Category Archives: Community Building
Friendliness makes the neighborhood
Front Porch Forum operates under the assumption that when neighbors communicate frequently in civil, constructive ways with all parties clearly identified, that over time all those exchanges will add up to a stronger sense of community. So while FPF members partake in many of the wonders of contemporary online social networking (buy, sell, trade, free, referrals, politics, organizing, reviews, news, advice, etc.), it all adds up to a more neighborly place to live… because all those folks coming at you through your computer are nearby neighbors who will be seen next time you walk the dog, sweep the walk, check the mail, etc.
Now this from Kevin Harris in the land of “Neighbourhoods” discussing a new report in the U.K. that…
… appears to suggest that the most important factor for people who expressed satisfaction with their area, was that ‘people are friendly.’
The negative factors were all about disorder… The implication seems to be that if you invest a lot in helping local people to get involved… you still cannot necessarily expect them to feel more satisfied with where they live.
Whereas, it would seem, were you to invest in people being friendly to one another (and get results from that investment), you could expect that to show up in your satisfaction survey in a couple of years time. Yet another argument for more street parties and new ways of promoting neighbourliness. [emphasis added] It does seem as if social relations and behaviour at local level are gradually coming to be perceived as being of significance.
Boston Police hand out 40,000 Nametags
Here’s an interesting piece…
With the help of more than 150 volunteers, the Boston Police Department, in honor of National Night Out 2007, will distribute 40,000 nametags at Fenway Park to attendees at the Red Sox – Blue Jays Game on July 15. The Boston Police Department’s Neighborhood Crime Watch Unit is embarking on this “Nametag Day” to encourage fans in attendance to get to know their neighbors. Neighbors who know each other are more likely to care for and watch out for each other. This reduces crime and strengthens their community. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis will welcome the crowd and officially kick off National Night Out Boston 2007. This year’s theme is “Unity through Community,” which is made possible when neighbors get to know each other simply by learning each other’s names. More information about National Night Out Boston 2007 can be found at www.BostonCrimeWatch.com.
The use of nametags comes from Joseph Porcelli’s (BPD Neighborhood Crime Watch Unit) “Nametag Project.” Joseph and others in the United States and Canada have been wearing nametags since January 1, 2007, everyday, all the time, everywhere they go to encourage people to get to know their neighbors and speak to each other. The project has received national recognition. For more information on The Nametag Project visit www.thenametagproject.com.
Some folks compare a successful Front Porch Forum neighborhood to all the neighbors wearing name tags, since every posting include the writers full name, street and email address. A bit cumbersome, but there’s no getting around the value of displaying names.
Topix Forum Posting Pattern
Digging a little deeper into the MediaShift piece about Topix providing small town forums…
We found that in most places in this country, we are the only high-end news site. What happens is this odd pattern where a news event happens, and they find our site online and they like it and stick. One of the more dramatic cases was when two tornadoes struck Caruthersville, Mo. Up to that point, we had a little activity there but it was pretty low. That day we had 600 posts about the tornadoes
, and it was astonishing, there were first-hand accounts and people were asking if so-and-so was OK. People in the town were responding and saying, ‘yes, they’re OK.’ A few months later, a lot of the people had stayed in the forums.
There’s a lot of local gossip and chit-chat. Will it pass a test for being journalism or not? Well, a lot of important issues would pop up, like about the police chief or a sex scandal at the high school. The traffic is sustained by the gossip and chat, but from time to time, they want to talk about important civic issues, and because we’re the only site that offers that, this is where they do it.
Tolles: If you look at the curve of posts [click graphic on left], you had this initial burst of posts with the tornadoes, and then the daily chatter in the forums. But somewhere along the line, there was this unpopular police chief and government, and now the post volume is higher than it was during the spike around the tornadoes. It’s got to the point where I sent a person from my staff out there and he’s videotaping the town, making a mini-documentary, and everyone there knows Topix. People in this little town know us.
This posting pattern is similar to what we’re seeing in Front Porch Forum‘s various neighborhood forums. Low level chatter as people join and it slowly builds. However, in a neighborhood with a galvanizing event (unwanted big box store, crime wave, etc.), we seek a spike. Post spike, however, the plateau is raised. Then, the second big issue (that is, in the neighborhoods that have had two big issues so far), message traffic gets big and stays there.
Yelvington on Backfence and Front Porch
Steve Yelvington writes about Backfence‘s recent closure…
We still don’t know the right scale for doing this sort of thing, and that scale may actually be shifting as more people sign up for cheap broadband and become comfortable with creating and not just consuming content. Backfence cofounder Mark Potts once speculated in a conversation that the right physical community size is under 50,000. We’ve had great debates about that where I work; one point of view says a local high school district can serve as a useful proxy for defining a natural community, but your mileage may vary.
People settle into community levels… think concentric circles. Maybe 150 friends in the inner circle. More like 2,000 in the neighborhood… the elementary school district. Maybe 50,000 is the next hop… the high school level. And so on. Capital wants to centralize and standardize across as many people as possible… think USAToday. People tend toward decentralization and diversity… think distinct neighborhoods or yore with their own corner stores, clubs, ethnic flavors, etc. Front Porch Forum is designed for the neighborhood level.
A successful community model and a successful business model are not the same thing. The tricky part is going to involve finding the intersection. Something like Front Porch Forum might have a great community model but never be able to make a significant profit, or vice versa. Or the right business model might involve delivery of a print component, something many Web-centric developers might overlook or avoid.
With 20% of our pilot city subscribing in our first half-year via word-of-mouth, I remain optimistic about FPF’s evolving business model. Time will tell!
Everybody underestimates how hard and how expensive it is to build a powerful brand at a geographic community level. If you went down the street in one of Backfence’s markets and knocked on doors, how many people would have a strong, clear, positive notion of what Backfence was all about and why they should use it? This is one place where incumbent, offline media may have a great advantage, although in many cases it can’t deliver the message to the targets of greatest opportunity (nonconsumers).
Good point.
Clay Shirky and software development
I had the pleasure of chatting with Clay Shirky about Front Porch Forum after a talk he gave a couple months ago. Now, I just watched the video of his presentation at Supernova 2007 and the following quote struck me…
Standing from today, looking towards the future, you will make more accurate predictions about software, and, in this web-driven world, about services, if you ask yourself not “what’s the business model?” but rather “do the people who like it take care of each other?” That turns out to be the better predictor of longevity.
Now, he was talking mostly about open source software development, but I find encouragement for our efforts with Front Porch Forum too. In fact, the people who like FPF do often take care of each other… as neighbors supporting neighbors. In a way, this cuts to the core of our early success.
S. Burlington Night Out Aug. 7
South Burlington, VT will partake in the 24th annual National Night Out celebration on August 7. The Free Press reported yesterday that the organizers are looking for volunteers. Interested? Contact Cpl. Ron Piper (845-4625). Also from the Free Press…
National Night Out serves to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness while generating support for, and participation in, local crime prevention efforts, said Sgt. Thomas A. Fraga of the South Burlington Police Department. It also aims to strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships and send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.
South Burlington will start off the event with a movie and family bingo Aug. 6 at the rotary band shell at Dorset Park. The event at the park will continue at noon Aug. 7 with pony rides, inflatables, and displays from businesses, nonprofits and crime prevention agencies.
The parade will begin at 6 p.m. from the University Mall and progress down Dorset Street until it ends at Dorset Park an hour later. After the parade, the winners of the South Burlington Talent Show and other local groups will perform. A fireworks display at 9:15 p.m. will conclude the event.
This event meshes well with the mission of Front Porch Forum.
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
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