Social Media | Ghost of Midnight

Praise from FPF Members

Posted on Thursday, July 12, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

I’ve said it before… the steady flow of wonderful member comments washing through Front Porch Forum keeps the FPF development team motivated and focused. The comment list grows continually. Some recent samples…

Thank you for Front Porch Forum — it is the internet at its best. -Lorinda Henry

Thank you for creating this wonderful resource to support our connection to one another. You’ve done a terrific job. I really appreciate it (and the last-minute tickets to Circus Smirkus, which was fantastic!) -Amy Todisco

I posted something about seeking help with dog sitting, and I received a wonderful reply, for which I’m very grateful. Thanks very much for starting this online community! -Andi Mowrer

I have relocated; I hope there’s a Front Porch Forum up this way! Thank you – I found it very helpful. I was able to pass along my beloved piano to a new piano player. -Rebecca Strader

I love Front Porch Forum. It is such a great way to be connected to different social networks and hear the opinions of my neighbors! -Rachel Weston, State Representative

I’d just like to offer some kudos here: (1) to Front Porch Forum for creating a medium for neighbors to communicate issues quickly and easily, and (2) to the police and government officials of all types for watching and responding to this forum on a regular basis. I think I can speak for most members of the community and say this: Whether or not we are satisfied with every response we receive, we appreciate everything our officials are doing to improve and maintain our quality of life. We have to acknowledge that FPF has created a communication path and that its being used, successfully, by our community. -Tim Curtin

About 30 neighbors attended our potluck. It was very successful and fun! See what Front Porch Forum’s vision hath wrought! -Edorah Frazer

I am really appreciating this forum – finding out about goings on in the community, and the conversations, connections, that are going on whether I am participating or bystanding. -Guthrie Smith

Thanks everyone for the mechanic recommendations! It’s been a great help and I’m glad this forum exists for such occasions. -Cody Silfies

Please update my account as I’ve moved to a new neighborhood. I love being part of Front Porch Forum and am hoping it will help me meet neighbors at my new place! -Abba Corliss

Front Porch Forum Case Study

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Ken Picard wrote an article in this week’s Seven Days about the assault of a woman at a Burlington basketball court when she asked some late night ballplayers to tone it down. What a terrible act against this 11-year resident. I reported on the Burlington Free Press’ coverage here previously.

With the publication of Ken’s piece, a vivid portrait is painted of how the neighbors are using Front Porch Forum to inform each other about events, express concerns, debate underlying issues, attract official responses from local authorities, and get organized. Some excerpts…

When residents living near Pomeroy Park in the Old North End first learned about the late-night assault last month on one of their neighbors, they probably didn’t get the news from the daily newspaper. More likely, they read about it on the Front Porch Forum…

This incident, like many relatively minor crimes that occur each day in Burlington, might have gone unnoticed and unaddressed were it not for the victim’s neighbor, Samuel Press. He asked her permission to post an account of the incident on their neighborhood’s Front Porch Forum…

Press’ posting sparked a flurry of email responses from other residents of the Old North End, some of whom recounted similar experiences with unruly and foul-mouthed park users. Others expressed dismay at the Parks & Recreation department and the police department’s unwillingness and/or inability to address their concerns, which appear to have existed for years.

The online back-and-forth eventually prompted official replies from Parks & Recreation Director Wayne Gross and Burlington Police Lieutenant Jennifer Morrison… Gross wrote that he asked the Burlington Electric Department to fix the street lamp that was bleeding light onto the court, enabling late-night play to occur. Likewise, Morrison informed residents that the police have stepped up nighttime patrols of the area, and asked residents to get good descriptions of anyone else engaged in suspicious activities.

Recently, a group of neighbors met to talk about longer term solutions. FPF is all about helping neighbors connect and foster community at the neighborhood level. This is a wonderful case study of people using Front Porch Forum in just this way.

Zillow launches neighborhood pages

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Zillow.com, a big real estate site, today launched its new Neighborhood Pages…

We’ve created more than 6,500 new Neighborhood Pages in 134 cities across the country (with more to come). We’ve seeded these pages with some pretty amazing demographic data—including telling characteristics about the residents of these neighborhoods. However, the bulk of the content on the Neighborhood Pages we have left up to you, the Zillow community. Use the neighborhood discussion forums to meet your neighbors, talk about local news, publicize events like garage sales and get the inside scoop by asking questions of residents who know the area best. You can also share your photos of the neighborhood and check out the real estate in your area – from homes for sale to local Make Me Move prices to the most talked-about homes. To find a Neighborhood Page, you can access via any one of the 70+ million Home Detail pages and look for the link right beneath the address.

