Pete Peterson wrote a solid piece about Front Porch Forum for Personal Democracy Forum… published today. Please check it out and leave a comment there. Thanks Pete and Micah!
From Mike Lanza today…
I caught a glimpse of the future of mobile phone games this past weekend at the Come Out and Play Festival in New York City last weekend, and I’m very excited.
I played six “location aware mobile games” that made me run and walk like crazy, talk to dozens of people, and explore nooks and crannies of New York that I never would have seen otherwise. In other words, playing these games made me more physically fit, more social (face-to-face), and far more aware of the physical environment that surrounded me.
This is the polar opposite of the effects of today’s video games on children, who play for hours inside their houses without moving anything but their fingers, barely talking to anyone.
It’s a rare computer application that encourages more face-to-face interaction with people in real time and space. That’s one thing that sets Front Porch Forum apart. It’s encouraging to see others moving in this direction.
From The Local Onliner…
The Los Angeles Times ambitious Mapping LA project, which classifies 30,000 city blocks by neighborhood and soft launched in February, has made 100 changes based on 1,500 comments from readers…
By taking on the mapping project, adds Smith, the Paper did something that the city government is “seldom eager” to do, nor The Thomas Guide, which is used by Realtors and others. But enough is enough. The paper won’t revisit boundaries until results from the 2010 census are in.
This is a rare undertaking. Front Porch Forum has completed this task in its pilot region of 20 Vermont towns and it hasn’t been easy or without controversy. That last line about “enough is enough” sounds familiar!
Oh… and what the LA Times is calling a “neighborhood” covers about 35,000 people. FPF’s neighborhoods encompass closer to 1,000 each… the people within a few hundred households from each other.
Peter Krasilovsky offers some interesting points about American Towns current status. Worth a read.
Civic engagement is all the rage. I addressed three different state-wide gatherings about the topic in the past week alone! Front Porch Forum is a long-term civic engagement catalyst and accelerator.
The concept goes by many names (see “public engagement” below), but mark my words, this will be THE NEXT BIG THING for nonprofits, academics, government agencies, etc… even pushing into the private sector.
The spark that started this wildfire came from President Obama’s campaign and his ongoing call to public service. Here’s a posting from
The old White House Office of Public Liaison (OPL) has been renamed the Office of Public Engagement (OPE) with some new responsibilities. Calling itself the “front door of the White House”, the official press release noted that the “OPE will help build relationships with Americans by increasing their meaningful engagement with the federal government.”
Most all of the OPL staff will remain in place for the new OPE, including its director, long-time Obama friend, Valerie Jarrett. The White House will be using both online and “offline” – face-to-face – fora to both gain input from Americans and communicate Administration policies.
Jeff Jarvis blogged about his latest ideas in “hyper local”… some interesting points, including the comments. Here’s Bob Wyman…
The obvious question is: “Why isn’t Front Porch Forum integrated into the BurlingtonFreePress.com site or the sites of the New York Times, WSJ or other newspapers that serve those in your community?”…
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