Category Archives: Vermont

Off-Forum Responses Add Up

Posted on Thursday, August 16, 2007 by • No comments yet

Front Porch Forum has yet to examine in detail the “multiplier effect” of a single posting on one of its neighborhood forums. That is, it’s plain to see that many postings result in following up messages on the forum. But it seems a majority get results that happen off-forum via email, phone calls, or even – gasp – on someone’s actual front porch.

Here’s one example from Pam on the Huntington Neighborhood Forum today…

Hi all – thanks to everyone who gave me seamstress ideas!

I am going to have Lisa B. help me but wanted to list the recommendations I received if anyone else is looking:
Lisa B. 434-xxxx
Eliza W. 434-xxxx
Lynn F. – Richmond
Linda in Burlington across from BOVE’s

I appreciate all the personal emails I received with ideas. Remember though, if you respond via the Forum, everyone benefits from your ideas. If you suddenly need a seamstress in the future, log onto http://frontporchforum.com and search the archives.

So she appears to have gotten at least four responses off-forum and one on-forum. I know our family has gotten many off-forum responses for various postings… up to a dozen or more. All from nearby neighbors.

P.S. And I agree with Pam that FPF members should, if it makes sense in the moment, post their response to the whole neighborhood forum. Not only is the information then immediately available and stored away in the searchable archive, but it also contributes to the forward momentum of the conversation… members SEE that it works and use the forum more when they see lots of results.

Thanks Pam!

Moose in South End

Posted on Sunday, August 12, 2007 by • 1 comment

Celia reported on Aug. 10, 2007 in The Addition Neighborhood Forum…

This morning, about 9 a.m., we were visited by a huge, graceful, gangly moose! — which clomped through the backyards, delighted the kids, and pretty much freaked out the pets. Last seen heading toward Flynn Avenue, tailed by animal control and the police (it seems the moose ditched those tailing it, though, at least for a while). My dog tells me she’s never, NEVER going in our backyard again.

That’s in Burlington’s South End… not exactly regular moose country. Wow.

Essex Reporter tells FPF story

Posted on Thursday, August 9, 2007 by • 1 comment

Joyce Carroll wrote a wonderful article about how neighborhoods are using Front Porch Forum for this week’s Essex Reporter.

When Henry, a six-toed marmalade tabby cat with a penchant for adventure, wandered off last Halloween, his owner did not have to resort to posting flyers around the neighborhood. Instead, Sue McCormack turned to her neighbors via the Front Porch Forum.

McCormack, a member of the Maple Street Forum, is one of hundreds of Essex and Essex Junction residents who take advantage of this service. The forum aims to recapture the days when advice was traded over backyard fences, and recipes were shared during visits to the neighbor’s front porch.

Julie Miller-Johnson, who spearheaded the Countryside Front Porch Forum, said 132 members, about half of the neighborhood, have joined the service. Their forum is active, she said, with postings coming through every couple of days.

In some cases, the forum has become a way to reach out to those in need. Miller-Johnson recalled a fire in the neighborhood this past winter. Neighbors, she said, were actively communicating about ways in which to help the family.

“We’re not a front porch society anymore,” she said, adding, “The forum changed the way this neighborhood feels. People talk to each other.”

Next Generation Social Networking… FPF?

Posted on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 by • No comments yet

Thanks to Julia Lerman for her posting yesterday on her DevLife blog (focused on the .NET developer world). Julie’s known worldwide in the .NET circles and just so happens to live in Front Porch Forum’s pilot area. A great surprise for us. She writes…

I have more than enough people to keep up with and stepped way back on my blog reading about a year ago when I realized I was losing touch with my personal friends because of my many new virtual friends.

However, there is a new social networking tool that was actually created right here in Burlington Vermont, that I joined over two months ago and I just love it! It’s called FrontPorchForum. I’ve referred to it as Facebook for grownups. But it’s really not anything like that…

It is an amazing way of connecting with your community and helping each other out… I also feel that I’ve suddenly become so much more connected to this community that I moved into almost 4 years ago. I know who lives in those houses, the name of the local blacksmith and that there are so many really interesting people living a stone’s throw away.

It is an interesting phenomenon to me because in the past six or seven years, the internet and blogging has made me part of a worldwide community of software developers… But FrontPorchForum has come full circle because it has used this same technology to bring me back into my own local community which, although initial connections are through the web, enables me to walk out my door and down my road and meet up with many new friends and neighbors.

I’ve already talked to [the FPF founder] about what he’s going to do when it goes nationwide or even worldwide; what technologies he’s vested in currently and what is on his mind for scaling out. Because as far as I’m concerned, that is inevitable!

Which led to this posting from Johan in Sweden…

The number of social networks on the net has exploded… It’s too many networks and ways for communication. So what will the future bring us?… I think smaller networks with a base in your community could be the next thing. I think many users are fed up with the giant communities. I found this post from Julia Lerman that talk about an existing network that has a good idea. She writes “I realized I was losing touch with my personal friends because of my many new virtual friends”. I can recornize this. She talks about Front Porch Forum. Julia describes the network like this “What FrontPorchForum focuses on is your very local community. It creates an online forum, also distributed every few days in an email, that allows you to connect to your neighbors. So the people in my town of Huntington are the only people who’s posts I read and who see my posts (and my email address)”.

National Night Out Award for FPF

Posted on Wednesday, August 8, 2007 by • No comments yet

South Burlington’s National Night Out celebration seemed a great hit today. I know our kids had a great time. And it was a real honor to accept the event’s community award on behalf of thousands of local folks who are using Front Porch Forum to build community within their own neighborhoods. (See here and here for past postings about this event and award.)

And here are a couple photos of us (Michael and Valerie) accepting the award from Vermont Governor Jim Douglas (top) and Police Chief Trevor Whipple and Sgt. Tom Fraga.

