Yearly Archives: 2009

StrayCat, Valentine’s and Reaching People

Posted on Thursday, February 12, 2009 by • No comments yet

News flash… Valentine’s during a recession can be an important event for retailers and restaurants.  Or maybe that’s obvious.  We’re seeing a rush this week of free postings and paid advertisements coming into Front Porch Forum.

In fact, I just called one of our advertisers, StrayCat Flower Farm, to place an order for my own sweetie (hope she’s not reading this blog!).  And the owner, Diana Doll, enthusiastically shared this quote with me…

“We’ve received more business from our Front Porch Forum ad than from any other media.”

Glad to hear it!  We love to help.  In fact, we’re getting more and more micro-businesses buying ads.  However, the small and medium-size businesses are more limited.  Those that do advertise with FPF also report remarkable results.  Still others are not yet interested in testing the waters… I guess changing old habits and understanding new opportunities aren’t easy.  Here’s a list of some of our advertisers.

What’s “local?” Define “neighborhood.”

Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by • No comments yet

U.K.’s Kevin Harris blogs…

Over on the Local democracy blog Dave Briggs asks, how close is local?

I’d say most people regard ‘local’ as geographically within reach, and obviously that differs individually, which is fine. If terminology is fuzzy it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s invalid. We need definitions for administrative areas (wards, cantons, parishes) but not to explain individually-variable experiences of the socially-charged space nearest to the home.

00 graphic av miles travelled And maybe it helps to think about what local is not. For instance, it’s not the same as nearness, and that’s reinforced in this image (courtesy of Indy Johar, 00 architects), which reminds us how transport efficiencies influence our sense of distance.

So why after generations and centuries of people gathering together in villages, towns and cities, are we suddenly struggling with the fact that terms like neighbourhood and locality aren’t rigidly defined? What has happened for instance that causes Dave quite reasonably to suggest that

‘it will be increasingly important to research how people’s notions of their own ‘local’ will determine levels of interest’? …

Harkens back to a post about neighborhood scale based on early Front Porch Forum experience.

“Mice casued house fire”

Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 by • No comments yet

Meghan Dewald posted on Seven Days’ Blurt today…

One thing I like about my Front Porch Forum listserv is the regular updates from the Burlington Fire Marshal’s office whenever there’s a fire in my neighborhood. It’s rare to get detailed information directly from a public official about what happened at the scene of an accident — and despite the rubbernecking aspect, each update also drives home a particular point abut fire safety.

The most recent such update from Assistant Fire Marshal Thomas Middleton detailed how rodents were to blame for a bizarre Hill section blaze last weekend…

I understand that this is no laughing matter; lots of Vermont houses have mice living in the walls, and they can wreak havoc with property… But I have to admit that I giggled at the title of the “Mice Caused House Fire” update on my Front Porch Forum…

Nice post.  Although Meghan clearly didn’t get the “listserv” memo.

The neighbors’ “awesome collective wisdom”

Posted on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 by • 1 comment

Greg posted the following as part of a note to his neighbors yesterday via Front Porch Forum.  He’s searching for advice about new windows that are frosting over.

At this point none of experts we’ve consulted can seem to explain what could be happening, so I’m turning to the awesome collective wisdom of FPF.

You know… he’s right.  More than 90% of the households in his particular neighborhood subscribe to FPF and got his message.  There’s more wisdom in this group than in any one store clerk or telephone customer service person he may have consulted.  And more than a few of these neighbors share the same problem and may have already solved this problem.

I see one response already in the queue for the next issue of his neighborhood forum… and I’m sure he’ll hear from several people directly.

UPDATE:  Greg and family are relatively new to the state.  So, in addition to appreciating solutions for the window problem, the conversation with all of these clearly identified nearby neighbors is valuable in of itself.

Hyperlocal News History

Posted on Thursday, February 5, 2009 by • No comments yet

Keith Hopper offers a history of “hyperlocal” news this week, and starts an interesting conversation in the comments. Worth a look.

Angie’s List: “We’re direct marketers at heart”

Posted on Thursday, February 5, 2009 by • No comments yet

Among its many uses, people use Front Porch Forum to find and recommend plumbers and dentists and all sorts of services in between.  This leads others to ask… “oh, so FPF is like Angie’s List?”  Well, yes and no.  Yes, in that both FPF (in our one pilot city) and Angie’s List (in its 250 cities) will help you find a roofer.  And, no, in that we have different missions.

Front Porch Forum’s mission is to help neighbors connect and build community… and we do that by facilitating conversation among clearly identified nearby neighbors about all sorts of topics.

I don’t know Angie’s List’s mission, but here’s a quote from The Local Onliner today…

Angie Hicks, the co-founder and namesake of Angie’s List, said she thinks of her company as a direct marketing machine. Speaking at ClickZ’s Online Marketing Summit in San Diego this morning, Hicks noted that “we’re direct marketers at heart. If it doesn’t perform, it’s out.”

