Front Porch Forum’s story of helping neighbors connect and build community is showing up in the media recently. Of note, Mark Glaser just published a lengthy piece at MediaShift on PBS.org., starting with…
“We are a society that lives more and more in our technology-induced bubbles. When we go outside, we wear an iPod; we talk on cell phones while driving. In urban areas, we might never meet our neighbors unless there’s a fire or earthquake. But can technology also help bring us together in our physical communities, and help us get to know our neighbors? Front Porch Forum (FPF) is making a valiant effort to do just that”
Hopefully, his readers will cast a vote for us! And help spread the word.
I look forward to reading Clay Shirky’s new book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Until then, this video of his lecture at Harvard’s Berkman Center provided me a thought-provoking overview.
The nut… the internet allows for “ridiculously easy group forming,” which improves…
But this doesn’t do his ideas justice. I’m especially interested in how much of Front Porch Forum‘s experience maps onto Shirky’s conceptual framework. Many of our online neighborhood forums, upon reflection, have followed the four steps above.
UPDATE: See comments below.
Front Porch Forum is in the business of helping neighbors connect and build community within their neighborhood. Some folks ask me “that’s not a business… why didn’t you form FPF as a nonprofit?”
Fair enough. Front Porch Forum is mission driven, like all nonprofits. But it’s also competing in a new and vibrant sector that’s got huge potential and few players currently.
Bill McKibben in his excellent Deep Economy cites work by economist Richard Laynard (in his book Happiness)…
“Both income and companionship have declining marginal returns.” The evidence shows that “increases in income produce large hedonic gains in developing countries… and… negative gains in the United States.”
Community follows precisely the opposite pattern: increased companionship “yields more happiness in individualistic societies, where it is scarce, than in collective societies, where it is abundant.”
Put another way… North America is awash with stuff for people to own/use, but is short on community… so Americans are placing an increasing value on what is in short supply… feeling genuinely connected to the people and community around us. And that’s what Front Porch Forum provides.
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