Thanks to all these folks for the recognition!

Like this blog? Attend the workshop!

Posted on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 by • 1 comment

I’ll be leading a workshop at the COMMUNITYMATTERS07 conference in Burlington, VT, Oct. 23, 2007. About the conference…

COMMUNITYMATTERS07 is the next annual gathering of the Orton Family Foundation and PlaceMatters, where a national network of practitioners comes together to learn, share, inspire and seed innovation in place, collectively elevating the art and science of planning for vibrant, sustainable communities.

About the workshop…

Virtual Neighborhood: Building Local Community Online
Community does indeed matter. And virtual online connections are creating and enhancing real communities. This workshop will examine Front Porch Forum and other online services that foster community at the neighborhood level. Participants will investigate trends in social networking, local online and community building at the neighborhood level… and their intersection. These topics are examined in depth at http://frontporchforum.com/blog

Real Crowd from the Virtual

Posted on Friday, August 3, 2007 by • No comments yet

Need a crowd to show up for an important local issue? Just got this note…

Thanks to Front Porch Forum we were able to get over 70 people out on a hot night to discuss the zoning rewrite issues. News does travel fast with Front Porch Forum!!! -Linda, Village Green Neighborhood Forum

Mailbox Lady gets Press

Posted on Thursday, August 2, 2007 by • 1 comment

Good for Kelly and her funky mailbox-painting project in Huntington, VT. We covered her story last month, and now Seven Days has a lovely piece in this week’s issue by Paula Routly. The slideshow assembled by Cathy Resmer gives a richer sense than the single newsprint photo.

The rural mailbox is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, it’s a personal postal sanctuary fiercely protected by the federal government. On the other, provided the “current resident” owns it, a mailbox can also be a means of self-expression. Along Vermont roadsides, it’s not unusual to see Audubon scenes, American flags and Warren Kimble creations mingling with the standard black, slushy silver, or rusty-red metal loafs.

Kelly O’Brien is taking the mailbox medium one step further: In Huntington, the 38-year-old unemployed carpet saleswoman is turning postal regulation into public art. In the last two months, she’s transformed about 30 drab mailboxes around town into colorful creations. A red mailbox with blue polka dots and funky yellow lettering stands out on the Main Road into Huntington. Further down, a cluster of four cheerily painted boxes makes a statement at the intersection of Blackbird Swale. One of the lids is a landscape that looks like the surrounding area. Is that Camel’s Hump? In arched cursive letters it reads, “Our Road Leads to Heaven.”…

To get the word out, ironically, she resorted to electronic mail. She posted a message on Front Porch Forum, the neighborhood email listserv that is building community connections all over Chittenden County, including in Huntington. “Hi, All — I’d like to paint your mailbox!” O’Brien enthused in her initial communication with her town’s Front Porch members. “You’d be helping me out by letting me paint and take photos for my portfolio . . . and you’ll benefit by getting a one-of-a-kind mailbox.” She added, “If you hate it, I can repaint it to the original black, gray or white.”

About a dozen people responded, and O’Brien went to work — on location.

Today’s Good Neighbor Example

Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 by • 1 comment

Here’s my favorite use of Front Porch Forum out of today’s batch of neighbor-to-neighbor messages…

On Friday July 20, our neighborhood hosted lunch for folks at the COTS Daystation!  People there expressed surprise and appreciation when I brought in cooler after cooler of bag lunches.  One face in particular brightened when I said there was everything from PBJ to Roast Beef and Pastrami sandwiches in the bags.  (It was the roast beef that got his attention.)

I know at our house, I had ambitious children separating grapes, wrapping sandwiches, packing and decorating the paper bags.  Next time we saw a person begging at the exit ramp of I-189, we all felt better about doing our part to help a person in need.  We have decided to carry some decent snack foods with us that we can donate when we drive by;  we, like most, worry some about unhealthy choices people can make with cash, and it prevents us from reaching out.

Food showed up on my doorstep Thursday night and Friday morning not magically but with care and effort, which is better than magic.  5 different households pitched in to the 40-lunch effort.  Thanks to all who did… you know who you are.

I will contact COTS and find a date in August we can do it again.  I’ve learned a few things to help streamline the process and perhaps make it better for next time.  I hope we can continue on a monthly basis.

Great job Maggie and Prospect Parkway Neighborhood Forum members!  Not only are these folks using Front Porch Forum to pitch in and help their larger community, but by these very actions they are enhancing the sense of community within their own neighborhood… win-win.

Community seeds just waiting to sprout

Posted on Thursday, July 26, 2007 by • No comments yet

Bob of the Starr Farm Neighborhood Forum wrote on July 13…

Softball, Soccer, Frisbee (Ultimate)… Is anyone in the “Neighborhood” interested in putting together a neighborhood game of some sort? Nothing ultra-competitive, keeping it fun, maybe even playing against another neighborhood. Any ideas?

Not much response. Then, some wonderful volunteers happened to distribute Front Porch Forum flyers and another 30 households signed up for this forum! So Bob tried again on July 23 and found a different reception…

Neighborhood softball Friday August 3rd at 6:45. I have a few bats I can bring one is a smaller one for kids. If anyone else has a favorite bat ball or glove they can bring that too.

We’ve had a good response, and everyone is welcome. I hope to see and meet many of you there. Feel free to invite anyone else that you want to bring.

That’s great! It’s wonderful to watch this kind of thing in one neighborhood after another… block parties, babysitting coops, neighborhood watches, walking clubs. There seems to be a pent up desire to connect with neighbors. Almost as soon as a critical mass of neighbors join FPF in one neighborhood, someone starts organizing a community activity through it there… that’s what FPF’s all about!

About Blog

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

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