Category Archives: Good Government
Can you borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor’s avatar?
Thanks to Dave West for sharing this link…
The City of Decatur, Georgia is evaluating the use of a virtual world interface to “encourage community networking, improve civic engagement, and promote economic development.”
“Virtual Decatur will provide an environment in which residents, businesses, institutions and visitors can interact and connect… it is it is imperative that the project go beyond the features of traditional virtual environments. The overarching purpose of this project is to allow users to interact with the City in new and innovative ways that are not possible in the real world.”
Possible features of the proposed Virtual Decatur might include:
• Opportunities to gather citizen input on policies, topics of interest, city services, and happenings
• A Virtual City Hall Tour with multimedia capabilities.
• Opportunities to earn coupons for use in real stores/retail establishments.
• Streaming video of public meetings, ideally with a chat room feature that allows viewers to comment.
• Access to visitors information (store hours, directions, weather, etc.)
Well… I’m all for experiments, so I’m hopeful that the good folks in Georgia will go ahead with this and then report out results for the world to see.
In a way, it sounds like, as Dave put it, “Front Porch Forum 2.0.” Hmm… The purpose of Front Porch Forum is to kidnap peoples’ attention while online and redirect it back to the neighborhood, and, ultimately, get them face to face with neighbors for block parties, crime watches, yard sales, meals on wheels, city council hearings, etc. That is, FPF is a gateway to real neighborliness and civic engagement (not just virtual facsimiles). Perhaps the project above will do the same… or perhaps it will prove to be another way to avoid face-to-face contact with the people we live around.
I’m hoping for the best! Good luck to Virtual Decatur.
Serving your nation, your community or your neighborhood
Craig Newmark writes in the Huffington Post today…
Deep in the Barack Obama platform, there’s a reference to “a craigslist for service.” It’s humbling to see our name in there, but I’d prefer to see that as only a metaphorical reference to the need for greater service to others, with the spirit and culture of trust of craigslist. Obama is inspiring millions of people to consider service to others, and to innovate for service. Check out what Barack says at change.gov
“When you choose to serve — whether it’s your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood — you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That’s why it’s called the American dream.”
Sounds like a description of how many folks use Front Porch Forum.
Easy communication among neighbors a right?
John Wonderlich at Sunlight Foundation quotes Steven Clift today…
When I was a child and my father had cancer, I remember neighbors coming to our assistance in our time of need. Today, with modern life keeping neighbors as strangers, we must use these new tools to break down barriers to community. You deserve the right to easily e-mail your immediate neighbors the morning after you’ve been burglarized without having to go door-to-door to collect e-mail addresses. We can balance safety and privacy with selective public disclosure of such personal contact information with an intelligent “unlisted to most” directory option that is not the all or nothing of today.
This is big “C” community and small “d” democracy. A collection of better-connected blocks, tied to broader neighborhood and community-wide online efforts will serve as the vibrant foundation we need for accountable and effective representative democracy right up to the Congress and president. You cannot force everyone to be neighborly, but the bonds of community can be restored and nurtured despite dual income families and the assault on time for community involvement.
Right on. We’re honored that they both mention Front Porch Forum. And thanks to The Pulse from the Knight Foundation for pointing me to this post.
Online tools to help local communities
Matt, on the LocalMouth blog, writes recently…
Personally, I think there’s great potential for simple online tools to bring local communities more closely together. It may be a struggle at the start to get together a critical mass of neighbours, and it may need a liberal dash of coaxing, but once you’ve got the ball rolling, people’s natural desire to communicate with others should take care of the rest. Good stuff will happen. ‘Good’ won’t always mean that people get along well or that arguments won’t take place. Far from it. When people are talking about stuff that matters, conversations are bound to get heated at times, and that’s where the delicate job of moderation comes in. But generally, I think, more communication between local people can be a very positive thing.
Right on! He goes on to list several UK websites that each focus in a different way on their local community… and Front Porch Forum.
I look forward to checking out the local sites he mentions. Thanks Matt!
