Category Archives: Media
Efficiency Vermont, FPF and South Burlington Energy Committee work to reduce residential electricity use by neighborhood
South Burlington Residential Electricity Reduction by Neighborhood
By Kristan Hatfield
Program Manager for Efficiency Vermont
The South Burlington Energy Committee, Front Porch Forum, and Efficiency Vermont partnered together to create a map of the city that displays changes in residential electricity consumption. The incorporation of neighborhood boundaries has added a relevant new dimension to the tool’s visualizations. The tool calculates changes in each of the Front Porch Forum neighborhood’s average kWh use per home.
A new understanding of community electricity use in the residential and municipal sectors has been inspired by three Vermont teams, South Burlington, Montpelier, and Waterbury/Duxbury, who are participating in the Georgetown University Energy Prize. The City of South Burlington and their partners have worked together to develop innovations in communicating trends in residential electricity and natural gas use. The result: South Burlington used less electricity per capita in 2015 than had been used in 2013 and 2014.
South Burlington Residents can look for the Map Update in The Other Paper this Fall (pp. 14-15) to see how each neighborhood is performing in 2016.
Front Porch Forum named Climate Economy Innovator
Vermont Council on Rural Development featured Front Porch Forum as a Climate Economy Innovator recently. Here’s the story. This is part of VCRD’s impressive Vermont Climate Change Economy Initiative.
Social media and Vermont Open Meeting questions
The Rutland Herald reported recently that…
A proposed social media policy that would cover both town employees and elected officials was met with pushback last week in Rockingham, with Select Board members saying they felt the proposed policy was a threat to their First Amendment rights…
Abby Friedman, director of the municipal assistance center for the [Vermont League of Cities and Towns], said Friday that many larger towns and cities in Vermont have social media policies, but she said she didn’t know whether they had adopted the one drafted by the league.
She said Barre City, Williston and Colchester were among the larger communities that had policies.
“The policy was written back in 2010. It was before Front Porch (Forum) existed. We need to look at our policy too to see if it needs any updating,” she said, noting that a lot of towns were concerned about the social media issue.
Chris Winters, deputy director of the Vermont Secretary of State’s office, said his office so far had not given towns and town officials any official guidance on the issue.
“Eventually, this summer, we were thinking of putting together some guidance,” he said. “And give the towns some help on online and social media behavior.”
In many Vermont communities, more than half of the households participate on their local FPF. So many more residents of these Towns read comments on FPF than would ever attend selectboard meetings. If we want healthy local democracy, we should update state and local policies to encourage participation… not the opposite.
One correction… FPF has been serving Vermont Towns since 2006, and we’ve had public officials participating during each of the past ten years.
Local TV news… fear-mongering or reporting on crime? (Burlington burglaries)
One day and 3,000 miles apart, two local TV newscasts took diametrically opposed approaches covering crime and local online forums.
KGET-17 in Bakersfield, CA asked multiple times in their story (Neighborhood safety apps and websites, are they actually safe?) if services such as Front Porch Forum, NextDoor, EveryBlock and AmericanTowns are safe to use. While a local police sergeant advised caution about what a user shares — which is good, common sense, advice — his point that the Bakersfield Police Dept. has “only seen the programs used in a positive way” was buried in the closing sentence.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated story the next day in Burlington, VT (Police see city-wide spike in burglaries), WPTZ-5 reported that the local police chief had just posted on Front Porch Forum — to which more than 75% of local households subscribe — about a string of burglaries. The Chief provided details and told his FPF readers that “the department is using plainclothes, unmarked and patrol units to track down those responsible.”
We’re pleased that law enforcement in Vermont finds value in Front Porch Forum, and that local media here mine FPF for story leads. FPF is part of a healthy local media ecosystem and we’re glad to play our role.
Old House Journal focus on Five Sisters
Jericho neighbors lend cots to Brundibar
“I am amazed at our community… after posting one night asking for fold-away cots for an upcoming musical, I was well received by so many welcoming families and friends… thank you all. I am talking to the director, so please bare with me. I love this Forum… thank you all again.” [Brundibar, http://Flynntix.org or 802-86FLYNN]
• Lupe, Jericho Front Porch Forum
VPR: Front Porch Forum turning 10
From Steve Zind’s recent piece about FPF…
Nearly 10 years after it was created, the online community known as Front Porch Forum is a well-established statewide service.
It’s a unique model that hasn’t been duplicated on a statewide level elsewhere, but Front Porch Forum CEO and co-founder Michael Wood-Lewis says the business is viable without expanding beyond Vermont.
The free online community message board was started by Wood-Lewis and his wife Valerie when they were looking for a way to communicate with people in their Burlington neighborhood.
The business grew steadily. Then, in 2013, Front Porch Forum received a grant under the Vermont Council on Rural Development‘s Digital Economy Project that allowed it to essentially double its coverage area to include every town in Vermont.
Today the business has a dozen employees and is financially sustainable…
The Bridge covers FPF in Montpelier
“Front Porch Forum, the free community-generated online newsletter, has only been serving Montpelier for a couple of years, but 3,500 city residents have already signed up to get its e-mails, and Montpelier members have proven to be the most active posters of messages in the state… ‘Montpelier is an outlier,’… ‘In the last 30 days, there have been 1,300 postings in Montpelier. We usually consider anything over 60 or 90 postings a month to be a successful forum. Montpelier is at over 10 times that level.'”
Small data vs. big data
Writing for the Brookings Institution and Huffington Post, Hollie Russon Gilman…
Until fairly recently it was not uncommon for new members of a community to bake muffins or a pie to introduce themselves to their new neighbors. Today, people have more robust digital social networks and are less likely to engage in these types of activities. Some organizations are attempting to translate these activities to the online world. Front Porch Forum a startup in Burlington, Vermont is trying to make a safe space for neighbors to discuss the nuts and bolts of their community. People must identify their full names and streets — helping build networks of trust. Neighbors post and discuss issues related to their communities. The platform serves as a source of information — ever critical with declining local papers and coverage. The ultimate goal is to get people out of the house by creating a feedback loop inspiring in-person activity.
In Burlington there are more than 15,000 users (out of 16,000 households) with some households having more than one account, as discussed on TechPresident. Front Porch is expanding to other cities. These types of platforms have the ability to use local data to create stronger, more resilient communities. Citizens provide and receive data from their neighbors, which, in turn, can improve the overall quality of life.
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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