Category Archives: Front Porch Forum
Local Online News in #VT
Champlain College Publishing Initiative ran an interesting piece about local online news recently. Writer Melinda Grey ends with…
As a foretaste of things to come, check out this remarkable link. It’s an item that was recently posted on our Front Porch Forum (speaking of hyperlocal) after yet another day of heavy rain and flooding in Burlington.
Is this the future of local news? And does this suggest that Front Porch Forum may be one model for the hyperlocal news medium of the future?
Her colleague Tim Brookes added…
… events have shown how prophetic Melinda’s observations were. One of the photos of the Booth Street flood we recommended (originally posted as a link on Front Porch Forum) showed up on the front cover of this week’s Seven Days.
This raises some fascinating questions. If a newsweekly picks up a photo from Front Porch Forum, doesn’t that identify the original item as being news, and thus, by implication, identify Front Porch Forum as a hyperlocal online news entity, at least in part? Does this imply that the world is full of sources of what might be called “raw” news, in the sense that reality TV uses security camera feeds as raw footage? It also suggests that this kind of reader-driven content is the print medium’s equivalent of “open source” material–but only up to a point…
Indeed, this kind of thing happens with Front Porch Forum nearly every week. A local citizen posts something on FPF to share with nearby neighbors and then one or more traditional media outlets pick it up and builds a story. We appreciate when the news outlets give proper attribution so their audience knows where they got the lead… but that occurs less than half the time.
As a 2010 Knight News Challenge award winner, FPF is increasingly seen as a new part of the local news and community conversation ecosystem… a quickly evolving environment.
Connected Citizens and Social Change
I’m looking forward to the Q&A portion of this Network for Good webinar. Tune in!
Nonprofit 911
Deeper Dive into the Knight Foundation’s Connected Citizens Report
Building Connections and Engaging Your Community
May 24, 2011, 1-2 PM ESTHow will an increasingly connected world — where social networks are proliferating on and off-line– — affect the way people push for social change?
Learn more about what’s to come from the highlights and findings of a new Knight Foundation and Monitor Institute report, Connected Citizens: The Power, Peril and Potential of Networks. This brand-new information draws from more than 70 rich examples of how social networks are being used to build better and more engaged communities.
Speakers: Mayur Patel, Knight Foundation; Diana Scearce, Monitor Institute; Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
Authentically Local gets organized
Baristanet and another 30 local-focused U.S. blogs just launched Authentically Local…
Local doesn’t scale. Local isn’t McDonald’s, even if the McDonald’s is right down the street. Local doesn’t send profits back to a home office somewhere else. Local is something that’s part of what makes where you are unique. As unique and flawed and loveable as your own kids. Something is authentically local if it’s the first thing you’d want an old friend, visiting from the other side of the world, to see. It’s authentically local if its disappearance could potentially break your heart.
Local is suddenly the newest, hippest, most lucrative frontier. The local advertising market alone is estimated to be $100 billion a year. Companies like AOL, Google, Apple and Groupon all want a piece of the action. Some of the devices they sell you are even collecting data about everywhere you go – all to help their local campaigns.
Certainly big corporations add a lot of convenience and consistency to our world. They also threaten to homogenize it. If you want home to feel different from everywhere else in the world – or if you want a world that’s interesting to explore, support what’s authentically local. Know the difference, and vive la difference!
Just today, I was on a panel at the annual VBSR conference and responded to a question along these lines. Many folks in Vermont prefer to eat local and shop local, but do they click local? That is, they prefer the locally owned coffeeshop over Starbucks, and the locally owned hardware store over Home Depot or WalMart… but do they think about iBrattleboro vs. Facebook in the same way?
#VT Media and Civic Engagement
I’m looking forward to participating on a couple of panels this month. Please join the discussions!
VBSR 2011 Spring Conference
May 12, 2011
Burlington, VT, UVM Davis Center
Changing Media Landscape Brings Challenges and Opportunities for Vermont Businesses
- John Curran, Associated Press Vermont Bureau
- Erik Filkorn, Richmond Selectboard
- Anne Galloway, VTdigger.org
- Angelo Lynn, Addison Independent
- Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
- moderator: Julia Andrews, Spike Advertising
There’s no question that news media are at an interesting crossroads. Many people are sitting in a news netherworld, not wanting to spend an hour reading the local paper but left wanting more by the 24-hour national news cycle. Across the country, new and interesting models are cropping up to fill the need for relevant and easily accessible information, and Vermont is no exception. Panelists will talk about how their organizations are combining modern media with Vermont’s old-fashioned values to fill the information gap, keeping Vermonters informed and connected, and helping them get involved in their local communities.
Citizen Leadership in a Connected Age
May 21, 2011
Vermont Technical College, Randolph, VT
Online Tools for Real World Communities
- Helen Labun Jordan, Director, e-Vermont Community Broadband Project
- Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum
- Susan Clark, Author, Middlesex Town Moderator, Middlesex Solutions Committee Chair
- Christopher Grotke and Lise LePage, Owners, iBrattleboro
Many of us have high hopes for what online tools can do to strengthen our community, but we also have worries about the pitfalls of virtual life. Will online gaming replace a game of softball with friends? Will anonymous complaints replace constructive conversations? Learn about strategies you can use to foster virtual connections that spill over into the real world. Session will combine short panel presentations of what has worked in some Vermont towns with discussion and ideas—sharing by the audience.
Adrian Holovaty on who’s winning hyperlocal…
I think Front Porch Forum is winning. They’ve managed to get 90% of households in a #VT neighborhood to sign up for it, and the community contributions are high quality, useful and interesting.
Beyond that, there are a bunch of great neighborhood blogs in various pockets in the U.S., like West Seattle Blog and Uptown Update here in Chicago.
And finally, I’m biased, but I think EveryBlock is genuinely interesting and useful, especially with our recent community-focused relaunch.
Thanks Adrian! That’s great company for FPF to keep. (See StreetFight for the full interview.) As I’ve said before, EveryBlock’s relaunch is a powerhouse.
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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