#BTV #VT – Front Porch Forum is pleased to sponsor this action. Click here to donate to their Kickstarter campaign!
Thanks to the work of many in our community, Free Speech TV is bringing its 24/7 independent news, analysis and documentaries to Burlington Telecom. Starting March 1st, we’ll be able to tune in to FSTV on BT’s newest channel (122) on its “basic tier.”
But first, we need to rally to finish the task of making Burlington the first city in the country to offer a fulltime FSTV channel on cable. FSTV has until the end of February to raise a one-time $10,000 to cover its start-up costs.
Here’s some more good news: We raised half the money before we even launched this page.
A group of us founded the Friends of Free Speech TV in Burlington, and we’ve already pledged $5,000 as a Founding Friends Challenge Fund. That means that for every dollar you pledge here, we’ll kick in another dollar to match you. If we can raise just $5,000 by the end of February, FSTV will receive the full $10,000 it needs to launch its new channel in our community.
#VT – Vermont Communities in a Digital Age
When: Thursday, February 16, 2012: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Where: Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center
Register: Visit http://evermontworkshop.org for details and to register
Join community leaders from around the state to share ideas and learn how online tools are being used to create jobs, reinvent schools, attract visitors, improve civic involvement, and enliven Vermont communities. The workshop is sponsored by the e-Vermont Community Broadband Project.
Anne Galloway of VtDigger.org will be the keynote speaker. Session topics include mobilizing community resources for emergencies, a hands-on lab exploring online tools for business, a showcase of how technology is expanding the classroom for 4-6th graders, a look at conducting town meetings in the digital age, and ways to increase public Internet access in your town (and why).
Registration is $20 and includes course offerings, refreshments, lunch and the chance to win a Kindle reader and other prizes in our raffle drawing.
For more information about the day go to evermontworkshop.org. Pre-register online, by phone 802-859-3090, or by e-mail joanna@snellingcenter.org.
#VT – Wayne Hanson, reporting for Government Technology this week, writes about the success of the e-Vermont initiative, including this about Front Porch Forum…
As America’s cities become larger and life gets more complicated, some long for a return to a small-town lifestyle, where they are greeted by name, and the front porch — overlooking a picture-postcard main street — is a place to talk to neighbors. While this rosy view of rural living may not exactly square with reality — especially in hard economic times with high unemployment — the urge to enjoy a more rural lifestyle is attractive to many.
e-Vermont, a consortium of seven different organizations, has come together to improve the economic outlook of rural Vermont through technology, while at the same time preserving what’s most attractive about a region better known for its maple syrup, skiing and mountain vistas than Internet connectivity and job growth…
As for those conversations on the front porch, there’s a forum for that called “Front Porch Forum.” … “it’s a platform for neighborhood conversations, with the goal of things spilling over from online conversations to in-person conversations. Needless to say, public officials take a keen interest in that, not just to follow what’s going on but to have an engaged citizenry.”
Typical items on the forum might be someone selling firewood, eggs or a canoe. Missing pets are frequent items, as well as local government issues such as a proposed tax hike to pay for heating repairs at the school, which may be on the agenda for the next town meeting…
Susan Clark, a resident of Middlesex, is a sixth-generation Vermonter who co-authored All Those in Favor: Rediscovering the Secrets of Town Meeting and Community. She wanted more frequent connections with her community than the once-yearly town meetings. So when she heard about Front Porch Forum, she became a community volunteer…
Clark said that in keeping with the benefits of face-to-face meetings, Front Porch Forum isn’t anonymous, and the person’s street… is also listed… And unlike social networking sites like Facebook, she said, “Front Porch Forum wants you to know what’s going on in your community so you’ll get out from behind your computer and go out and go to the yard sale or the town meeting or the school play or the concert or any of those things.”
Clark said that the forum helps connect the public with local government, but she cautions against loading a forum with such things as planning commission documents at first. Wait until they are hooked on community events and items of personal interest, she said.
When Duane Sorrel, of Middlesex, moved to town he found out about Front Porch Forum at a town meeting. Sorrel, in a YouTube video, said that when he posted his information, he got a dozen customers for his automotive business in the first two days. “My favorite post,” he says in the video, “is “˜lately there’s been bears eating chickens.’ That’s been pretty interesting.”
Congratulations to Adrian Holovaty and the Everyblock.com team for rolling out their new events feature… sounds intriguing.
Patrick Kitano at Streetfight.com comments on that news, along with Nextdoor, Outside.in, Topix, and Facebook today… an interesting piece.
Indeed, the “neighbor conversation” online space is heating up tremendously, with at least a couple dozen start-ups and digital media giants trying to crack the code of neighborhood-level traction.
Three out of five Burlington, VT households connect with their neighbors through our offering, FrontPorchForum.com. Amazingly, in 2011 HALF of them posted.
Most of us want to be more connected to the people and place around where we live… this is a huge opportunity.
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