Bloggers tracking this kind of thing question whether people will come and populate the site with their postings. Time will tell. From The Real Estate Bloggers…

Now the problem with all forums or microsites that require user input to thrive is gaining that critical mass. There is no way Zillow is going to be able to staff people to manage each locales page without throwing big money at it. And Topix has the automated local news side of hyperlocal figured out and they are muddling along.

What will determine the critical mass is if enough people will come and stay to discuss local issues on a regular basis. Some real estate agents will, but to be honest I am not sure that homebuyers want to sit around and watch real estate agents talk shop. And for the real estate agents to come to Zillow and change their voice so what they write is a big leap, if they wanted to do that they would have a blog and be dominating the local SERPs that way.

Topix focusing on local forums

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by Michael • 1 comment

Fascinating interview today by Mark Glaser with the leadership of Topix and how this online news aggregator is now focusing on local forums.

When local news aggregator Topix decided to set up online forums last December for every city and small town in America, they figured the forums would be a loss leader. After all, online forums have a bad reputation for unfettered discussion, gossip and slander, leading most news organizations to abandon them altogether online. And people on forums are usually more focused on the discussion than on clicking on ads.

But for Topix, the forums have transformed the site from a simple search engine and news aggregator into a series of online water cooler discussions that riff off the news of the day. And with the popularity of forums, Topix has a more engaged audience that stays on the site longer. Plus, Topix is bringing in even more money by serving up forums to newspaper partner sites and sharing ad revenues with them.

Clay Shirky and software development

Posted on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

I had the pleasure of chatting with Clay Shirky about Front Porch Forum after a talk he gave a couple months ago. Now, I just watched the video of his presentation at Supernova 2007 and the following quote struck me…

Standing from today, looking towards the future, you will make more accurate predictions about software, and, in this web-driven world, about services, if you ask yourself not “what’s the business model?” but rather “do the people who like it take care of each other?” That turns out to be the better predictor of longevity.

Now, he was talking mostly about open source software development, but I find encouragement for our efforts with Front Porch Forum too. In fact, the people who like FPF do often take care of each other… as neighbors supporting neighbors. In a way, this cuts to the core of our early success.

Orphaned Message from Pie Donor

Posted on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

A glitch in our software recently left this message untethered from the new Front Porch Forum member who posted it in his/her neighborhood forum… rats! Sorry about that. Too many new members to sort out who it came from. Who is the mystery pie donor?

Hello all! Just moved to the neighborhood in June. I would be happy to be involved in any way I can. I of course always have pies to donate for special events!

Harvard’s List of Social Capital Resources

Posted on Monday, July 2, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

A visitor to this site pointed us to the Saguaro Seminar’s resource page today, which now lists Front Porch Forum among many other entities…

The following is a partial list of some interesting organizations that are about building social capital or harnessing it.

The Saguaro Seminar came out of Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone and is based at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard…

The project focuses on expanding what we know about our levels of trust and community engagement and on developing strategies and efforts to increase this engagement.

Kudos for Front Porch Forum

Posted on Friday, June 29, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Burlington seems to be suffering an increase in break-ins, vandalism and the like. Much is shared on the various neighborhood forums hosted by FPF. Local officials weigh in too. Here’s a gem that just arrived on the ONE East Neighborhood Forum from Tim this evening…

I’d just like to offer some kudos here:

* to Front Porch Forum for creating a medium for neighbors to communicate issues quickly and easily
* to the police and government officials of all types for watching and responding to this forum on a regular basis

I think I can speak for most members of the community and say this: Whether or not we are satisfied with every response we receive, we appreciate everything our officials are doing to improve and maintain our quality of life. We have to acknowledge that FPF has created a communication path and that its being used, successfully, by our community.

Thanks Tim!

People who don’t know they need FPF

Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Got the following note from a Front Porch Forum member today…

I have been part of my Huntington forum for several months and think it is wonderful. Thank you for launching such a great community builder! I was hesitant at first to join the forum, only because in Huntington we have a wonderful/helpful/supportive community already. Once I joined, though, I realized how helpful it can be! I am in contact with neighbors I hadn’t known that well – it just serves to widen my “circle.”

With people who are already super-plugged into their neighborhood, Front Porch Forum seems to get one of two initial rections… (1) “Great, where do I sign up” or (2) “No thanks… I already know everything and everybody.” The member above was, in some ways, a (2) who forced herself to check it out anyway… good for her!

In most cases, I’ve given up trying to convince the second category of folks. However, they often come on board some months later after FPF comes up over and over.

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