Wow! An amazing 10,000 local subscribers to Front Porch Forum now… out of about 50,000 households in our pilot area of Chittenden County, VT… with 100s more joining every month. And most of those members came to us through word-of-mouth… neighbor telling neighbor.
Any resident of Chittenden County may register at http://frontporchforum.com, while others can go there to join our waiting list. Cheers!
Providing less than 24 hours advanced warning, Bonnie in Huntington posted the following the other day…
Hi Neighbors – My car died yesterday, and for the first time in years I’m without car. I must admit it’s liberating, but the only trouble is, that I need to get to work tomorrow, Saturday, June 28. I was wondering if anyone might have a car I would be able to borrow for the day? I leave at 8:30Am and return at 8:00Pm.
I figured this was too much to ask with too little lead time. So I was pleasantly surprised to read her follow-up posting today…
Hi Neighbors – I’d like to thank you all so much, for the overwhelming response to my request to borrow a car for the day.
Work went well, and I got to drive around in Jim H.’s bright yellow Chevy. I was a hit with every teenage boy in Burlington and Shelburne. The car is for sale, if you know anyone that might be interested.
The Huntington Front Porch Forum is a great way for our community to continue to be the very special place it is.
Thanks much, Bonnie
People often ask… “what do the neighbors write about on Front Porch Forum?” Well, it’s challenging to boil it down to a simple list (although it would have to include missing cats and bikes). So here’s a batch of message headlines taken from the last week of postings on FPF’s 130 online neighborhood forums covering Chittenden County, VT…
A posting today from Gary to his neighbors in the FPF Richmond East Neighborhood Forum…
Friday night around 7pm, I was at the junction of the Huntington Winooski Rivers, just playing in the water with my kids. All of the sudden, 4 people were on the Cochran Road bridge yelling and screaming at us frantically. We couldn’t really hear exactly what they were saying. A fisherman was nearby us.
All of the sudden the water, which was at our ankles all the way across, started rushing and getting deeper. In a matter of seconds it was a fierce and fast river with large logs floating by. It was surreal — I felt like I was in a movie and the “great flood” was beginning.
Luckily we were near the shore when it happened and we got out just in time or we would have been in serious trouble. The fisherman was a different story. I watched him try to get to the shore. The water level kept rising and soon it was up to his neck. I think he lost his pole and everything and was just trying to get to the shore. I was really worried and thinking what I would do if he went under. Finally he made it to the other side of the winooski, by the railroad tracks, and waved to us that he was OK.
Still, we were stuck on the wrong side of the Huntington, with all our stuff (and the path home) inaccessible. We waited about a half hour but it never let up. We had to forge a way to the Jonesville bridge and walk all the way around back to where our stuff was. On the way we saw a police officer who was responding to a call about the distressed fisherman. She told us that a dam had broke somewhere upstream. It must have been a big dam because even an hour after it hit, the water was still rushing and very high.
I never saw anything like this. I hope everyone upstream was OK. Does anyone know what happened? Where is the dam that broke? Where is all this water coming from?
UPDATE: A follow up posted by Tim today…
Gary – First of all, it’s great news to hear you and your family got away from the river safely the other night. We heard the firetrucks and police go down toward the Jonesville Store and heard on the scanner that they were looking for the fisherman. They thought they saw him get to the side safely but didn’t see him again so they had to keep looking. Apparently he’d made his way up to his vehicle by Wes White Hill Road and they saw him there. They were also talking about a big beaver dam having given away and the debris and water came rushing down the Huntington River. We happened to be coming back from Richmond, down Cochran Road, about an hour later and we also noticed how brown the water still was. Very scary stuff. At least everyone is safe.
People often ask how Front Porch Forum has grown so rapidly in such a short amount of time… it’s almost all word-of-mouth. Neighbor tells neighbor. Here’s a posting from a South Burlington neighborhood forum today that serves as a good example…
Re the notice about the appraisal increase… one of my neighbors did receive a notice like this. This person is MAD!!!! I am forwarding this to her, and encouraging her to join Front Porch Forum!
While we do see people come on board in reaction to a problem like this, it’s much more common for folks to join because they hear it’s a great way to connect with neighbors and plug into neighborhood news.
Front Porch Forum subscribers frequently are surprised to learn that this free service was created right here in our corner of Vermont. It’s no secret… our start-up story has gotten decent local media coverage.
Here’s today’s example from a relatively long-time and active subscriber from Essex Junction…
First of all — will someone please tell me the “once upon a time” of Front Porch Forum. Since I’ve been a member, I’ve been singing its praises to family in Texas and most recently Oregon. But you know what!! I really don’t know where this started and I’m just now barely getting little hints and cues that this actually STARTED in VERMONT!!
Is this true?!! And if so, yet another reason for pride in this little state of ours.
Here I’ve been telling Texans and Oregonians — “Check out your own neighborhood. I’m assuming ‘Front Porch Forum’ is national, if not international.” Sooooo, if it hasn’t been done recently, I’d love to have someone fill in those of us who are in the dark. Or maybe post the “history” on the website under ABOUT US. Thanks in advance.
Second of all — I am indeed reaping the benefits of Front Porch Forum. I’ve established a weekly connection with a high school student who comes over and aids me with certain chores — recycle and trash out, groceries in, other lifting and tugging. He’s pleasant, dependable, willing, and courteous, and also a kindred theatre spirit by way of EHS drama program! He gets paid right away; and when he helped us with unloading and setting up our tag sale, he was able to earn more.
Local reporters for traditional media outlets use Front Porch Forum frequently to find leads for news stories… makes sense… neighbors connect with neighbors about all sorts of goings on on their FPF neighborhood forum as a first step. Items often show up there first.
Here are a few recent examples…
More and more local businesses are putting Front Porch Forum to use. This week, Epik (one of only 15 Google-certified web shops globally) advertised its OM Boot Camp.
Front Porch Forum helped us draw a crowd to our Online Marketing Boot Camp!— Hannah Boucher, Epik
And very small businesses are weighing in too…
I am speechless. I love this thing so much!
— Will Keyworth, Keyworth Graphics
To see a list of dozens of recent FPF sponsors and to explore our advertising program, click here.
I’m honored by a recent invitation to be one of a few people asked to address the initial meeting of the new Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy… June 24, 2008, at the new Newseum in Washington, DC… to be webcast live.
“The charge of the Commission is straightforward,” says Alberto Ibarg¼en, president and CEO of Knight Foundation. “Articulate the information needs of communities in this democracy; determine where we are today; and propose public policy that will encourage market solutions.”
I look forward to sharing some of what we’ve learned through Front Porch Forum with this august group. The full commission is listed here. And…
The Commission will be led by co-chairs Ted Olson, former Solicitor General of the United States, and Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google. Peter Shane, a distinguished law professor at Ohio State University Law School, is the executive director.
The Knight Commission is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and organized by the Aspen Institute.
Occasionally, someone will post a request on his/her FPF neighborhood forum the same day as a neighbor offers a solution to that request… unbeknown to each other. So the next issue of their neighborhood forum is published with the problem followed by the solution… all neat and tidy. Gotta love it. Here’s today’s simple example on a neighborhood forum with about 400 participating households…
Hi there! We were wondering if anyone might have a twin box frame floating around that they no longer need. We would love to have it for use of our four year old’s new mattress. Thank you very much! Sarah
The item above was posted at 4:00 PM followed at 4:01 PM by…
On the green strip in front of [our home on] Catherine St.: twin size mattress, box spring, and wooden frame; come and get it before the rain comes!
Hope they connected! Rain should be here soon!
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