Category Archives: Democracy

People say the nicest things…

Posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 by No comments yet

Indeed they do.  A long-time FPF subscriber (who gladly pays a monthly donation), shared the following today…

We are in the middle of an eight-month tour of the world with our kids (right now in Kathmandu), so we are enjoying Front Porch Forum more than ever, as it keeps us in touch with what’s going on back home.

And then Mary, in response to someone complaining about neighbors who speak up on FPF about local issues wrote…

There are millions of people around the world who don’t have a venue for their voice in any form. I celebrate the fact that we have a place right here (Front Porch Forum) for all our voices, whether I agree with them or not.

Can local save us from global?

Posted on Sunday, April 19, 2009 by No comments yet

Greg Sterling writes recently

This article from the Sunday NY Times magazine has some interesting and controversial “food for thought” about the future of the economy and local communities. The piece focuses on the “Transition” movement, whose central idea is that to be sustainable in a coming era of no oil, society will have to “relocalize” to feed itself…

A great deal of the “malaise” that afflicts us as a culture is built upon our collective use of things and consumables to satisfy what are essentially emotional and spiritual needs for community and connection to other people. The irony of most people’s lives is that they chase objects and material comfort only to discover — if they’re lucky enough to attain their objectives — that those “things” make false promises…

Yet if we all had enough wealth to stop “working” or worrying about money we probably would behave differently and not continue chasing more money. We’d probably start working on personal creative pursuits, the collective good or doing something to help others. I tend, because of this belief, to be somewhat mystified when I read about Internet entrepreneurs who no longer have to work, but are working on their next startup.

Important topic.  Even without the current attention to this subject brought on by looming global perils (economy, environment, war, disease, etc.).

The whole concept of localism (e.g., as put forward by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance) is finally getting some traction.

Our observation… one can’t get very far with this approach if neighbors are strangers to each other… which is, increasingly, the case in the United States.  So, we created and launched Front Porch Forum and now 40% of our pilot city subscribes and 93% report increased civic engagement because of FPF.

While we might lose the internet when catastrophe hits (say it ain’t so!), at least here in greater Burlington, VT, real face-to-face networks of neighbors are flourishing, catalyzed by Front Porch Forum.

Hastening the demise of community newspapers?

Posted on Thursday, April 16, 2009 by 1 comment

A community newspaper in Vermont recently raised concerns about Front Porch Forum to an entity that is supportive of our work.  Here are some of the points made by the newspaper publisher…

… internet activities like the Front Porch Forum are direct competitors to community newspapers…

… subsidizing these forums and spreading their access is hastening the demise of [community newspapers]…

… you enable the neighborhoods to believe that news of their community is being covered by the siting of trash being dumped on the side of the road, or of a neighbor who attended a meeting and reported on the one item of real interest to them…

What happens with these types of forums is news is filtered out to the community by those with an agenda. School boards or planning commissions, for example, could designate a member of the board to write the report of the meeting and put it on the forum. The potential to have that report cover what the board wants and how it wants is huge, and it is not, in the end, in the public’s best interest in cases that may be controversial. (Given, that much of the news coming out of such meetings is not controversial and such reports could be unbiased and with no consequence.) But in cases that are controversial, how is the community best served if what happens is that Front Porch leads readers to believe they don’t need the local paper except on those few occasions of controversy. That is, they cancel their subscription and only buy it at the store on those weeks when a professional reporter comes to town to report important issues. That type of thinking, of course, hurts circulation and undermines the advertising base.

… activities like these are no small threats to community newspapers…

… you might reconsider how to carry on this part of your mission. Partnering with the local paper may be one way to do that.

Here’s my response…

Small town community newspapers are crucial to local civic health.  And many of these newspapers face a dire future.  This should be a big concern for anyone focused on local social capital and civic engagement.  It’s one of the reasons I’m working on Front Porch Forum.  You should be congratulated for your forward thinking in this area.  I would be interested in seeing innovative proposals from community newspapers for new sustainable business models to support local journalism.

Front Porch Forum’s mission is to help neighbors connect and build community.  Any sharing of news among neighbors is incidental… it’s one of many things that neighbors do when they have access to an easy communication channel.  We don’t directly compete with newspapers, we help and complement them.

In fact, in Chittenden County, news stories bubble up out of neighborhood conversations on FPF.  In dozens of cases, The Burlington Free Press, Seven Days, WCAX, VPR and others have used Front Porch Forum to get leads for their news stories.  We’re happy to play this role (assuming proper attribution).

And forward thinking newspapers use FPF to attract more readers.  For example, Seven Days has been running weekly messages on FPF about its stories drawing significant traffic to its website.

