Ghost of Midnight

Another Mama-Baby Moose Tale

Posted on Thursday, July 5, 2007 by Michael • 1 comment

Patrick just posted the following moose story on the FPF Westford Neighborhood Forum. I guess I’ve got a soft spot for baby moose tales.

Many neighbors on Brookside Road caught sight of a young moose on the loose in early June. The calf roamed on the road and in our front yard. She/he looked a little lost and perhaps it was searching for it’s mother.

The plight of the baby became a worry of many with whom I spoke. They were worried that Mom and baby were lost to each other.

My wife called the Fish and Wildlife commission to alert officials and to find out what might be able to be done. The official had said that there was no report of a downed moose, and that young moose calves are “hellions”, often betraying parental instructions to stick around.

Although I cannot at all confirm the safety of the baby moose, I can at least confirm that 2 days after the sighting of the baby, a large adult was seen by my wife and I while driving home. The large moose was walking in the thrush along Brookside road, about one mile away from the school.

We speculate that the baby and this Moose are a mother/baby pair and it eased our minds to know that in all likelihood the two were back together.

RIP Backfence.com

Posted on Thursday, July 5, 2007 by Michael • 1 comment

Sorry to see that Backfence just shut down operations. From the Local Onliner…

BackFence announced June 29 that it shuttering its 13 community sites, which were in the DC area, Illinois and northern California. The ambitious site raised an initial round of $3 million, but never had high penetration in its communities, or sold enough Yellow Pages listings or banner ads to be optimistic about its future…

Neighborhood Discussion on MPR

Posted on Wednesday, July 4, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Jay Walljasper about his new book, The Great Neighborhood Book, today. One-hour call-in show. Interesting.

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.

FPF Recognition Growing

Posted on Sunday, July 1, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

Front Porch Forum is the “Featured Website” in the Summer 2007 issue of the Orton Scenarios E-Journal. Given how influential Orton is in such things… this is wonderful!

Also had a nice short piece in The Islander newspaper this week. Thanks Lorinda.

And this lovely quote came in today from a Vermont State Representative…

“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!”

Local Online Community Resources

Posted on Saturday, June 30, 2007 by Michael • Comments are off for this post

A couple of interesting resources for folks interested in fostering community locally via the internet…

What to look for in a neighborhood website – eNeighbors.com blog
The New West FAQ for Online Community Journalism Enterpreneurs

Thanks to Peter K. for the New West tip.

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!

Congratulations Ms. Moose and Baby!

Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 by Michael • 23 comments

HELLO MOOSE LOVERS: Please check out the photos below (and here’s another moose photo taken by a friend in her Vermont neighborhood) and then stop by our core website… the national award-winning Front Porch Forum… 30% of our pilot city subscribes already! Cheers.

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A Front Porch Forum member of the Hinesburg Village Neighborhood Forum posted this today…

Yup, we are still in the sticks, no matter how developed we are. Must be getting crowded in the swamps as well.

Followed by this note from his Colchester, VT friend with these incredible photos…

In my 5 years in Colchester, I have never seen a newborn baby moose. This one was not even a half a mile from our house. The mother picked a small quiet neighborhood and had her baby in the front yard at 5:30 am We were out bike riding when we came upon the pair. The lady across the street from this house told us she saw it being born. We saw them at 5:30 pm . So the little one was 12 hours old. What an awesome place we live in to see such a site.

[See the comments below… seems that this moose mom and babe might hail from Alaska, not Colchester!]

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.

… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum