Category Archives: Updates and Admin
Financial Contributions Needed and much Appreciated
Front Porch Forum is a small start-up business that my wife and I have self-financed to date. We’ve been blown away by the incredible reception this free service has received from the more than 7,500 local households who have subscribed so far… better than 30% of Burlington, VT, our pilot city, is on board!
We’ve recently begun selling ad space on FPF to local businesses and nonprofits and this is going well, and we’re developing other revenue streams too. All told though, the business requires more income than it’s generating so far, so we’ve set up a contributions page for any and all who would like to support this ongoing effort financially. Donations to date have ranged from a few dollars to a few hundred… any amount is helpful in furthering FPF’s mission and is genuinely appreciated.
“We are delighted to support Front Porch Forum with a financial contribution, and feel we have seen firsthand the many benefits it brings to our neighborhood and the wider community. It is our pleasure (and responsibility!) to lend a hand.” —Siobhan Donegan, ONE Central Neighborhood Forum
Some particularly pleased members have elected for our monthly contribution plan… sign up once and your credit card automatically pays whatever sum you indicate each month… a kind of voluntary subscription fee.
Members Pay Voluntary Subscription Fee
From Mike on an FPF neighborhood forum in Charlotte, Vermont…
Thank you for your work. Front Porch Forum is a great service and worthy of a donation to help out. It’s in the “basket.”
Thanks to Mike and the dozens of local folks who have donated cash during Front Porch Forum‘s early stage. This represents a small part of our revenue stream, but an important and much appreciate one. Many FPF members consider it a “voluntary subscription” with some even signing on for an automated monthly contribution. If you would like to support our work at any dollar level… by all means click here! Thanks!
Happy Birthday Bloggy Dearest
Ghost of Midnight just turned one! That’s 12 months of blogging. About 425 posts. One comment for every 2.5 posts. Mostly me tracking the “local online” space and reporting updates about Front Porch Forum and stories lifted from our various neighborhood forums. We get about 100 visitors/day to this blog.
I’ve also read thousands of blog postings over the past year and learned lots… about the topics, about people, and about the medium. There’s a tremendous amount of repetition and amplification in the blogosphere… a kind of conventional wisdom machine. Instead of being in the hands of the old guard traditional media powerbrokers, the conventional-wisdom-setting power has shifted to the blogging elite. And they’re mostly tuned into the big players (“What did Google do today?”) and dot.com start-ups that are following the venture capital model.
Reminds me of the sports page being half filled these days with details of the players’ contracts… and the other half taken up with articles about the Yankees, Cowboys and Lakers. So be it.
Special Offer on Burlington Telecom
I’m pleased to share this special offer for residents of Burlington, VT…
Sign up for Burlington Telecom service (phone, internet, cable tv) now and receive a $25 CREDIT when you mention Front Porch Forum at the time you place your order. Referral also supports your neighborhood forum. Order at 540-0007 or http://www.burlingtontelecom.net (check the Front Porch Forum box under “How did you hear about us?”). Limited time offer: For new orders placed between 10/25/07 and 12/31/07.
Front Porch Forum Earns National Award
We just learned that the community-building accomplishments of Front Porch Forum are being recognized with a national award! Hooray! Congratulations and thank you to the thousands of local people who contribute to the success of this service.
The Orton Family Foundation and PlaceMatters will present the award as part of the CommunityMatters07 national conference that will take place on Burlington’s waterfront Oct. 23-25. We’re truly honored by the “Innovator in Place” award and it provides a welcome boost to our efforts. Thanks to the Orton Family Foundation and PlaceMatters.
Michael and Valerie Wood-Lewis
Front Porch Forum
Here’s the press release from Orton…
Orton Family Foundation Awards
2007 Innovator in Place to Michael Wood-LewisMIDDLEBURY, Vermont –The Orton Family Foundation takes great pride and pleasure in naming Michael Wood-Lewis winner of the 2007 Innovator in Place Award. Michael and Front Porch Forum http:// frontporchforum.com, his free on-online service, excel at building social capital and community capacity for change.