Further, many of our subscribers travel an arc from (1) getting direct results from postings (e.g., found lost cat, gave away a stroller), to (2) feeling more a part of their community due to these interactions and routine reading of neighbors’ postings, to (3) increased involvement in the civic life of their town (e.g., volunteering at Green Up Day, serving on a committee).  This heightened sense of what’s going on in the neighborhood leads to people being more tuned into local issues… thus FPF helps nurture an environment loaded with more potential readers of the local newspaper.  It’s up to the each newspaper to capitalize on this opportunity.

For example, in Burlington’s New North End, past monthly Neighborhood Planning Assembly meetings typically drew five or six people, in addition to the committee members.  Once the committee started using FPF, attendance ballooned to 50 or 60.  This wasn’t just because FPF was a better way to announce the meetings, rather it’s been the regular neighborhood-level discussions stirred up via FPF that have increase awareness and interest in local issues.  So when the meeting is announced, many people are tuned in and caring enough to show up and participate.

We’d be thrilled if one of Burlington’s newspapers approached us with ideas for tying into this exciting development.  Perhaps we could even work up a proposal and seek funding together.

The decline of the newspaper industry is closely tracked and widely discussed.  Here’s one such recent piece that warrants careful reading.

Here are some other respected resources about the upheaval in the newspaper business…

Many factors contribute to the current status of the newspaper industry, including past business decisions, the current economy, volatile changes in the advertising world, the effect of the internet, participatory and decentralized journalism, etc… suffice to say, it’s complex and the sea change underway now has been a long time coming.  It’s hard to imagine that supporting a small local civic-engagement dot.com experiment has much of a role in this larger, centuries-running drama of the American newspaper.

The newspaper publisher appears to have some misconceptions of how Front Porch Forum works.  FPF is open to all residents of its service region, those with agendas (of any stripe) and those without.  It’s a discussion among clearly identified nearby neighbors about topics of their choosing… like a block party with name tags.  Newspapers, on the other hand, bring their own agenda, determine the topics, and limit who can speak.

While some FPF members may quit their local newspaper subscriptions, as he suggests, that’s not our intent.  If that happens, I submit it has more to do with the readers’ perceived value of the newspaper than with FPF.

Finally, we’re humbled by the recognition and awards from the following organizations bestowed on Front Porch Forum for its cutting edge work in building social capital and civic engagement, including…

  • American Press Institute
  • Wall Street Journal
  • Morning Edition
  • PBS
  • John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
  • Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society
  • Personal Democracy Forum
  • Case Foundation
  • Sunlight Foundation
  • National Night Out
  • PlaceMatters
  • Action Coalition for Media Education
  • Snelling Center for Government
  • Orton Family Foundation

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on this subject and I’d be glad to continue the conversation with you, newspaper folks, or others.  I have much to learn and remain openminded and flexible.

“For us it’s more a place to live than a community.”

Posted on Monday, April 6, 2009 by No comments yet

From the Local Democracy blog in the U.K…

There’s a really good, detailed bit of reporting here from Friday’s Guardian about the near-collapse of local newspapers in some areas.

The starting point that Stephen Moss chose was my old local paper when I was young – The Long Eaton Advertiser.

This bit stood out for me:

“For the older generation, these things matter. “They want to know who’s passed away,” says the barman at the Corner Pin down the road, “and to check it’s not them.” But the younger generation don’t much care. Carl and Katrina Smith, a married couple in their mid-30s, not only didn’t know the paper had closed; they didn’t even know its name – and they were born nearby and have lived in the town most of their lives. They did, though, occasionally buy the Nottingham Evening Post – mainly for the jobs. For this generation, Long Eaton as a place has almost ceased to exist, lost in a more amorphous Nottingham-Derby conurbation.

“It’s only the older people who think of communities now,” says Carl. “For us it’s more a place to live than a community.” He was an electrician’s mate and worked all over the country (until he was laid off two months ago – people are as vulnerable as papers in the slump); Katrina works in Leicester. Long Eaton is a dormitory for them; they rent a house and say they have no idea who their neighbours are.”

That’s a problem.  Front Porch Forum and other efforts are part of a solution.

Two-thirds of Vermont on Broadband; Most of State wants Fiber

Posted on Monday, March 30, 2009 by 1 comment

According to new study from the UVM Center for Rural Studies, 66% of Vermont households surveyed report having high speed internet access.  About 79% said that broadband was available where they lived.

Overall nearly 82% of polled households have an Internet connection. Of connected households, 18% had dial-up, 24% had a cable modem, 42% had DSL, nearly 7% had satellite Internet, 6% had a wireless Internet service, and 3% had fiber-optic or some other service. Generally anything faster than dial-up is considered to be broadband, although speeds may vary.

Lots more detail in the survey results… e.g., 73% of “respondents were in favor of an effort exclusively in fiber-optic infrastructure.”

Local Online Services making Newspapers Irrelevant?

