Well… this is nifty. Walk Score is a new mashup…
Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.
I take issue with my neighborhood’s meager 55 score, since our family walks and bikes for many of the necessities without much difficulty. Plus some of the underlying data doesn’t jibe with a local’s understanding of things (e.g., calling a gas station/convenience store on the adjacent feeder road our nearest “grocery store”… I don’t know any neighbors who consider that a grocery store). But it’s a cool idea and fun to play with, and I shouldn’t quibble. I wonder about the source of the data.
Front Porch Forum operates under the assumption that when neighbors communicate frequently in civil, constructive ways with all parties clearly identified, that over time all those exchanges will add up to a stronger sense of community. So while FPF members partake in many of the wonders of contemporary online social networking (buy, sell, trade, free, referrals, politics, organizing, reviews, news, advice, etc.), it all adds up to a more neighborly place to live… because all those folks coming at you through your computer are nearby neighbors who will be seen next time you walk the dog, sweep the walk, check the mail, etc.
Now this from Kevin Harris in the land of “Neighbourhoods” discussing a new report in the U.K. that…
… appears to suggest that the most important factor for people who expressed satisfaction with their area, was that ‘people are friendly.’
The negative factors were all about disorder… The implication seems to be that if you invest a lot in helping local people to get involved… you still cannot necessarily expect them to feel more satisfied with where they live.
Whereas, it would seem, were you to invest in people being friendly to one another (and get results from that investment), you could expect that to show up in your satisfaction survey in a couple of years time. Yet another argument for more street parties and new ways of promoting neighbourliness. [emphasis added] It does seem as if social relations and behaviour at local level are gradually coming to be perceived as being of significance.
Here’s an interesting piece…
With the help of more than 150 volunteers, the Boston Police Department, in honor of National Night Out 2007, will distribute 40,000 nametags at Fenway Park to attendees at the Red Sox – Blue Jays Game on July 15. The Boston Police Department’s Neighborhood Crime Watch Unit is embarking on this “Nametag Day” to encourage fans in attendance to get to know their neighbors. Neighbors who know each other are more likely to care for and watch out for each other. This reduces crime and strengthens their community. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis will welcome the crowd and officially kick off National Night Out Boston 2007. This year’s theme is “Unity through Community,” which is made possible when neighbors get to know each other simply by learning each other’s names. More information about National Night Out Boston 2007 can be found at www.BostonCrimeWatch.com.
The use of nametags comes from Joseph Porcelli’s (BPD Neighborhood Crime Watch Unit) “Nametag Project.” Joseph and others in the United States and Canada have been wearing nametags since January 1, 2007, everyday, all the time, everywhere they go to encourage people to get to know their neighbors and speak to each other. The project has received national recognition. For more information on The Nametag Project visit www.thenametagproject.com.
Some folks compare a successful Front Porch Forum neighborhood to all the neighbors wearing name tags, since every posting include the writers full name, street and email address. A bit cumbersome, but there’s no getting around the value of displaying names.
Steve Yelvington writes about Backfence‘s recent closure…
We still don’t know the right scale for doing this sort of thing, and that scale may actually be shifting as more people sign up for cheap broadband and become comfortable with creating and not just consuming content. Backfence cofounder Mark Potts once speculated in a conversation that the right physical community size is under 50,000. We’ve had great debates about that where I work; one point of view says a local high school district can serve as a useful proxy for defining a natural community, but your mileage may vary.
People settle into community levels… think concentric circles. Maybe 150 friends in the inner circle. More like 2,000 in the neighborhood… the elementary school district. Maybe 50,000 is the next hop… the high school level. And so on. Capital wants to centralize and standardize across as many people as possible… think USAToday. People tend toward decentralization and diversity… think distinct neighborhoods or yore with their own corner stores, clubs, ethnic flavors, etc. Front Porch Forum is designed for the neighborhood level.
A successful community model and a successful business model are not the same thing. The tricky part is going to involve finding the intersection. Something like Front Porch Forum might have a great community model but never be able to make a significant profit, or vice versa. Or the right business model might involve delivery of a print component, something many Web-centric developers might overlook or avoid.
With 20% of our pilot city subscribing in our first half-year via word-of-mouth, I remain optimistic about FPF’s evolving business model. Time will tell!
Everybody underestimates how hard and how expensive it is to build a powerful brand at a geographic community level. If you went down the street in one of Backfence’s markets and knocked on doors, how many people would have a strong, clear, positive notion of what Backfence was all about and why they should use it? This is one place where incumbent, offline media may have a great advantage, although in many cases it can’t deliver the message to the targets of greatest opportunity (nonconsumers).
Good point.
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