In choosing Michael, the Foundation decided he best fulfilled the spirit of the award, which aims to honor successful grassroots community activists and leaders not typically recognized for their efforts. Michael accepted his $3,000 award at a reception at the ECHO Center on Burlington’s waterfront during the COMMUNITYMATTERS07 conference.
“Some argue that the Internet isolates people, further tearing the social fabric,” said Orton Family Foundation President and CEO Bill Roper, “but Michael proves the opposite can be true. His innovation, civic spirit and commitment enable the kind of friendship, trust and interdependence among neighbors that the Foundation believes are key to vibrant, sustainable community. His tool is enhancing Burlington’s heart and soul.”
Michael Wood-Lewis, with his wife Valerie, founded Front Porch Forum in 2006. In its first year, the Forum’s trend setting use of the Internet at the neighborhood level brought 25 percent of the citizens of Burlington, Vermont (pop. 38,889), into community discussions. The free on-line service hosts 130 adjacent neighborhood forums covering every part of Chittenden County. About 7,000 households have subscribed, and hundreds more join every month.
“We hear from people all the time who lament not knowing their neighbors,” said Wood-Lewis. “When Front Porch Forum kicks into gear, those connections begin to form. It’s a wonderful thing to watch take root, grow and blossom.”
Neighbors put Front Porch Forum to good use, connecting with neighbors and building community by posting all sorts of messages: borrow a ladder, refer a plumber, look out for a lost kitten, organize a block party, discuss traffic calming, report a break-in, announce a school play, debate zoning, and on and on.
In addition to direct results (“Kitten Found!”), it’s the growth of community offline that is the true measure of Front Porch Forum’s impact. Each message comes from a clearly identified nearby neighbor, so over time participants get to know each other better. This familiarity spills over from the virtual to the actual front porch.
The webs spun by Front Porch Forum that connect people are strengthened by 250 Forum Neighborhood Volunteers who champion the forums in their own areas and 140 local elected and public officials who participate across their jurisdictions. Police and other government officials use the site to better respond to problems in their area.
A remarkable Burlington innovation actively cultivating the development of rich, vibrant community, Front Porch Forum is exploring replication options and has a waiting list with more than 150 communities represented. Michael Wood-Lewis’s groundbreaking social innovation is a blueprint for community development of the future.
Michael’s previous experience includes steering a regional trade association to a position of national prominence. He also led a consortium of municipal leaders from across the country in developing environmental technology. He is active on the advisory board of Burlington Telecom, a cutting edge municipally owned “fiber optic to the home” utility, providing data, voice and video. Wood-Lewis brings to bear an unusual combination of technical background (MS engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), business experience (MBA), and 20 years of community organizing.
CONTACT:
John Barstow
Director of Communications
The Orton Family Foundation
152 Maple Street, PO Box 111
Middlebury, VT 05753
www.orton.org
Topix Local Forums Pass Milestone
Newspaper-owned Topix.com reported today that their…
number of daily, active(1) local forums on its site now exceeds the total number of daily newspapers(2) in the United States for the first time. Topix local forums were first launched in December 2005 as part of the Topix’s broader user-generated forum functionality. Since that time, Topix local forums have grown at a rapid pace, reflecting Topix’s ability to meet pent-up demand for local news and to successfully generate local engagement and online participation.
Ranked a top 20 news site(3) since June 2007, Topix draws more than 12 million unique visitors every month and 70,000 forum posts per day. Topix local forums, which span all 32,500 U.S. zip codes, give local residents, especially those located in rural areas that are underserved by major media outlets, an opportunity to discuss and share the news that matters to them. Beyond daily local forum activity, Topix has generated user activity across 20,000 local forums with 16 million forum posts and 3 million users across the site.
(1) “Active” defines user forums with at least one post per day
(2) 1,437 Editor & Publisher (http://web.naa.org/thesource/14.asp )
(3) ComScore, -June, 2007
So… 32,000 or so local forums? And 1,500 of them have at least one post/day? About 5% of them are active? Do most of those 70,000 posts/day fit into the 1,500 active local forums… 40-50 posts/local forum/day?
About 30 of Front Porch Forum‘s 130 neighborhood forums have at least one posting/day… that’s in metro Burlington, VT, population 150,000. Our average neighborhood forum averages one posting every two days.
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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