Ghost of Midnight

… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum

Smalltown.com Update

Posted on Monday, December 17, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Congratulations to Smalltown.com… it launched its seventh small town website today.  Some lessons…

Smalltown, San Carlos went live today. This is our seventh Smalltown site; we continue to make our way down the Peninsula from Millbrae to Palo Alto as planned. The most interesting detail regarding San Carlos is that we built the new site and pre-loaded it with content in only two weeks. Our very first town, Burlingame, which is about the same size as San Carlos, took four times as many person-hours to prepare. We’re figuring out how to launch new towns in much less time for much less money.

Our ability to launch a new town efficiently will be very important when we start to expand to hundreds of towns. We’re speeding up the process in three ways.

1. We’re learning that “Halo Towns” are easier to launch than “Virgin Towns”. Burlingame was a virgin town because it was first. There weren’t any adjacent Smalltown Sites. On the other hand, San Carlos borders several towns that already have Smalltown sites.

2. We’re happy if 85% of the content is updated and accurate. The last 15% is just too time consuming to track down and correct… Unlike most directory information databases, the longer a Smalltown site is around, the more accurate its data becomes.

3. Our processes are getting better. We’ve had time to try out several variations of walking down streets with a camera and a clipboard, and the current process is much faster and more accurate.

Perspective during Holiday Season

Posted on Sunday, December 16, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Thanks to neighbor and musician James O’Halloran for the holiday message that he posted to his nearby neighbors on Front Porch Forum…

Hello friends – Just a brief note to all the folks back home to say ‘Happy Holidays’ and offer some perspective on the season of giving. For my third time this year, I’m in southern Arizona on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation teaching song writing and music. The ‘rez’ is right on the Mexican border where the wall is being built and the other night I answered the door to find two hungry and worn out border crossers begging for water and food.

I’m sure you all can imagine how dire the situation is for the tribe as well. There is a lack of hope for their children’s futures due to the dominance of gangs, alcohol, drugs, violence, the border, unemployment, abject poverty and the list goes on and on. Life expectancy is 48 years and diabetes hovers around 50%. It was only a few decades ago when there was active US government policy of de-culturalization forbidding the tribe to wear their traditional clothing, forced to cut long hair, not allowed to speak their language, made to change their family names and children kidnapped and sent to boarding schools. But the Tohono O’odham (formerly the Papago) survived and are still here numbering roughly 28,000 people.

I know it is a long way from our wonderfully peaceful Five Sisters neighborhood, but what ever you can do for those who are in need will make a difference.

With every good wish, James

Front Porch Forum at PBS.org

Posted on Saturday, December 15, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

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.

Hindsight for Judy’s Book

Posted on Saturday, December 15, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Greg Sterling got more lessons learned by Andy Sack around Judy’s Book demise…

Sack added that if he had to do it over he’d:

  • Launch in a single market and gain critical mass before going national
  • Launch with a narrow content focus: one category or just a few rather than trying to be comprehensive immediately
  • Try to get into the “deal flow” of local (think travel or OpenTable) and local ad spending
  • Have a long time horizon and tempered expectations accordingly

Angie’s List Prospering

Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 by • 1 comment

Angie Hicks of Angie’s List (homeowner reviews of tradespeople) had this to say to Greg Sterling…

• We’re currently experiencing higher renewal rates than ever before.
• We’ve had 100 percent member growth in the past year.
• We’ve expanded our service area from 33 cities in 2006 to 124 today.
• We plan to expand to London and Toronto next year, as well as blanketing the U.S. in 2008.
• We also are planning significant additions to our member services next year.

Best bet for distributing neighborhood news?

Posted on Thursday, December 13, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Thanks to eNeighbors for pointing to this new study by eMarketer about eMail… color me eGrateful.

U.S. spending on e-mail advertising will grow to $2 billion by 2012 from $1.2 billion in 2007.

JupiterResearch estimated that about one-quarter of e-mail delivered to users’ main inboxes is now opt-in.

Average Number of E-Mails Received by US Internet Users per Week, 2007

JupiterResearch asked why recipients stopped subscribing to opt-in e-mails. More than one-half said the content was no longer relevant, and 40% said they were getting too many offers.

It is also getting harder for marketers to figure out which e-mail address to use. Nearly two-thirds of US Internet users have three or more active e-mail addresses, according to a November 2006 Bluestreak-commissioned study conducted by ROI Research.

Number of Active E-Mail Addresses that US Internet Users Have, September 2006 (% of respondents)

“E-mail, compared with other forms of interactive communication tools, is not only ubiquitous but also addictive,” Mr. Hallerman said. According to a November 2006 ROI Research report commissioned by Bluestreak, 90% of US Internet users used e-mail several times a day. No other communication tool comes close.

Frequency with which US Internet Users Use Select Emerging Communication Tools, September 2006 (% of respondents)

Maponics to provide neighborhood maps to Outside.in

Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

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.

Classic Neighiborhood Activity… Caroling

Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

People are using Front Porch Forum this season to organize Caroling in their neighborhoods… I’ve seen several examples already.  Here’s one from Burlington’s Old North End…

My neighbor and I on Pitkin St would love to carol on the solstice, Saturday Dec. 22, if we get a few more takers. We’re thinking of starting around 4:30, stopping at several households along the street, and ending with a little gathering (we can host, or we’re open to offers). We could use folks who can carry a tune or not, but have tolerant ears!

If you want to join us, or if you’d like us to stop and sing at your house, let me know. Happy solstice!

I’m looking forward to the annual Caroling with Carolyn on Caroline Street in our Five Sisters neighborhood.

“We don’t know our neighbors anymore.”

Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

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.

Craigslist: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 by • Comments are off for this post

Greg Sterling reports on his interview with Craig Newmark today… lots of good stuff.  I like this point because coincidentally we’ve been saying the same thing about Front Porch Forum…

Newmark said that “In the race between tortoise and hare, we’re the tortoise.” And he described the site’s now 12-year history as one of “slow, continuous, undramatic growth.”

Of course, craigslist is now in about 450 cities (50 more coming soon) and Kevin Abramson reports…

With 20 million monthly local visitors, Craigslist is the 28th largest Web domain in the U.S., according to Nielsen//NetRatings. And while the company does not disclose revenues, it will rake in an estimated $150 million in 2007. Not bad for a organization with 25 employees.

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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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