Category Archives: Media

Mailbox Lady gets Press

Posted on Thursday, August 2, 2007 by • 1 comment

Good for Kelly and her funky mailbox-painting project in Huntington, VT. We covered her story last month, and now Seven Days has a lovely piece in this week’s issue by Paula Routly. The slideshow assembled by Cathy Resmer gives a richer sense than the single newsprint photo.

The rural mailbox is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, it’s a personal postal sanctuary fiercely protected by the federal government. On the other, provided the “current resident” owns it, a mailbox can also be a means of self-expression. Along Vermont roadsides, it’s not unusual to see Audubon scenes, American flags and Warren Kimble creations mingling with the standard black, slushy silver, or rusty-red metal loafs.

Kelly O’Brien is taking the mailbox medium one step further: In Huntington, the 38-year-old unemployed carpet saleswoman is turning postal regulation into public art. In the last two months, she’s transformed about 30 drab mailboxes around town into colorful creations. A red mailbox with blue polka dots and funky yellow lettering stands out on the Main Road into Huntington. Further down, a cluster of four cheerily painted boxes makes a statement at the intersection of Blackbird Swale. One of the lids is a landscape that looks like the surrounding area. Is that Camel’s Hump? In arched cursive letters it reads, “Our Road Leads to Heaven.”…

To get the word out, ironically, she resorted to electronic mail. She posted a message on Front Porch Forum, the neighborhood email listserv that is building community connections all over Chittenden County, including in Huntington. “Hi, All — I’d like to paint your mailbox!” O’Brien enthused in her initial communication with her town’s Front Porch members. “You’d be helping me out by letting me paint and take photos for my portfolio . . . and you’ll benefit by getting a one-of-a-kind mailbox.” She added, “If you hate it, I can repaint it to the original black, gray or white.”

About a dozen people responded, and O’Brien went to work — on location.

More about FPF on PBS.org

Posted on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 by • No comments yet

Mark Glaser at PBS.org’s MediaShift wrote about FPF previously and yesterday…

When I put the question to MediaShift readers about where they get neighborhood news, I was inundated by fans of the Front Porch Forum service in Burlington, Vermont…

Normally I tend to discount these types of write-in campaigns, but I have to admit that I like what Front Porch Forum is doing. The service is currently in a test phase covering 130 neighborhoods around Burlington. You can only sign up for the neighborhood you live in, and then you start getting email newsletters with news tidbits, items for sale, business openings, and more — submitted by people in the neighborhood. They are closed lists that aren’t accessible to the public, and each posting includes the person’s name, mailing address and email address to verify who they are…

It will be interesting to see if this closed approach via email — similar to the closed approach of the early Facebook — will foster a better way of keeping tabs on community news beyond Burlington. And of course, the question remains how to make money off of email lists, and including local businesses in the mix…

Thanks to Mark for the coverage. It’s a fair description of FPF; however, I think the email aspect of our service needn’t be over emphasized. Email is the best primary distribution method for the our audience currently. That’ll change over time. In our flagship neighborhood, 90% of the households subscribe with 50% posting content in the past six months… that includes folks in their 80s on down to teens looking for babysitting jobs. They all use email. They don’t all use RSS, text messaging, Facebook, etc. In a sense, we’re hosting a bunch of private group blogs… each one focused on a neighborhood… but we’re using email for now.

Members say it best

Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 by • No comments yet

Since its launch last fall, Front Porch Forum has attracted wonderful people who join and put the service to great use.  Then the praise flows in.  Here are couple from today…

I joined this forum about a month ago but have been “lurking.” So, belatedly, “Hi, I’m Here”

The magic of the internet has made me feel much more connected to many of you whom I have never met.  I tried to help find Jim’s laptop (never even knew the name behind the Smithy sign until then) and cheered (and blogged it) when it was recovered. I have been admiring the mailboxes along the main road, knowing the source of their new found beauty. And I have frequently passed on your queries to folks who are not on the list but I think might be able to help.  -Julie, Huntington Neighborhood Forum

And from the stream of FPF comments on the PBS blog MediaShift…

Is there an echo in here? There oughta be for the Front Porch Forum in Burlington, VT. Not only is it a source for hyperlocal news, but it is also a record of our times a la Studs Terkel. All history is personal – isn’t that the premise. What Michael Wood-Lewis and family have created is nothing short of a perfect marriage between technology and community, from the banal to the profound – and everything in between.  -Richard

Wow!  Thank you Julie and Richard.

PBS wants Front Porch Forum comments

Posted on Tuesday, July 24, 2007 by • 2 comments

Gotta love surprises! At least good ones. Last night I noted a post by Mark Glaser of MediaShift, a PBS blog, that put the question to his readers… “What’s your favorite way of getting hyper-local or neighborhood news?”

