Mark Glaser has an interesting piece about hyper-local newsites at his PBS.org blog. He includes mention of Front Porch Forum, which is appreciated, but I would characterize FPF differently… FPF is not an email list.
Front Porch Forum is collection of online neighborhood forums that cover 100% of a metro area. While FPF uses email as its primary distribution channel now, it’s also available over the web and we’ll be adding other channels over time. FPF is not about the technology, it’s about convening and maintaining neighborhood conversations in every part of a metro area.
Congratulations to Maponics, Front Porch Forum’s Vermont neighbors. From Greg Sterling today…
There are two providers of neighborhood databases: Maponics (which bought the capability from HomeGain) and Urban Mapping. Outside.in has selected Maponics to provide more accurate neighborhood information for its hyperlocal news site.
Urban Mapping works with all the major search engines (I believe) and is now being integrated on the ad-targeting side of the house.
From Sebastien Provencher today…
“It is surprising. There is a crucial sense of community lacking in the metropolitan areas.” –William O’Hare, co-author of a new study (.pdf) released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, talking about the plight of poor kids in rich US states. (found in the December 10th 2007 issue of Time Magazine).
In my opinion, urbanization in the 20th century has reduced the sense of community in large urban areas. We don’t know our neighbors (and neighborhoods?) anymore. It actually has become awkward to introduce ourselves to our neighbors. But, as Man is really a gregarious creature (we like to live in “tribes”), I’m a firm believer that the local social web will, in the future, help re-build the social tissue in large cities. These new web tools will allow us to maintain a basic privacy layer while removing some of the awkwardness in the system.
I agree with the diagnosis, but I’m not as certain with the prescribed cure. Front Porch Forum is one effort working on a solution.
I’ve been reading several postings about Google’s first Local Symposium that they hosted at their HQ the other day. Here’s one.
Thanks to Jerry Michalski for inviting me to participate in his Yi-Tan Weekly Call today about community building at the neighborhood level. There, I learned about other efforts, including…
LifeAt, Meet the Neighbors, Neighborology, i-neighbors, Front Porch Forum, TownConnect, Mesh Tennis and rBlock
Vivek Hutheesin, rBlock’s founder, offered many excellent insights. And from his most recent blog posting…
Fatdoor has just announced in Private Equity Hub their first-round financing through Norwest Venture Partners and their new CEO, Jennifer Dulski, from Yahoo! Here is a quote from Jennifer, which I know is true from my own experience:
“Building online local communities that scale is an extremely difficult problem to solve, but the market opportunity is immense and consumers are craving a solution that will make this vision a reality.”
To address this immense market, any platform needs to first solve some very difficult problems in four areas – boundaries, applications, verification, and privacy. rBlock believes that it has solved them all. However to win a big share of this immense market, rBlock’s solutions must be integrated in a manner that leads to viral growth. This requires, among other things, a user-interface that’s easy-to-use and scalable. rBlock believes it has solved this too, paving the way for more plan execution than experimentation.
Greg Sterling writes about online reviews today… lots of good stuff.
Adding to the mounting evidence that online reviews are now critical for both consumers and businesses, comScore and the Kelsey Group released online survey data (n=2,090) last week showing that 24% of consumer-respondents used online reviews in the context of looking for a local service business (during the preceding three-months)…
PQ Media issued a new report that estimated “word-of-mouth marketing” has become a $981 billion business. In addition, the report says that among consumers surveyed, 80% rely on friends and family for recommendations. This phenomenon is now moving quickly online… [lots more]
Taken together, these data all show how significant online reviews are becoming – as an extension of traditional “word of mouth” – for both consumers and local businesses. As the stakes get higher, which all these data suggest they will, the risk is that there’s more gaming and manipulation of reviews. Note that 30% (of the 24%) in the comScore data wrote reviews because they were asked to do so. (And see my recap of the SMX panel on user review content.)
Reviews and recommendations are a large part of the Front Porch Forum postings. Most arrive upon request from a neighbor.
Dryer’s Ice Cream commissioned a phone survey of 1,000 U.S. homes in 2005 as part of a promotion tied to neighborhoods…
More than half of Americans (55%) believe they are less familiar with their neighbors today than their parents were with their neighbors a generation ago. And, according to a recent survey, our hectic schedules are to blame. In this fast-paced world of instant worldwide communications, it’s ironic that sometimes the hardest connections to make are with folks just across the street.
Dreyer’s Slow Churned Ice Cream asked Americans across the country how well they knew their
neighbors. Here’s the scoop:
- Three out of ten Americans (27%) don’t know their neighbors first and last names;
- Six in ten Americans (59%) who aren’t friendly with their neighbors say it’s because they’re just too busy to create meaningful relationships;
- Fewer than half of Americans (48%) have borrowed something, like a cup of sugar, from one of their neighbors
Research and community experts say that on average, students perform better, people live longer, and
crime rates are lower when people who live in the same community have a basic familiarity with each
other.
Pattie tells a good community-building story around this information.
Greg Sterling writes today about Yahoo’s new trial service called Neighbors…
Yahoo! has introduced a very interesting new feature on Local: Neighbors. A new tab will appear, “Neighbors,” that offers a community discussion area and organizing tool…
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