Yearly Archives: 2011
Authentically Local gets organized
Baristanet and another 30 local-focused U.S. blogs just launched Authentically Local…
Local doesn’t scale. Local isn’t McDonald’s, even if the McDonald’s is right down the street. Local doesn’t send profits back to a home office somewhere else. Local is something that’s part of what makes where you are unique. As unique and flawed and loveable as your own kids. Something is authentically local if it’s the first thing you’d want an old friend, visiting from the other side of the world, to see. It’s authentically local if its disappearance could potentially break your heart.
Local is suddenly the newest, hippest, most lucrative frontier. The local advertising market alone is estimated to be $100 billion a year. Companies like AOL, Google, Apple and Groupon all want a piece of the action. Some of the devices they sell you are even collecting data about everywhere you go – all to help their local campaigns.
Certainly big corporations add a lot of convenience and consistency to our world. They also threaten to homogenize it. If you want home to feel different from everywhere else in the world – or if you want a world that’s interesting to explore, support what’s authentically local. Know the difference, and vive la difference!
Just today, I was on a panel at the annual VBSR conference and responded to a question along these lines. Many folks in Vermont prefer to eat local and shop local, but do they click local? That is, they prefer the locally owned coffeeshop over Starbucks, and the locally owned hardware store over Home Depot or WalMart… but do they think about iBrattleboro vs. Facebook in the same way?
#VT Media and Civic Engagement
I’m looking forward to participating on a couple of panels this month. Please join the discussions!
VBSR 2011 Spring Conference
May 12, 2011
Burlington, VT, UVM Davis Center
Changing Media Landscape Brings Challenges and Opportunities for Vermont Businesses
- John Curran, Associated Press Vermont Bureau
- Erik Filkorn, Richmond Selectboard
- Anne Galloway, VTdigger.org
- Angelo Lynn, Addison Independent
- Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
- moderator: Julia Andrews, Spike Advertising
There’s no question that news media are at an interesting crossroads. Many people are sitting in a news netherworld, not wanting to spend an hour reading the local paper but left wanting more by the 24-hour national news cycle. Across the country, new and interesting models are cropping up to fill the need for relevant and easily accessible information, and Vermont is no exception. Panelists will talk about how their organizations are combining modern media with Vermont’s old-fashioned values to fill the information gap, keeping Vermonters informed and connected, and helping them get involved in their local communities.
Citizen Leadership in a Connected Age
May 21, 2011
Vermont Technical College, Randolph, VT
Online Tools for Real World Communities
- Helen Labun Jordan, Director, e-Vermont Community Broadband Project
- Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
- Susan Clark, Author, Middlesex Town Moderator, Middlesex Solutions Committee Chair
- Christopher Grotke and Lise LePage, Owners, iBrattleboro
Many of us have high hopes for what online tools can do to strengthen our community, but we also have worries about the pitfalls of virtual life. Will online gaming replace a game of softball with friends? Will anonymous complaints replace constructive conversations? Learn about strategies you can use to foster virtual connections that spill over into the real world. Session will combine short panel presentations of what has worked in some Vermont towns with discussion and ideas—sharing by the audience.
Adrian Holovaty on who’s winning hyperlocal…
I think Front Porch Forum is winning. They’ve managed to get 90% of households in a #VT neighborhood to sign up for it, and the community contributions are high quality, useful and interesting.
Beyond that, there are a bunch of great neighborhood blogs in various pockets in the U.S., like West Seattle Blog and Uptown Update here in Chicago.
And finally, I’m biased, but I think EveryBlock is genuinely interesting and useful, especially with our recent community-focused relaunch.
Thanks Adrian! That’s great company for FPF to keep. (See StreetFight for the full interview.) As I’ve said before, EveryBlock’s relaunch is a powerhouse.
Front Porch Forum open to #VT expansion
Several sponsors have stepped forward to bring Front Porch Forum to their Vermont communities. These include a local chamber of commerce, a town, a college, a telecom, a family foundation, and a consortium of agencies and nonprofits.
WCAX asked me today if FPF was open to further expansion in Vermont, beyond our current 60 towns. Short answer… yes!
If you’d like to see FPF come to your town, join our waitlist. Additionally, if you’d like to help make it happen, contact us with ideas about funding sources and local boosters.
Connected Citizens – New Report
From Mayur Patel at the Knight Foundation this week…
Arthur Goyette knows the value of good neighbors. While his wife Betty was battling cancer, they brought countless meals to the Goyette home. When the neighbors learned that Betty had always wanted to ride in a convertible, they surprised the family with a loaned Chrysler Sebring. The couple drove down the block with the top down, surrounded by people waving and taking pictures.
Arthur marvels that he might never have met these people f it weren’t for the Front Porch Forum, an online network of neighbors.
The forum is a great example of how digital media and technology are changing how we connect to information and each other. The way we engage in public dialogue, coordinate, solve problems—all of it is shifting.
Networks themselves are as old as humanity, used by activists from Mahatma Ghandi to the Tea Party to impact society. Today, though, technology is enabling networks to emerge in new ways.
So Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute set out to look at the impact on communities, and ask, what do these emerging networks mean for community change? And, how can funders leverage them for good?
The result is our new report, Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril and Potential of Networks. Through more than 70 examples, we found networked communities pushing for open government, banding together to care for the elderly, enlisting volunteer coders to make online aid maps for earthquake ravaged Haiti, and more.
The report is a compelling read… lots of excellent examples and points. A couple snapshots…
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
Post Categories
- Uncategorized
- PDF2009
- Calendar
- Northeast Kingdom
- podcast
- Peer Rental
- Localization
- Big Tech
- Events
- PDF2007
- Web Traffic
- Google AdSense
- Pay It Forward
- Elections
- berkmansunlight
- Maps
- Video
- Upstate New York
- Coupons
- Wildlife
- Mobile
- Viral Marketing
- Raffle
- Crisis Response
- Donations
- Lost & Found
- Gratitude
- Real Estate
- College Students
- Social Responsibility
- Best of FPF
- Orton Family Foundation
- Start ups
- Make It Your Own Awards
- Online Civility
- Clay Shirky
- Newspapers
- How To Use FPF
- Humor
- Online Classified Ads
- Peer Reviews
- Politics
- Community Management
- Economic Development
- Local Reviews
- Case Foundation
- Borrow and Lend
- Neighborhood Watch
- Good Government
- Small Business Advertising
- Citizen Journalism
- e-Vermont
- Democracy
- Local Search
- Knight Foundation
- Burlington
- MacArthur Fellows
- Civic Engagement
- Social Media
- social capital
- Social Networking
- Vermont
- Neighborhood
- Community Building
- Local Online
- Front Porch Forum