I wondered how Front Porch Forum members would answer that, so I asked a group of them, specifically the FPF Neighborhood Volunteers. The surprise arrived this morning when I checked the comments on MediaShift… Nine of 12 remarks are from happy FPF members… lovely and insightful comments to the one. Here’s a sample from Jeff in Richmond…

Front Porch Forum is a local e-mail based newsletter in and around Burlington, Vermont. We use it to share whatever is in our garage, learn who is sick in the neighborhood and find out what is happening in local politics.

Why would an entire neighborhood need a canoe in every garage, when we can share, reduce consumption and create community by loaning our canoe to our neighbors.

We have collected 150 sets of silverware from garage sales and tag sales and let our neighbors know through Front Porch Forum that they can borrow our bucket of silver whenever they have a large gathering. So much better than using those petroleum based plastic forks and spoons.

We found out through Front Porch Forum when our neighbor’s son was shipped out to Iraq and were able to contribute to weekly care packages sent by another neighbor.

We find out about everything from public hearings to lemonade stands through this service and as a school board trustee I get direct feedback from my constituents.

We love Front Porch Forum.

Thanks Jeff and all who have and will add their two cents. Now I see that the PBS blogger has added a question specifically to FPF members…

Welcome all you folks from Front Porch Forum! Glad to have you on the blog. I’m curious if some of you can explain how you first heard about it, and why you trust the information there. Also, what new features would you like to see on that service or similar ones? And finally, can Front Porch Forum or other services really call out public officials or businesses if there are problems, or are they too tied in to those local power centers?

If you care to respond, add your comment at MediaShift. Also, if you’re an FPF member and so inclined, please share this link on your own neighborhood’s forum.

UPDATE: And respond you did! Thanks to all the FPF members who answered the PBS.org reporter’s questions. Here’s the latest one from Lorinda who participates on the Milton Neighborhood Forum…

My neighborhood Front Porch Forum is still in its baby step stages, but it is still the best way for immediate news. I also am connected to the Volunteer section of the forum which contains selected messages that may be of wider interest than just one neighborhood. I heard about it from my daughter who works in the neighborhood of the original forum.

I trust the news the same way I do when I meet someone in the grocery store (Vermont is still the kind of place where you ALWAYS meet someone you know at the grocery store). These are truly MY neighbors — and why would they lie to me about a lost cat, the time of the school board meeting, or wanting to borrow a garden tractor, for Pete’s sake?

And what was that about being tied in to the local power base? You have to be kidding, right? It’s people like us who ARE the local power base, whatever that is and if we have one. How is anyone going to tie up the collective voices of thousands of reporters, each speaking from her own heart and his own home? This is the most free form of expression and the absolute best use of the internet I can think of.

Front Porch Forum Team Earns Award!

Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 by • 2 comments

As reported by the Burlington Free Press yesterday…

South Burlington – This year’s recipient of the Community Appreciation Award, which is given out each year at National Night Out, will go to Michael and Valerie Wood-Lewis, who founded Front Porch Forum. The Front Porch Forum is an email based service organized by neighborhoods, where neighbors talk about topics from baby-sitting to vandalism.

The Community Appreciation Award “recognizes someone in the community whose efforts have made a difference in our community” and who has worked toward crime prevention and youth services, said National Night Out coordinator Catherine Welch. The Wood-Lewises will receive the award at 7 p.m. on Aug. 7 at the Dorset Park band shell. Gov. Jim Douglas will present the award.

“After only a half-year of operation, more than 5,000 Chittenden County households have joined Front Porch Forum,” Michael Wood-Lewis said in a press release. “FPF hosts 130 contiguous online neighborhood forums covering the entire metro-Burlington area. People use the free service for many ends, including finding a babysitter or lost cat, selling a canoe, recommending a plumber, announcing a school play, reporting a car break-in, organizing a block party and so much more. And, the best part of it, all of these activities are done with clearly identified nearby neighbors, so the sense of community in each neighborhood grows.”

Wood-Lewis said he and his wife are “humbled” to be nominated for the award and they will share it with the thousands of local Front Porch Forum members, volunteers and sponsors.

By all means, this award is shared with the more than 5,000 local FPF participants… definitely a group effort.

I encourage local folks to attend the various National Night Out events… sounds like a fun bash (and free!) taking shape… carnival, parade, fireworks, live music, rides, food and more. We’re taking our kids. August 6 at 6:30 PM at Dorset Park, and then the main event on August 7 from noon until 10:00 PM at the park (rain date is August 8 ).

Update:  Details about the event are now available on the South Burlington Police Dept. website.  Also, Sgt. Tom Fraga and organizer Catherine Welch recorded a Channel 17 TV show about it all the other day.  Click here and then select “South Burlington’s National Night Out Preview Show (7/17/07)” under Special Events.  They mention Front Porch Forum at 22:40 into the 30-minute program.