State Rep. Uses Front Porch Forum to call for Boycott
Matt Ryan reported for the Burlington Free Press today…
Vermont campaign signs along Vermont 15 in front of the Essex Junction Shopping Center have prompted a departing state legislator to call on citizens to boycott businesses within the center — even though the businesses’ managers said they had nothing to do with the signs.
Rep. Peter Hunt, a Democrat from Essex Junction, wrote in a post on Front Porch Forum on Oct. 17 that he would stop shopping at Aubuchon Hardware, Rite Aid Pharmacy, Sherwin-Williams, Quality Bake Shop or “any of the individual store (sic) who have taken this political stance as long as they have these signs on Pearl Street.”
“I am disappointed that these business (sic) have chosen to a (sic) political stance to support candidates from one party,” Hunt wrote. “This is completely out of line.”
He concluded with, “I hope all of you will also shop in other stores.”
More than a dozen FPF subscribers have responded on our service, none in agreement with Rep. Hunt’s call.
Knight News Challenge 2009!
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is opening up the third round of its News Challenge.
We’re giving away around $5 million in 2009 for the development and distribution of neighborhood and community-focused projects, services, and programs.
If you have a great idea that will improve local online news, deepen community engagement, bring Web 2.0 tools to local neighborhoods, develop publishing platforms and standards to support local conversations or innovate how we visualize, experience or interact with information, we’d like to see it! You have the opportunity to win funding for your project and support within a vibrant community of media, tech, and community-oriented people who want to improve the world.
Deadline Nov. 1, 2008. The good folks at Knight have a hand in so many great projects that it’s tough to keep track. We’ll be submitting an application to take Front Porch Forum to the next level… the two paragraphs above describe FPF to a tee. We were honored previously this year to be involved in a couple Knight initiatives.
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Information + Communication + Civic Engagement = ??
Keith Harris in the United Kingdom writes today that “What’s missing is communication, not information” on his blog Neighbourhoods. Some of his points…
This is very definitely work in progress but maybe the argument is something like this:
- for various reasons there is a crisis of local social connections which causes evident damage
- examples of local communication (post-its on windscreens, notes on lamp-posts, message graffiti and so on) point to the inadequacies of existing communication channels, especially in contexts of high mobility and the erosion of local life
- online networks can augment (not replace) other channels of communication and stimulate more interaction (I never understood why this should ever have been in doubt)
- we need to find out what research has been done and where the gaps are, showcase good practice and clarify the lessons. This will help the system-builders, and then
- we have to go to to the housing movement and local government with incontestible arguments that this stuff works and should be developed. Might that do it?
This reminds me of some of the conversation that the Knight Foundation has been sparking through its various efforts. Knight is pushing easily accessible information at the local level as a needed element to sustain our democracy in the United States. Hear, hear! But others, including me, have pushed to have civic engagement be part of that mission as well. And here’s Keith telling us that communication trumps information.
I think we need all three to feed our democracy… an engaged citizenry that can communicate with each other and develop, access and share information. I’m thrilled that Front Porch Forum is on the cutting edge of all this.
“The possibility of human-sized communication”
We keep stumbling over pieces about the value of “local” in the digital universe (and vice versa)… right out of Front Porch Forum‘s playbook. Today it was a couple of journalists…
Mark Potts writes in part…
Anyone who questions that people are interested in talking about their communities hasn’t dug in to the plethora of listservs, Yahoo groups and organization sites that already provide coverage of many local communities.
And I definitely recommend reading Howard Owen’s full post. Here’s his opening…
Some people think the web makes the world bigger. I say, it makes it smaller. Some people say the web makes us neighbors with people in Kenya or the Ukraine. I say it makes us better neighbors with the family next door.
There was a time in United States history when newspapers served as a centralizing force for drawing communities together — and then came television, and cable, and satellite — all the forces that did nothing to humanize communication, but made mass communication more mass and less personal.
The Internet brings back the possibility of human-sized communication.
At a time when too many glass-eyed Americans turn to network TV for their “Heroes” and get “Lost” in whatever flimflam Hollywood is dishing out this season, the Web opens up new possibilities for people, local people, people who share a common interest in a common community, to partake in conversation and pursue change with conviction.
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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