Category Archives: Local Online

Need Feedback? Ask 100 Neighbors

Posted on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Online “communities of interest” have long afforded people the chance to poll their colleagues about an issue or idea. I’m guessing a good portion of this has been limited to professionals talking to their peers, and highly involved amateurs chatting amongst themselves in their circles.

So it’s interesting that this past week we’ve seen lots of John and Jane Q. Public posting notes in their neighborhood forums looking for feedback and/or action from their neighbors. Some samples from Front Porch Forum:

1. A physical therapist in the Prospect Parkway Neighborhood Forum asked her neighbors for feedback on their experiences with PT. She edits a state PT newsletter and hopes to use the input there.

2. A local bakery runs an annual fundraiser whereby customers vote for a single charity out of a dozen or so candidates. The winner gets to be “baker for the day” working in the shop and taking home the proceeds. Last year’s winner (King Street Youth Center, I think) earned $3,000 for its neighborhood programs. This week, people all over town are plugging their favorite nonprofit on their neighborhood forums and urging their neighbors to go vote.

3. A food critic for a local paper opened a channel to the 100 or so neighbors on her forum, asking for story leads. She’s not the first reporter to tune into her neighborhood forum for tips, although she may be the first one to formally ask.

4. Elisa Nelson worked with a city official to place a brief survey on several Burlington neighborhood forums, gauging people’s sense of allowable new-house size in established neighborhoods, leading into the city’s zoning re-write (i.e., should we allow someone to build a house that is 25% larger than its neighbors? 100% bigger?). More than 5% of people completed and returned the survey.

5.  A South End parent created an online petition about changing the start time at Burlington High School by ten minutes to better mesh with the public transit schedule.  She posted a note in her neighborhood forum a day or two ago, and now it’s been posted by other people across 5-10 forums in town, reaching thousands of people.

I wonder what someone will think of next?

Front Porch Forum in the News

Posted on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Many local media outlets in and around Burlington, Vermont have covered Front Porch Forum since our launch last fall. The latest include: The Williston Observer, Hinesburg Record, Colchester Sun, Charlotte Citizen, Islander, Mountain Gazette, and Seven Days. Each of these pieces can be found at or through our media page.

And CCTV Channel 17 is re-airing Richard Kemp’s half-hour Near & Far show about Front Porch Forum this week:

Wed, Feb 7, 2007 at 9:34:00 PM
Thu, Feb 8, 2007 at 2:34:00 AM
Thu, Feb 8, 2007 at 8:34:00 AM
Thu, Feb 8, 2007 at 2:34:00 PM

This show is also available in video or audio-only here. I recommend the 2:34 AM viewing. 😉

Neighbors doing it for Themselves

Posted on Monday, February 5, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Eight Burlington residents showed up on a chilly day late last week to distribute Front Porch Forum flyers door-to-door throughout the Old North End and hill section north of Pearl St. in Burlington, Vermont.  A huge thanks to Rob, Dani, Craig, Erica, Devin, Melissa and Deb.  Most are AmeriCorps volunteers.  Deb lives in the area we covered and is a Realtor.

About 100 households in that area have subscribed in the few days since the flyering.  If past experience is any indicator, we can expect this outreach effort to continue to bear fruit for weeks and even months.  And thanks too to Vantage Press for cutting a deal on the flyers.

How many Neighbors does it take to…

Posted on Monday, February 5, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

I love the Local Onliner! Here’s another interesting post from today. My answer to Peter Krasilovsky’s refrigerator question below… “Yes, Front Porch Forum.”

Krillion, a startup with deep pockets… launched the first iteration of its “localized search engine” today. The highly attractive, ad-supported service is kicking off with a dedicated appliance search… Krillion is crawling national retailer feeds for appliance availability, store location and sales info. Retailers include Home Depot, Lowe’s, Best Buy, Ikea, Sears (and in the Bay Area, Orchard Supply Hardware). In addition to providing very good product and price information, Krillion provides a click-to-call capability.

Competitors such as ShopLocal, Yokel, Nearby Now and CNET provide similar services. ShopLocal, for one, would seem to have more data sources, since it sucks in all the retailer info from its newspaper partners; Run of Press and circular ads; as well as from a Web partnership with shopping.com.

For now, Krillion says its crawling is far more extensive than any of its competitors, with 275 million pages of relevant local search results displaying local product information for major appliances in every burg in the U.S.  “It is an important piece of the local search puzzle,” says [former RHD executive Simon] Greenman. He adds that most local results are like “Swiss cheese.” Greenman also says that the focus on national retailers is smart since the focus stays on big ticket items, and “you get scale issues when you go local.”

But a question I ask is: isn’t there a way to feature both the big box stores and the local merchants? Sure, Krillion turns up an impressive number of GE Profile refrigerators from several big box stores. ShopLocal, meanwhile, only turns up one (from AM Royal). But one of the biggest (and cheapest) stores in my hometown of Carlsbad,CA is actually Pacific Sales. They advertise heavily in local papers. Can’t someone find it?