Yelvington on Backfence and Front Porch

Posted on Friday, July 13, 2007 by • No comments yet

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.

Front Porch Forum Case Study

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by • No comments yet

Ken Picard wrote an article in this week’s Seven Days about the assault of a woman at a Burlington basketball court when she asked some late night ballplayers to tone it down. What a terrible act against this 11-year resident.  I reported on the Burlington Free Press’ coverage here previously.

With the publication of Ken’s piece, a vivid portrait is painted of how the neighbors are using Front Porch Forum to inform each other about events, express concerns, debate underlying issues, attract official responses from local authorities, and get organized. Some excerpts…

When residents living near Pomeroy Park in the Old North End first learned about the late-night assault last month on one of their neighbors, they probably didn’t get the news from the daily newspaper. More likely, they read about it on the Front Porch Forum…

This incident, like many relatively minor crimes that occur each day in Burlington, might have gone unnoticed and unaddressed were it not for the victim’s neighbor, Samuel Press. He asked her permission to post an account of the incident on their neighborhood’s Front Porch Forum…

Press’ posting sparked a flurry of email responses from other residents of the Old North End, some of whom recounted similar experiences with unruly and foul-mouthed park users. Others expressed dismay at the Parks & Recreation department and the police department’s unwillingness and/or inability to address their concerns, which appear to have existed for years.

The online back-and-forth eventually prompted official replies from Parks & Recreation Director Wayne Gross and Burlington Police Lieutenant Jennifer Morrison… Gross wrote that he asked the Burlington Electric Department to fix the street lamp that was bleeding light onto the court, enabling late-night play to occur. Likewise, Morrison informed residents that the police have stepped up nighttime patrols of the area, and asked residents to get good descriptions of anyone else engaged in suspicious activities.

Recently, a group of neighbors met to talk about longer term solutions. FPF is all about helping neighbors connect and foster community at the neighborhood level. This is a wonderful case study of people using Front Porch Forum in just this way.

Basketball Assault and Neighborhood Response

Posted on Friday, July 6, 2007 by • 1 comment

John Briggs writes today in the Burlington Free Press about trouble at Pomeroy Park in Burlington’s Hill-Old North End area. The basketball court there draws a lot of intense games. Neighbors complain of loud explicative-filled language, and games going on outside of allowed hours.

A woman who came out to ask a couple players to tone it down at 3 AM was assaulted recently… a terrible thing. This was first reported on our ONE East Neighborhood Forum and since then has been the focus of dozens of postings among neighbors. The police, parks and rec, and a city councilor have weighed in too on that forum.  John writes…

The crime has become a persistent topic on the neighborhood’s e-mail newsletter sponsored by the Front Porch Forum. Some who have written to the forum and others who live nearby say the basketball court, well-known as the site of “high level” recreational basketball, as Parks Director Wayne Gross put it, is out of place in the close-packed neighborhood.

The first round of messages declared outrage and indicated plenty of pent-up frustration about the situation with the basketball court. Then some messages were posted that raised the concern about racism and/or classism. This elicited a strong backlash claiming no racism (although some of the ongoing basketball playing crowd is African-American, the assailants were actually white college students). Now some members of the neighborhood have called a meeting to map out a plan for how to work towards a reasonable solution. The tone of many recent postings has been solution-oriented.

In another case, a woman was shouted down for requesting quiet during late hours.  John reports…

She called the police, and the players, in that instance, were ticketed. In a note on the Front Porch Forum, she said “swearing and inappropriate language is used on a daily basis” on the basketball court. In response to the many comments on the forum about the assault, Burlington Police Lt. Jennifer Morrison described the attack as “reprehensible” but added “it is unlikely that the perpetrator will be identified.” She said patrols have been increased near the park since then.

I’m grateful for John’s accurate attribution to Front Porch Forum in his article. Best wishes to all involved in this issue… I’m glad that FPF has proved useful. I also hope that working on this challenge will bring neighbors together in a lasting way that may have not occurred otherwise.

FPF Recognition Growing

Posted on Sunday, July 1, 2007 by • No comments yet

Front Porch Forum is the “Featured Website” in the Summer 2007 issue of the Orton Scenarios E-Journal.  Given how influential Orton is in such things… this is wonderful!

Also had a nice short piece in The Islander newspaper this week.  Thanks Lorinda.

And this lovely quote came in today from a Vermont State Representative…

“I love Front Porch Forum. It is such a great way to be connected to different social networks and hear the opinions of my neighbors!”

More Blog Posts from Scoble Video

Posted on Friday, June 22, 2007 by • 1 comment

A couple more postings in the blogosphere after Robert Scoble’s video interview about Front Porch Forum…

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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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