Pick your platform…

Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009 by • No comments yet

Pew keeps cranking out the internet data.  A recent report shows…

  • 74% of adult Americans are online

Of those online…

  • 2% visit a virtual world
  • 11% create a blog
  • 26% participate in online auctions
  • 32% read blog
  • 32% rate a person or product
  • 35% use social networking sites
  • 38% send instant messages
  • 89% use search engines
  • 91% use email

So, if I understand the data, Pew is saying that 26% of the 74% of American adults online participate in online auctions… that’s 19% of all American adults.  So, here’s the list for all American adults (not just those online)…

  • 1% visit a virtual world (e.g., Second Life)
  • 8% create a blog (e.g., Twitter, Word Press, Blogger)
  • 19% participate in online auctions (e.g., eBay)
  • 24% read blogs (not necessarily via RSS?)
  • 24% rate a person or product (e.g., Angie’s List, Yelp)
  • 26% use social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, MySpace)
  • 28% send instant messages
  • 66% use search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo, MSN)
  • 67% use email

Front Porch Forum aims to have as many residents of a neighborhood as possible subscribe and participate on the associated FPF neighborhood forum.  In a sense, we host non-stop online block parties… and the more the merrier, as long as they live in the neighborhood.

Because FPF is an online service, we’re already limited, on average, to just 74% of the adult population.  If we had selected a platform/distribution channel such as a Facebook application or instant messaging or Twitter… well, we’d only be able to get, at best, about one quarter of the neighbors on board.  Of course, these numbers will change over time.

So, for now, we use email newsletters and a web-based archiving system.  This allows us to reach, on average, 67% of the adults in each neighborhood.  In our pilot region, more than 20% subscribe, with 40% on board in the City of Burlington.  We’d never have been that successful if we had limited ourselves by going with one of these other, sexier platforms.

Children stoning refugees spark community response

Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 by • No comments yet

I had to share a posting from Sarah Judd tonight on her FPF neighborhood forum in Burlington’s Old North End…

Please join us for the opening of the ONE Woman photography show this Friday, January 30th, at the Burlington College Community Gallery, 95 North Ave. in Burlington.  The Gallery will be open from 3-9 p.m., with a reception from 6-8 p.m.  If you can’t make the opening, you can see the show at the dates and times below, or by calling Burlington College at 862-9616 to make an appointment:

Friday, January 30, 3-9 p.m.
Saturday, January 31, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Sunday, February 1, 10 a.m. -4 p.m.
Monday, February 2, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Tuesday, February 3, 8:30 a.m.-2:45 p.m.
Friday, February 6, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

The ONE Woman photography project is a display of 200 photographs taken by 170 women living, working and learning in the Old North End.  Project participants included women who have lived in the ONE for two months and women who have lived here all of their lives.  Our youngest participant was 10, and the oldest was 85. The project, I hope, is a document of women’s lives in the ONE, illustrating who our unique neighbors are and how we live, and shows connecting links between the diverse groups of women from many backgrounds living in the same community.

This project was inspired, in part, by a Front Porch Forum post by Bridget Burns, who witnessed a group of children throwing rocks at a Somali family last April [emphasis added]. I thought if I could show who we are living in the ONE, the things we all care about like our families, places we love, pets, streets, etc., this commonality and familiarity with each other would hopefully prevent things like the rock throwing incident from happening again.  We live in a great place, filled with great people, and I hope the show reflects this.  So thanks, for your post, Bridget.

I also got several participants for the project through a post on the FPF, so thanks FPF ONECentral and the ONE women who participated!

This makes my day (week, month!).  The posting that inspired this artist has haunted me for months.  This is the power of a tool like Front Porch Forum.  The problem was shared on FPF and much discussion ensued.  Out of that (and other sources of inspiration) came this art project.  The artist used FPF to pull her project together and bring in collaborators.  And, now, she’s using FPF to share word of it with hundreds of nearby neighbors.

UPDATE: Mike Ives filed a good piece about this show for Seven Days.  In part…

Judd’s inspiration came last April, when she read a post on the local listserv Front Porch Forum titled “Neighborhood Bigotry.” The post’s author, a twentysomething Old North End woman, reported seeing a group of boys throwing rocks at a family of Somali refugees. Judd, 42, a Connecticut native who grew up in a multiracial family, wondered if the incident would have occurred if the boys had known more about the immigrants they chose to terrorize.

Town Crier, Town Square, Town Expert

Posted on Monday, January 26, 2009 by • No comments yet

I’m intrigued by Steve Yelvington’s post today about possible functions that a local newspaper can fulfill…

Vermonters to Inauguration

Posted on Monday, January 26, 2009 by • No comments yet

President Obama’s inauguration was incredible… inspirational.  Here are a couple of TV news stories from WPTZ (on the way to DC and upon our return)…

[grr… can’t get the video to load here or onto YouTube… hopefully WPTZ will keep them accessible on its site for awhile.]

And some newspaper coverage of our journey is here.

It’s always a kick when our baby, Front Porch Forum, helps deliver something particularly amazing to our lives… like this whole DC experience.

UPDATE: Here are links to an article by Lynn Monty and a video (below too) by Mark Gould, both of the Burlington Free Press, who were “embedded” on our bus trip.

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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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