Category Archives: Front Porch Forum

Seeking duct-taped surfboard

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

Interesting post of the day comes from the ONE Central Neighborhood Forum…

I found an 8′ longboard in the dump maybe six years ago. I used a role of duct tape, a trashbag, and some old waterski fins and turned it into a usable surface to pull behind a skiboat. However my cousin broke it beyond repair last week while shredding some gnarly waves. Now I am looking to replace it with another longboard. Preferably one with little duct tape. Hopefully not waterlogged. And sweet graphics are a must. Please call 558-0847 with any leads. Peace. Gabe.

First surfboard request for Front Porch Forum. 😉 If you can help out Gabe, post a comment hear and I’ll connect you.

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.

Praise from FPF Members

Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 by • No comments yet

I’ve said it before… the steady flow of wonderful member comments washing through Front Porch Forum keeps the FPF development team motivated and focused. The comment list grows continually. Some recent samples…

Thank you for Front Porch Forum — it is the internet at its best. -Lorinda Henry

Thank you for creating this wonderful resource to support our connection to one another. You’ve done a terrific job. I really appreciate it (and the last-minute tickets to Circus Smirkus, which was fantastic!) -Amy Todisco

I posted something about seeking help with dog sitting, and I received a wonderful reply, for which I’m very grateful. Thanks very much for starting this online community! -Andi Mowrer

I have relocated; I hope there’s a Front Porch Forum up this way! Thank you – I found it very helpful. I was able to pass along my beloved piano to a new piano player. -Rebecca Strader

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! -Rachel Weston, State Representative

I’d just like to offer some kudos here: (1) to Front Porch Forum for creating a medium for neighbors to communicate issues quickly and easily, and (2) to the police and government officials of all types for watching and responding to this forum on a regular basis. I think I can speak for most members of the community and say this: Whether or not we are satisfied with every response we receive, we appreciate everything our officials are doing to improve and maintain our quality of life. We have to acknowledge that FPF has created a communication path and that its being used, successfully, by our community. -Tim Curtin

About 30 neighbors attended our potluck. It was very successful and fun! See what Front Porch Forum’s vision hath wrought! -Edorah Frazer

I am really appreciating this forum – finding out about goings on in the community, and the conversations, connections, that are going on whether I am participating or bystanding. -Guthrie Smith

Thanks everyone for the mechanic recommendations! It’s been a great help and I’m glad this forum exists for such occasions. -Cody Silfies

Please update my account as I’ve moved to a new neighborhood. I love being part of Front Porch Forum and am hoping it will help me meet neighbors at my new place! -Abba Corliss

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.

Neighborhood Mapping Tool

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by • 4 comments

Glenn reports on AnyGeo today…

Maponics, LLC announced today the full release of Maponics Neighborhood Boundaries™. Until now, websites offering local search, including social marketing, real estate and Web 2.0 sites, have had to provide search results based upon ZIP Code or city name. By integrating Maponics Neighborhood Boundaries, search results for hundreds of cities can now be filtered and even mapped by universally accepted city neighborhood boundaries. The result – more relevant local search results, more loyal site visitors and higher ad revenue. More about the dataset… Covering hundreds of the top US cities, the Maponics Neighborhood Boundaries database includes all latitude and longitude coordinates for each neighborhood polygon. It is specifically designed for easy integration into Google™, Yahoo!®, or Microsoft® map mash-ups or into back-end data analysis applications.

The idea of mapping by neighborhood is a very clever one and I believe offers amazing opportunities to the users of these data. Given the social and economic characteristics that residents of a “neighborhood” share this could indeed truly become a very powerful and useful data product… I can’t wait to see where this goes as we see apps developed based on neighborhood data. See www.maponics.com

Front Porch Forum has created polygons for neighborhood boundaries in our pilot area (Burlington, VT) and it’s more art than science.  Some are obvious to everyone, other areas defy consensus.

Clay Shirky and software development

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

I had the pleasure of chatting with Clay Shirky about Front Porch Forum after a talk he gave a couple months ago.  Now, I just watched the video of his presentation at Supernova 2007 and the following quote struck me…

Standing from today, looking towards the future, you will make more accurate predictions about software, and, in this web-driven world, about services, if you ask yourself not “what’s the business model?” but rather “do the people who like it take care of each other?”  That turns out to be the better predictor of longevity.

Now, he was talking mostly about open source software development, but I find encouragement for our efforts with Front Porch Forum too.  In fact, the people who like FPF do often take care of each other… as neighbors supporting neighbors.  In a way, this cuts to the core of our early success.

Orphaned Message from Pie Donor

Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by • No comments yet

A glitch in our software recently left this message untethered from the new Front Porch Forum member who posted it in his/her neighborhood forum… rats!  Sorry about that.  Too many new members to sort out who it came from.  Who is the mystery pie donor?

Hello all!  Just moved to the neighborhood in June.  I would be happy to be involved in any way I can.  I of course always have pies to donate for special events!

New FPF ads in Seven Days

Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by • No comments yet

Seven Days will run some new Front Porch Forum ads in coming print issues…

S. Burlington Night Out Aug. 7

Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by • 2 comments

South Burlington, VT will partake in the 24th annual National Night Out celebration on August 7.  The Free Press reported yesterday that the organizers are looking for volunteers.  Interested?  Contact Cpl. Ron Piper (845-4625).  Also from the Free Press…

National Night Out serves to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness while generating support for, and participation in, local crime prevention efforts, said Sgt. Thomas A. Fraga of the South Burlington Police Department. It also aims to strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships and send a message to criminals that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

South Burlington will start off the event with a movie and family bingo Aug. 6 at the rotary band shell at Dorset Park. The event at the park will continue at noon Aug. 7 with pony rides, inflatables, and displays from businesses, nonprofits and crime prevention agencies.

The parade will begin at 6 p.m. from the University Mall and progress down Dorset Street until it ends at Dorset Park an hour later. After the parade, the winners of the South Burlington Talent Show and other local groups will perform. A fireworks display at 9:15 p.m. will conclude the event.

This event meshes well with the mission of Front Porch Forum.

Tickets move on Forum

Posted on Friday, July 6, 2007 by • No comments yet

I posted a note this morning on Front Porch Forum for seven circus tickets that our family now cannot use for Sunday. By 10 AM we had five requests for 17 20 24 tickets… maybe I shouldn’t have sold them for face value! 😉

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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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