Posted on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 by No comments yet

A neighborhood activist came home from a community meeting in Burlington tonight and she turned immediately to Front Porch Forum to inform her neighbors of the meeting’s outcome.  I was struck by her note that said, in part,…

Between Channel 17 [award-winning PEG Access station] and Front Porch Forum, the Free Press [Gannett-owned local daily newspaper] is no longer relevant!

I don’t think I’d go that far, but that kind of comment is heard more and more.

“Now is the time for experiments” -Clay Shirky

Posted on Saturday, March 14, 2009 by No comments yet

Clay Shirky’s much blogged about essay about newspapers is — surprising for a topic so over analyzed — fresh and mind-opening…

… there is one possible answer to the question “If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?” The answer is: Nothing will work, but everything might. Now is the time for experiments, lots and lots of experiments, each of which will seem as minor at launch as craigslist did, as Wikipedia did, as octavo volumes did.

Journalism has always been subsidized. Sometimes it’s been Wal-Mart and the kid with the bike. Sometimes it’s been Richard Mellon Scaife. Increasingly, it’s you and me, donating our time. The list of models that are obviously working today, like Consumer Reports and NPR, like ProPublica and WikiLeaks, can’t be expanded to cover any general case, but then nothing is going to cover the general case.

It’s a thrill to be deeply involved in one such experiment… Front Porch Forum.

On 99-cent iFarts and progress

Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 by No comments yet

From MeetUp.com‘s Scott Heiferman’s blog

@JoeTrippi: “I live in a world in which BILLIONS of people live on less than $2 a day yet many of us will pay 99 cents for an IPhone app that makes our phone fart. But I don’t write this out of guilt or to guilt you. Its just a fact that I find really strange… I am not much of an idealist any more — at least not in the way I considered myself an idealist before I found my way to Africa last year — but I still believe in the power of people conducting simple acts together for the purpose of achieving what is right.”

That’s my approach to Front Porch Forum.  It’s not single-handedly finding a cure for AIDS or reversing global climate change… but it is connecting neighbors and leading to increased civic engagement.  And there’s something profound about helping humanize the guy next door, while directing people’s attention to local issues, conversations and actions.

FPF on The Radiator

Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 by No comments yet

Thanks to host Jonathan Butler who interviewed me on his new radio show “The Browser” on The Radiator… fun times.  We discussed Front Porch Forum, Facebook, Craigslist, local online and more.  Click here to listen.

UPDATE: From Jonathan today on FPF’s Neighborhood Volunteers Forum…

I am a Volunteer at the Radiator 105.9fm, BTV’s community-access public radio station, where I host a weekly program called ‘the browser’.  The program is all about “the people who bring the world wide web to BTV & VT”.  My guest this week was Michael Wood-Lewis of Front Porch Forum.  You can hear the interview here: http://thebrowser1059.wordpress.com

The success of the FPF is a multi-angle story and I’m sure I’ll host future discussions or interviews about the Forum.  If you have any suggestions for guests/topics (related to the Forum or other), please feel free to drop me an email.  I can’t use the Radio to overtly and actively promote the Forum, but it is a great story that could merit additional coverage in the future.

Better than classifieds?

Posted on Thursday, March 12, 2009 by No comments yet

Online classifieds are a dime a dozen… but many of these services are failing lately.  As reported on Local Onliner

Jay Schauer, a friend who runs Ad2Ad.com, … complains that “people seem to assume that classified advertising is an easy business to understand and enter. It’s not. It’s a business that demands fierce commitment to localization, understanding the nature of the small local advertiser, and a commitment to small, individual sales.”

Schauer notes that it is “hard ground for start-ups driven by dreams of an IPO. In the past year I’ve seen three competitors drown. Two others are careening toward the treacherous shoals…

“What those failing groups seem to have lacked is the desire to get down and get real with the individual advertiser who will actually pay for classifieds. That customer is not rich, not sophisticated, not interested in pretty, elegant or cool.”

He goes on to note that “the bulk of classified advertisers live in small towns and tight neighborhoods. They don’t build social networks. They are typically the salt of the earth — and hence of little interest to VCs. This customer wants RESULTS FAST. They want to get information to their neighbors — who are also their customers. Most important, they will pay a reasonable price to do so.”

“Classifieds are not pretty,” says Schauer. “But the economic engine they support is large and remains robust. More important, the neighbor-to-neighbor business interaction is core to the strength of the greater economy and to our political well-being.”

While Front Porch Forum is more about neighborhood conversation than classified ads, many of the postings are, essentially, classified ads shared among clearly identified nearby neighbors.  And FPF postings often out perform classified ads on Craigslist and other platforms.  In fact, a member just posted this on FPF in Burlington’s Old North End…

Hi Neighbors, In my recent posting offering to sell several items  (coffee table, accordion, shelves, etc.)  I received way more response then I ever expected!  I sold/gave the items to those offers which landed in my inbox first.  I apologize to all those who I did not respond back to… if you did not hear back from me, the items are gone!  Many thanks.