Refrigerator Rights reports…
A newly released study at Standford University acknowledges what we already know – an increasing number of people say their personal relationships have suffered as a result of their use of the Internet with many confessing that they are discreet about their online habits. This is certainly not a surprise to anyone that follows cultural trends. Our immersion in electronic media comes at a price – and that price is almost always the decreasing amount of time we spend with other people. It is an argument to become more intentional about our social world – building Refrigerator Rights relationships. You can read about the study through this link.
I agree. (FYI, if someone is friend-enough to walk into your home and help himself to something from your fridge, then he’s said to have “refrigerator rights.”)
That said, it’s also interesting to note that our members report that using Front Porch Forum works in the opposite direction, i.e., our internet service leads to more face-to-face time with neighbors.
Outside.In’s Top 10 Bloggiest Neighborhoods was very interesting today. How inspiring to learn about the level of online community going on in these neighborhoods (including some former stomping grounds of mine!). I wonder how our little Five Sisters compares? I’d love to see the data. (Does anyone know if that’s available? I couldn’t find it.)
The Five Sisters (Burlington, VT) was named a top ten neighborhood in the United States in 2006 and many residents credit Front Porch Forum, a kind of neighborhood blog (to stretch the term), for contributing to the incredible sense of community here.
The Five Sisters forum has an astounding 340 members out of the 350-household neighborhood. Another 20 local officials (city councilors, state reps., school commissioners, police lieutenant, etc.) participate. In the past six months, 50% of the members have written… 630 postings total. Since these folks are actual nearby neighbors, a vast majority of the follow up occurs offline on the sidewalk or over the fence (that’s the point!). In this model, only residents of the neighborhood may read and write postings… it’s all about helping neighbors connect and foster community within the neighborhood.
The Five Sisters is the flagship of 130 contiguous neighborhood forums covering all of metro-Burlington and hosted by Front Porch Forum. In its first six months, about 20% of Burlington has subscribed to this free community-building service. Everyday folks, not just heavy web users, are making wonderful use of it. Front Porch Forum garnered a couple more community-leader awards last month and will be featured at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City on May 18, 2007.
From techrockies today…
A new online service that aims to provide local neighborhoods with relevant news and communication is now accepting registrations. The Web site, called eNeighbors.com, includes classifieds, current events calendars, resident directories and community news. According to the company, the service will eliminate the need for newsletters and paper directories while offering social-networking features unavailable to those mediums. However, the company stressed that its site is private and secure. Founded in 2005, eNeighbors is headquartered in Denver.
The site looks well designed and professional. It appears to be an update on neighborhood association software (bookkeeping, minutes, bylaws, etc.), with a social networking add on. It appears to want the associations to hire the service and then hand over the list of neighbors.
By contrast, Front Porch Forum is ALL about helping neighbors connect and foster community within the neighborhood. Individual households join when they are ready. The service is free. It doesn’t include any of the other association management tools.
Front Porch Forum just accepted an invitation from co-organizer Micah Sifry to speak at the Personal Democracy Forum on May 18 in New York City. Wow! What an honor and opportunity. Dare I say, I think we have something to add… what we’re doing is unique (from all that I’ve seen at least), off to a promising start, and potentially powerful.
This will be a great event. Speaking or in attendance…
I imagine that we’ll be tucked away in some corner… but we’ll be there! I better start combing the hayseed out of my hair.
MediaVidea reported recently…
News Item #1: A detailed research from HP reveals that 43% of Facebook messages are spam. Marcus from Plentyoffish dating site puts it correctly that you would similar figures on any other social networking sites.
NewsItem #2: A recent Comscore study reports that 3 out of 10 U.S. Internet users delete cookies, which means that sites may be overestimating audiences by a factor as high as 2.5.
Both pieces of information have implications for advertisers who use cookie-based visitor counting and rates of social networking site usage.
I wonder how accurate this is? If this ascertain is on target, how widely known is it? It seems remarkable to me. It might help explain in part the incredibly positive response to Front Porch Forum we’ve found in our initial service area (greater Burlington, Vermont). Subscribe to your neighborhood’s forum and you get no spam… just your neighborhood forum in your inbox every few days. And, our audience is very clear… we have contact information on each one… simple to get an accurate count. This may also contribute to the initial high level of interest among small local business in sponsoring a variety of our neighborhood forums.
MediaVidea offers this today:
Rolling Stone will one of the first mainstream magazines entering into the social networking field... Comscore analysis shows that:
– More than half of Myspace visitors are now 35 and older.
– 71% of the Friendster’s 1 million user base is 35 and above.
– 50% of Facebook users are 25-plus, despite that it has now almost become mandatory for new college and high school students to register there.Aiming an aging demographic is a smart idea. They have the buyer and stating power, vis- -vis the fickle younger crowd.
Adult-oriented social networking sites are already up and running, Multiply for example.
Next up: A social network fro Esquire and New Yorker magazines, perhaps?
Front Porch Forum members appear to range from teens to 80s. Since entire households tend to subscribe, I’m hard pressed to guess an average age.
Debbie Block-Schwenk points out a couple new resources today for citizen journalism sites:
Citizen Media: Fad or the Future of News? The rise and prospects of hyperlocal journalism was released by J-Lab. The report by Jan Schaffer consolidates and analyzes responses from 191 people involved with or familiar with online citizen media, including 31 operators of citizen media sites.
Also enabled by J-Lab and the Knight Foundation via their New Voices program is a new “cook book” sharing the experiences of the first year of community site Hartsville Today. The site was started by Douglas J. Fisher, a journalism instructor at the University of South Carolina and Graham Osteen, Publisher of The Hartsville Messenger. The report, entitled Hartsville Today: The first year of a small-town citizen journalism site, documents in detail the steps they took, from deciding on a web site domain name to training staff.
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