possible. Thanks again for all your help and support as we worked through this, and your patience for the 3 weeks it took to put this together.

See you on the sidewalks,
Mike

WCAX has photos and the Free Press provides a name.

Past posts about this issue… here, here and here.

Bridge Closure Hurting Businesses – Another Use for FPF

Posted on Saturday, September 6, 2008 by • No comments yet

Oof dah… the Bridge Street bridge in Richmond, VT, was closed late Thursday… from an already tedious one lane down to zero.  The good people of Richmond (and surrounding towns, such as Huntington, should be grateful for Selectman Erik Filkorn.  He turned immediate to Front Porch Forum and got the news into hundreds of local households’ inboxes as people were preparing to commute home.  The local traditional media have now picked up on the story too.

From Erik’s most recent FPF posting…

Hi Everybody – I am amazed at what great feedback I’m getting from folks about communicating through the forum. Thank you Michael Wood-Lewis for creating this. Yesterday could have been much worse. I rode my bike to the village expecting to see a big line of cars, but most folks seem to have gotten the message.

I know this is a gigantic hassle for everyone and we are working with our contractors and the State to get this bridge opened as soon as possible. We are also trying to find the resources to do a little extra work on the roads which are taking the additional traffic. Fire, rescue, police, the highway department, everyone has really stepped up. We’re lucky to have such good people working for us.

While as commuters, we are being compelled to bypass Richmond until this is fixed, as residents, now more than ever, we must support the businesses downtown. Thomas Hark pointed out in one of the forums that business is way off. The bakery was down 75% for the day and the cafe was similarly hit. Unless we ALL make an extra effort to shop and dine in town this week, some of the businesses we rely on may not be here next week. It IS that serious.

One of the pleasant side-effects of the closure is that the village has never been more pedestrian-friendly. Many people parked at the Round Church for the Farmer’s Market yesterday, and the absence of cars (mostly) on Bridge Street makes it even nicer to walk around. For anyone who hasn’t been yet, VT Green Grocer has most everything you need to cook dinner on the South Side of the River and the Corner Market has just about everything you need on the North. Walking to the hardware store over the bridge when you’re just picking up a few things is good for you and you run into more friends that way. Take a walk to Film Buzz to make up for the fact that you’re going to end up on the couch.

Please, please, make an extra effort to support local business through this crisis. You may even find that you like shopping in Richmond better than spending $10 on gas to drive to Williston and the time you would have spent on the Interstate could be spent talking to friends in town.

So it goes,
Erik

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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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