Front Porch Forum’s answer? Ask your neighbors! Questions like this get asked all the time on our neighborhood forums. “Where’s the best place to buy a new refrigerator?” The writer will hear about the local versions of Pacific Sales, along with comments about service and other issues he might not be considering… “look at the Energy Star ratings” or “check out RecycleNorth for great deals on slightly used models.” Or, even… “ask for the manager, Herb, and tell him I sent you.”

Sure, research online, but then ask the neighbors and SHOP LOCAL! (By the way, that means locally owned retailers.)

Newspapers attract Retailers w/ Online

Posted on Monday, February 5, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

The Local Onliner reports today:

The decline of their ad share with retailers has newspapers worried to death. But several execs speaking at the NAA marketing conference last week in Las Vegas said they can bring retailers back into the fold with special vertical sites.

Ken Riddick, VP of Interactive Media at The Minneapolis Star Tribune, said that the newspaper has attracted 300 businesses to its ShopMN site, which is a partnership with the Minnesota Retailers Association… Riddick is especially bullish on neighborhood-level search. “It can be very powerful, especially for smaller advertisers,” he says.

Jim Michels, director of new media for The Evansville Courier & Press, says his paper’s vertical approach has similarly had strong dividends. Home improvement is the paper’s first vertical. “We had research showing that people want to put money into their house,” he said. The resulting site, Tri-State Home Show, has sold 125 enhanced listings at up to $29.95 per month. “It is bringing in $55,000 of extra revenue,” he says. He thinks the paper can probably boost sales up to 150.

Man vs. Machine

Posted on Friday, February 2, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Much of the internet’s most amazing tools are fully automated. Take Google… search, maps, etc. There’s no reference librarian or navigator on the other end of your search request madly leafing through libraries worth of material to find your answer. No… it’s all clever programming, huge data sets, servers galore and bandwidth. All praise automation.

But some tasks are better suited for real people. That list seems to be shrinking, but it’s still long and full of important stuff. E.g., “Should I propose to my girlfriend this weekend?” Best not trusted to an algorithm, but a Dear Abby type website might offer a personal response… something like Yahoo Answers.

Front Porch Forum incorporates a moderator in each of its neighborhood forums. This real person plays a light role, but he’s in there nonetheless. So while the neighbors supply the content and the software does the heavy lifting, its the moderator who makes subtle adjustments to help with tone, momentum, clarity, growth, etc. The moderator’s driving goal is to help neighbors connect and foster community within neighborhoods. That’s a complex thing involving many variables, most challenging… human perception, emotion, and behavior. Best not left tended by just computers.

In a related item, The Local Onliner reported today that Jay Small (E.W. Scripps Newspapers’ director of online audience and operations) stated at the NAA Marketing Conference (Jan. 29-31 in Las Vegas) that…

Newspapers can’t expect to beat Yellow Pages or Google in broad local advertiser categories, but they can focus on niche areas and invest in human editors and SEO to bring out their real strengths in the local marketplace.

Small feels that a critical key to newspaper success with local advertisers is their use of human editors, who can see connections with local guides, advertisers and newspaper content that Google and others may not. (In this regard, Scripps is very much on the same track as Boston.com).

Lost Pet Reunited and Community Benefits

Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 by • 1 comment
Meow

As C.G., a member of the Hinesburg Village Forum put it: “Another forum success story!!” First came:

Lost Cat? Issue No. 30 – Jan. 29
A very hungry orange & white cat is hanging around our house next to the old library. He/she seems healthy and well-cared-for, other than being cold and hungry. Is anyone missing a cat? I think he is sleeping in the big green barn next door.

Followed by this from S.S.:

Lost Cat Question Issue No. 31 – Jan. 30
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 – 7:12 am
Where is the old library? My next door neighbors have an orange and white cat they let out all the time…

And today’s conclusion by C.G.:

Another forum success story!! Issue No. 32 – Jan. 31
“Tiger,” the lost orange cat, was retrieved by his owner this morning!!! He had been missing for an entire month, poor thing.

BTW, the old library is now Clover Creek, an invitation and graphic design firm. It is located next to Grateful Dog Grooming, diagonally across from Lantmans.

So, not only was a pet quickly reunited with his family after C.G. took the initiative to post a note to her neighborhood forum, but S.S. learned a bit of local history about the old library… as did the other 60 households subscribed to this forum. Add this episode to many others about cars sold, school events announced, plumbers recommended, etc. and the net effect is… neighbors connecting and fostering community.

Weekly Sampler: Broadband Options?

Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 by • 3 comments

Another 200 messages posted this past week in the various neighborhood forums hosted by Front Porch Forum in and around Burlington, VT. Here are descriptions of some of the postings. Seems that more and more people are posting a variant of “what’s the best broadband option here?” on their neighborhood forums.  This is our second pass at this exercise… check out the first Weekly Sampler:

  • Seeking broadband advice from neighbors
  • Pick-up basketball in Westford
  • Public safety initiatives in Winooski
  • Waterfront air show – pros and cons
  • Seeking a particular issue of National Geographic (twice!)
  • Broadband options in Westford
  • Free tax-prep program
  • Why can’t we recycle more plastic types?
  • Essex town-village merger
  • Meeting announcements for Route 15 planning, Burlington zoning re-write, online safety training, waterfront planning, Burlington armory fate, senior center planning, and more
  • Baker-for-a-day fundraiser
  • Free garden plot in Lakeside neighborhood
  • Seeking Ottawa travel tips
  • Bolton condo available
  • Seeking, selling and giving away:  washer, dryer, fridge, weights for seniors, couch, minivan, houses, hockey skates, router, monitor, cable modem, skis, etc.
  • Bike path test plowing
  • Tutors, babysitters and preschool slots available
  • Slowing down speeding traffic in neighborhood
  • Dog seeks walker
  • Neighborhood beach security
  • Neighborhood parent group forming
  • Ride needed to WRJ
  • Status of ice skating venues
  • Global climate change study groups forming
  • Keys found
  • Time bank launch
  • Car break-ins and hit and run
  • Local baker pitches wares
  • Art studio opening
  • Winter festival news
  • City news from Winooski
  • Five Spice fire
  • Police join more neighborhood forums
  • Neighborhood forum flyering plans
  • Old North End movie night
  • Neighborhood game night
  • And lots of cat postings: lost, found and sitters needed

Social Networkers getting Picky

Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 by • 1 comment

How many online social networks do you belong to? MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo Geocities, on and on. I can’t find the quote now, but someone wrote recently about a desktop littered with passwords from various social networking sites. For the heavy user of this stuff, the question becomes… which networks are worth it and which should I drop?

Richard Siklos has an interesting piece in the New York Times (fee) yesterday about this. After outlining some of the recent deals where big media companies are buying surging social networking sites (e.g., Sony bought Grouper.com, a video-sharing site, for $65M) as the established media buys its way into this new world, Siklos writes of the challenge of readers evolving from consumers to members:

Social networking… represents a way to live one’s life online. Know this: if you are part of the social networking wave, you will have all the “friends” you can handle. The invite is the new handshake. Get ready for a lot of opportunities to join all kinds of networks – and, one hopes, some appropriately Webby new way to politely say, “No, thank you.”

Front Porch Forum is part social networking. But it’s different than most. Instead of pulling people together around an issue, hobby, desire, etc., our neighborhood forums pull together… well, neighbors. Simple.

The Local Onliner reported recently about major changes at the Los Angeles Times:

The LA Times Online will roll out two new, ecommerce-oriented verticals in the midst of a ripping internal report that says the paper’s online strategy is nowhere near where it needs to be for the paper to have a future… The article also cites a new internal report finding that the online division only has 18 employees, compared to 200 employees at WashingtonPost.com and 50 at nytimes.com. The understaffing has lead to a poor quality website that, in part, accounts for users only staying 11.9 minutes on the site, compared to twice that long on nytimes.com.

The internal report goes on to cite a debilitating philosophical clash between GM Rob Barrett and Joel Sappell, and online executive editor Joel Sappell. Barrett wanted the site to focus on “hyper-local” reports to deliver SoCal readers information about their communities. Sappell argued for building “communities of affinity” rather than geography. [Sounds like the GM’s approach won out.]

So as social networks multiply and people start to get choosy, many, if not most, I think, would want to keep plugged into their neighborhood forum. They can swim in a near-endless ocean of “communities of interest,” but options for connecting with their neighbors online are scant.

Neighbors Rein in Traffic

Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007 by • 1 comment

Too many cars and trucks driving too fast… that’s a problem that’s been plaguing residential areas since the Model T. But it’s getting worse. Americans own more cars per capita than ever before and we’re spending more time behind the wheel too… and if I had a couple minutes to spare I’d find some references to back up those claims.

And so a collective response by neighbors to rein in traffic must have started back in Henry Ford’s time too.

Now we’re seeing a new twist on it. Neighbors are using Front Porch Forum to talk about traffic problems and work on fixes. Some Burlington examples:

1. Residents along Home and Flynn Avenues bear a heavy load with truck traffic. They’ve posted dozens of messages on their neighborhood forum about this issue as it relates to the Southern Connector (both for and against, as well as some interesting middle-ground ideas). They also worked with one of their City Councilors to improve the signage regarding use of the ear-splitting jake brakes by trucks.

2. Birchcliff had a nightly speeder. One post on their neighborhood forum and the police stopped the offender that same night… problem solved.

3. Five Sisters residents were concerned about downhill traffic as it sped past South/Calahan Park on Locust St. Working with the Dept. of Public Works, traffic calming features were incorporated into the street.

4. Killarney Dr in the New North End… residents are concerned with teenager speeders exiting onto North Ave. A neighbor who is a police officer used the forum to encourage neighbors to identify the problem drivers and talk to their parents directly.

5. Lots of other neighborhoods have used their neighborhood forum to start conversations and eventually enter into DPW’s formal traffic calming process.

Concerned about traffic in your area? Post a note to your neighborhood forum and see if others feel the same way. Getting organized is a first step to finding a reasonable solution.

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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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