Steven Clift today calls for federal stimulus dollars for Front Porch Forum-like projects across the country… to the tune of $900 million. Go Steve!
A bridge is infrastructure designed to connect people to each other for social and economic growth. Digital bridges can do the same for a fraction of the cost.
Across the United States, a quiet revolution is connecting some local people to one another online. Let’s make it most people. Americans are using technology to:
• Create electronic block clubs to deter crime and keep their children safer.
• Establish online neighborhood and community forums, blogs, and social networks that promote community problem-solving, support for local small business and are beginning to be used for mutual benefit and support during these difficult economic times.
• Promote reuse of goods and materials through open exchange primarily at a regional level.
• Promote awareness of volunteer opportunities in local community and non-profit groups.
• Connect the public to local government services through e-mail newsletters, customized alert services, and other online systems.
Congratulations to our 22 Front Porch Forum “Nine Words for 2009” raffle winners and thanks to our prize donors!
1. Michele Sandquist, Bolton — Higher Ground
2. Jeremy Brotz, Burlington — ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain
3. Emily Eschner, Burlington — Sleepy Hollow Inn
4. Kurt Kaffenberger, Burlington — Vermont Frost Heaves
5. Krista Nickerson, Burlington — The Grass Gauchos
6. Susan Rutherford, Burlington — Gardener’s Supply
7. Zach Usadi-Henrickson, Burlington — Burlington Telecom
8. Laurel Maurer, Colchester — Seventh Generation
9. Colin McNaull, Hinesburg — The Grass Gauchos
10. LindaLou Parker, Essex Junction — Trading Post for Little Folks
11. Laurie Darling, Milton — Aikido of Champlain Valley
12. Patricia Bezalel, Shelburne — PhotoGarden
13. Lori Peckham, Shelburne — Woolen Mill Health Club
14. Peter Baldor, Richmond — Woolen Mill Health Club
15. Joe O’Brien, Richmond — ReCycle North
16. Tim Barritt, South Burlington — Sleepy Hollow Inn
17. Loretta Marriott, South Burlington — Higher Ground
18. Max Henson-Stroud, Westford — Trading Post for Little Folks
19. Chuck McGill, Westford — Sweet Clover Market
20. Kevin Stephens, Williston — Higher Ground
21. Liz Dallas, Winooski — Aikido of Champlain Valley
22. Petie Shea-Gamache, Winooski — Woolen Mill Health Club
You can say a lot with a little. Witness Hemingway’s short, short story: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
To celebrate 2009 and have a little fun, we invite Front Porch Forum members (any resident of Chittenden County, VT is eligible) to submit postings to their neighborhood forum between now and Jan. 9, 2009. Any message that has EXACTLY nine words will be entered into a raffle for the following 22 prizes…
Don’t delay! Post your “car for sale,” “seeking snow removal” or “lost cat” message today… or share a neighborhood resolution, poem, joke, hope for our nation… you decide. Any nine-word posting received by Front Porch Forum between now and Jan. 9 will be entered in the raffle! An individual may enter the drawing up to twice a day.
UPDATE 1: Posting a comment to this blog will NOT enter you in the raffle! You must post to your FPF neighborhood forum to enter the drawing.
Thanks to our raffle sponsors and happy 2009! -Michael
P.S. Thanks to Champlain College Professor Tim Brookes for inspiration (hey, that’s nine words!).
P.P.S. Trouble posting? Read this.
UPDATE 2: Here are some of the entries that are flooding in. And more. And here are the winners!
Christopher Allen writes about group sizes… a critical issue in the design of Front Porch Forum.
Molly Walsh covered the the conversion of more Burlington streets to “residents only” parking in today’s Free Press. This issue got a working over in the FPF South Union Neighborhood Forum recently, or, as Molly put it, the topic had “an active debate on the neighborhood social-networking site, Front Porch Forum.”
Thanks to Richard Millington at FeverBee for this tip today…
If you’re eager to build online communities, the best article you can read is Sense of Community by McMillan and Chavis. This article holds more useful advice (and a great practical framework) for developing an online community than any other.
It was written in 1986. Which means, unlike the post-twitter articles, it gets better every year.
If you’re lazy, here’s an easy-reading version.
Mike Ives profiles Vermont filmmaker and author Eugene Jarecki in Seven Days this week. Jarecki’s 2006 documentary, Why We Fight, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
And he has a new book out…
… he told Jon Stewart recently, he hopes The American Way of War will inspire a sense of common civic engagement that withered during the Bush years. “I’m on a real mission,” he explained to the Comedy Central host. “The worse thing that’s happened is, we’ve become disengaged… ”
And…
Jarecki is trying to make a difference in his community. Neighbors say the Big Picture Theater & Caf© in Waitsfield, which Jarecki co-founded in 2006, is an important civic space for residents of the Mad River Valley.
Good stuff. Many of Jarecki’s Mad River Valley neighbors have asked us to bring Front Porch Forum there… we hope to in 2009… working on pulling pieces together now. In Burlington, where we’ve been operating for two years, a survey found 93% of respondents claiming that FPF led to increased civic engagement for them… real, face-to-face, in the community kind of stuff.
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