Ghost of Midnight
… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum
Sure sign of spring in Vermont…
Winters in Vermont are long. When the snow finally starts its final retreat a collective sigh wafts over Burlington… followed by a “Oh sh#t! I just stepped in dog crap!”
I’ve been avoiding this topic (who wants to focus on dog poop?), but the sheer volume of dog poop posting the past week overwhelmed me. On neighborhood forum after neighborhood forum the call has gone out… “please scoop the poop!” All those layers of melting snow are revealing months of accumulated rogue deposits.
As unpleasant as it is to encounter this subject offline, reading neighbors’ online postings do provide a dose of antidote. It’s good to learn that I’m not alone in my aversion to this sign of spring.
The top two terms used, by the way, are the classic “dog poop” and the softer “dog poo.” I do take issue with the alternate spelling used by some folks on their forum… “dog pooh.” I’ll never think of Winnie in the same way.
And kudos to those like the following Front Porch Forum member…
“Enough talk. My shovel and 30 minutes cleaned up two buckets worth. Who’s next?” -South End resident
Amazingly, in all the poop postings, no one turned nasty. Most people, it seems, want to be and have good neighbors… regardless of the occasional mess.
Thousands of Front Porch Forum Members Honored Tonight!
Ain’t that a pip! Preservation Burlington honored Front Porch Forum tonight at its annual meeting with its 2007 Ray O’Connor Community Improvement Award. Although I got to be the person up front receiving the plaque and certificate, this recognition really goes out to the more than 4,000 people who have signed up and put their neighborhood forums to work. It’s a beautiful thing to watch it all unfold.
So… thanks to Preservation Burlington and congratulations to all the members of Front Porch Forum! What’s next?!?!
House finds Buyers through Forum
People report remarkable and routine successes from their Front Porch Forum postings. I find the one just received below to be amazing considering how much the real estate market has slowed locally (e.g., the lovely home next door to ours has been on the market for about a year).
I sent a brief email to our Forum to let folks know our house was for sale. Within a few days, I had 9 responses, 4 people who came to look at it, and 2 people ready to make an offer. What a great way to target folks with an interest in our neighborhood. And what a relief to have the daunting marketing of our home made so easy. Thanks! -C.H., ONE Central Neighborhood Forum
U.K. Video about Social Cohesion in Neighborhoods
An interesting video from the other side of the puddle about social cohesion in neighborhoods… from Nick Booth at Podnosh, Birmingham, U.K.
Masked Marauders invade Cyberspace
What is it about the internet that has most people concealing their identity? On most online forums, mail lists, blogs, etc. you have no idea who’s talking. Compared to conventional soapboxes (letters to the editor, watercooler, public meetings, etc.), this is a big change.
I guess folks are concerned about identity theft to a degree. But it’s likely more a case of scale. It’s hard to be anonymous in a village of 1,000 inhabitants, but it’s easy to disappear into the crowd in New York City. And most of the internet is more like NYC than Mayberry.
Nasty anonymous online behavior appears to be increasing and is getting more attention in the mainstream media. The AP and Washington Post had recent stories.
It’s no wonder… anonymity can breed antisocial behavior. Like wearing a mask in a crowd… fun to blow off some steam at Mardi Gras or a Halloween bash… but a little bizarre to keep your face covered year-round at work, on campus, around town. I guess it works for Batman… but he has his own issues.
The neighborhood forums hosted by Front Porch Forum are limited to residents only. And each message includes the writer’s full name, street, and email address. No masquerade… just straight shooting from the person next door and around the corner. Boorish behavior is largely kept in check by the same system that’s been in place since the dawn of humankind… act like a jerk toward the people around you and pay the social price.
The Social Network that stops Traffic!
I’ve poked around various social networking sites and some impress with a feeling of community among distant strangers, others with sheer size or whiz-bang technology. But I’ve never seen anything that elicits the reaction that we’re seeing to Front Porch Forum in the neighborhoods where it’s really caught on in this corner of Vermont.
The other day as a I walked along the sidewalk in downtown Burlington, a woman drove past and did a double take. Break lights… she jumped out and ran over to give me a hug… “you’re the forum guy, right?!?!” Her car door hung open and the guy in the Audi behind her started fuming. Her house had burned the week before and her neighbors had rallied around her and her kids through Front Porch Forum. We kept it short and traffic resumed.
Not the first time we’ve seen neighbors pulling together to help one of their own, nor the first public tears of appreciation I’ve witnessed. People are genuinely moved when they connect with the people who live around them… when a degree of isolation is broken through.
And today from a different person we heard:
Front Porch Forum has connected us to our neighbors and the community quickly and profoundly. We’ve been in Burlington only nine months but because of the forum we feel that we know our neighbors, even if we haven’t actually met all of them. And when we have questions or information to share, it’s an easy, friendly way to get answers or help and share what we know with other people. Our experience of Burlington is so intimately tied up with Front Porch Forum at this point that they go together in our minds. Burlington = Front Porch Forum = community = connection = Burlington. L.D., Five Sisters Neighborhood Forum
Funding climate favors local online entrepreneurs
From the Local Onliner:
Nick Veronis, managing director of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, says [regarding local online]… that it is a very good time for entrepreneurs to raise money and monetize their local investments. But the climate is not so golden for investors. “Valuations are very high right now,” he says.
Yahoo’s take on Local Online
Peter Krasilovsky reports today about Yahoo Exec VP Hilary Schneider’s keynote at the Kelsey Local ’07 conference this week. Schneider…
emphasized that the company is really zeroing in on local to play a major role in Yahoo’s growth plans. Local search’s share of overall search within Yahoo went from 11 percent to 14 percent in 2006, and local search itself grew 28 percent in the last four months, per ComScore.
Yahoo divides local as:
- Maps – 32M unique visitors
- News and info – 30M
- Social media – 20M
- Classifieds – 20M
- Directory – 18M
Further:
Yahoo Local itself is pretty well built out, with 6,000 city pages and 80,000 zip codes. But it only has 600 neighborhoods. “There are obviously many more than that,” says Schneider. “ We have a long way to go.”
Yahoo looks at the local market as:
- National local – 17,000 businesses spending $22.4 billion in ad dollars
- Regional local – 85,000 businesses spending $48.3 billion
- Local local – 22,000,000 businesses spending $33.6 billion
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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