Ghost of Midnight
… about neighbors, community and Front Porch Forum
Neighborhood Forum too Small/Big/Just Right!
The majority of Front Porch Forum members that we talk with list the small scale of their forum as a leading attraction… “how could I not subscribe to my neighborhood’s forum?”… especially when the forum area includes just a few hundred nearby households.
That said, some areas are difficult to parse into reasonably sized neighborhood forums, e.g., tightly packed urban areas and thinly spread rural locations… where does one “neighborhood” end and another start?
We also are finding that while most of our now 4,000 local subscribers are happy with the service as is, some would have us rework their neighborhood forum’s boundaries… bigger, smaller, cut in two, join with the next one over. In fact, in some forums we hear each of these views from various members. That doesn’t make them invalid – no, no. All of this feedback is important and we’re soaking it in and working toward the best next steps we can take. This is the case in Charlotte, VT where we’re hearing every different angle.
Also, the ONE East Neighborhood Forum in Burlington has seen a surge in popularity and now has more than 200 households on board out of about 1,000 homes there. The 200 are great… it’s the 1,000 that’s too big. People tell me that they don’t know and don’t imagine that they’ll ever meet many of the people who post messages… 1,000 seems too big of an area for our mission of helping neighbors connect and foster community within the neighborhood.
Social Networks squeeze NGOs?
David Wilcox writes from London this week about how nonprofits, associations and trade unions are surrendering ground to social networking websites. Reminds me of online citizen journalism taking a bite out of newspapers. Wilcox:
It used to be that you joined associations because it was a way of meeting like-minded people and getting help, facilities, information and other things difficult or costly to organise for yourself. These days it is much easier to find people and resources online, and to mix and match these assets into project teams, communities of practice, and informal networks.
Further, he cites a forthcoming report from the NCVO ICT Foresight team:
The connections that ICT facilitates suggest that some organisations may increasingly be bypassed and that power may shift away from top-down hierarchical organisations and towards more fluid and participative networks where there is less need for a centralised ‘bricks and mortar’ coordinating organisation.
Leon Benjamin, author of Winning by Sharing, is even more explicit:
I think the problem is leadership. The reality is that leaders of VCOs and NGOs aren’t equipped to lead in the 21st century’s networked economy. And this isn’t their fault, but they need to accept help from people who can create the conditions that enable leaders to emerge, and then step aside. This isn’t their time now.
Just before he died, Peter Drucker said at Davos in Switzerland, “community-building talent is the single most precious resource in the modern world.” Let me briefly explain why.
Online community service poviders like Ezboard and CommunityZero, and Bebo and MySpace, to a certain extent have created leaders who in some cases, have literally started movements, with huge numbers of supporters and advocates. EzBoard has over half a million discrete ‘clubs’, each with a leader, covering a vast array of subject matter. These leaders often deliver an experience that enriches people’s social and professional lives. More so than the associations and unions that are supposed to serve them. These are our leaders of the future.
Newspaper and local online
The Local Onliner shared some great tidbits this week from the Inland Press Association (IPA) meeting:
Most newspaper Web sites have been focused on driving new audiences, but McClatchy sees a gold mine in its existing print circulation. How many local media outlets have 40 percent penetration in this age of fragmentation? [McClatchy] noted that 70 percent of the print audience never touches the Web site in a 30 day period.
And I like this approach to forming strategic alliances:
As for forming partnerships with various Internet players, Hendricks [McClatchy executive] is all for them. You can’t look at these people as enemies, because they are the environment, he says.
Finally, some interesting details from Boston.com about local online:
Also speaking at IPA, and again, fully blogged by Owens, was Bob Kempf from Boston.com. I’ve written extensively about his efforts, but Kempf reveals new details of research showing why Boston.com is focusing on becoming a local information hub (watch out Yellow Pages!). Only one in three users and one of five non-users are happy with their current options for finding local information, he says. But access to local information doubles the likelihood that non-users will visit Boston.com. The research also found that 50 percent of users like the idea of getting all their information in one place.
I’ve heard from many Front Porch Forum subscribers that they love turning to their neighbors for a wide variety of local needs through their forum.
I know community when I see it
What, exactly, is community? Can you define “neighbor?” The guy next door? Sure. Around the corner? Maybe. Turns out academics have been debating such questions for some time.
Kevin Harris’ blog pointed me to an article by Margarethe Kusenbach about such matters in Symbolic Interaction. Here’s her abstract:
This article investigates the practices and functions of neighboring. It is based on interviews and “go-alongs” with over sixty residents and on ethnographic observation of two middle-class neighborhoods in Hollywood, California. Building on Lofland’s (1998) model of three social realms (the public, the parochial, and the private), I conceptualize neighboring as a set of interactive principles that characterize parochial or communal territories such as neighborhoods. I discuss four distinct patterns in detail: friendly recognition, parochial helpfulness, proactive intervention, and embracing and contesting diversity. While integrating previous research and theorizing on neighboring, the article contributes to the continuing debate in sociology over what constitutes community.
So, while we have Kevin in London bringing some U.S. research to light, Lloyd Shepherd recently listed U.S.-based Front Porch Forum on his blog from London… ahh the internet. Thanks Lloyd!
Smalltown and i-neighbors going places
Smalltown.com landed $3M in new funds recently to ramp up it’s model of local online. Peter Krasilovsky reports:
Smalltown [is] an IYP site with social aspects via reviews, calendars and (now) Top 10 lists. Five months after launching SME-oriented sites in San Mateo and Burlingame, Smalltown has announced three new Bay Area locales, added video uploads, hired a VP of Sales, and begun a Google campaign.
This is a very interesting effort:
Usage-wise, Rucker says he’s got 3.5 percent of the launched communities visiting on a weekly basis. About 1.8 percent have registered, which gives them the right to review sites, etc. Rucker is aiming for a registered base of three percent.
After six months, Front Porch Forum has about 17% of Burlington, VT registered.
And I just heard that i-neighbors has a new version of their service up and running, although I don’t have any details.
U-G-L-Y Bloggers have no Alibi
Winner of the Vermont-bloggers-are-not-the-most-photogenic-lot essay contest? Philip Baruth, hands down:
Never have so many wonderful people, filled with so many lovely ideas, produced so many aesthetically questionable photographs.
And did he really have to include so much damning evidence to make his case? Seven snapshots and 677 words… I can mount no defense… guilty as charged.
P.S. It was a great event:
In no particular order, we had a full Seven Days contingent, with Freyne and Resmer (as well as mini-Resmer); the men of Green Mountain Daily (J.D. Ryan, Jack McCullough), as well as an erstwhile man of GMD, Odum; Neil Jensen and unflappable friend Oliver; Charity Tensel and Haik Bedrosian; the reclusive Yusef; Jason Lorber and Max, his extremely cool son; Michael Wood-Lewis, of the Front Porch Forum; Bill Simmon, who kicked off the event with a spontaneous Youtube seminar; and many more.
Outside.In attracts $1M (almost)
Peter Krasilovsky reports today:
Outside.In, the place-blogging site that collects everything that appears on the Web in a geographical context – blogs, traditional media, individual contributions — has won $900,000 of funding… The money will allow the the three co-founders to expand to a staff of ten, add new resources, including a “meet your neighbors” section, and expand internationally. The site currently serves 63 cities and 3,217 neighborhoods.
I’m intrigued by Outside.In. If I understand the site, it attempts to tame the flood of information available on the web (or at least some of it) by lining it up according to place. I’ve tried to register this blog on their system for Burlington, VT and it says I was successful, but then I can’t find any mention of it… I must be missing something.
But more important than my incompetence as a visitor (I wonder how many non-techies will embrace this site?), I looked at some places where I’ve lived in the past that are also well-established Outside.In locations and I’m left with conflicting reactions… (A) wow, cool vs. (B) too much… make it stop! I absorb a lot of media on any given day… not as much as your average hyper-blogger, but way more than most of the John Does I know. And what I’ve seen on Outside.In is a good start, but the information has not been tamed enough. Makes me feel like someone left the tap running. So I should take another look to understand it better.
The Local Onliner goes on to say:
Union Square’s Fred Wilson [one of the investors], in a press release, presents an interesting hypothesis about his latest investment. “The best Web services are two-way systems. They take content in, add something to it, and then send it back out. YouTube works this way. So do Delicious and Flickr. To date, we haven’t seen such a service for local information online. Outside.in will hopefully fill that void.”
Front Porch Forum does this at a neighborhood level with neighbors’ words. We’ve taken in thousands of postings, added value, and put them back out to our neighborhood forums.
On his blog, Wilson has more: “Look at the advertisers who populate the local paper, the Yellow Pages, and the local radio stations. They need a place to go online and when they find it, the dollars that will flow are large, very large. Clearly search will get a big piece of that pie (search always does), but the killer local service is one that can serve the residents and the merchants of a city, town, and neighborhood the way the local paper has in the past.”
We plan to test our sponsorship program in Burlington, Vermont this month. Initial reaction from our members (17% of the city subscribed in our first six months) is encouraging. Those I’ve spoken with don’t see the messages from sponsors as advertising, rather just another message about their neighborhood or side of town. Can I be hopeful and skeptical at the same time?
Monthly Sampler: Neighborhood Poker Game
So I tried listing a week’s worth of message titles a couple times (here and here), and now a month and nearly 2,000 new messages have slipped by… too many to list. Let’s go with some samples of what Front Porch Forum members wrote in February:
Let’s get a neighborhood poker game started in the King Maple area of Burlington.- Dog lost in the big box parking lots. Dog found!
- Did anyone else’s propane price go up nearly 50% last month in Hinesburg?
- Warm maple-cinnamon buns delivered to your Charlotte home for school fundraiser.
- New baby coming and hand-me-downs needed in the Five Sisters.
- Lots of ideas discussed for underutilized corner store space on St. Paul Street.
- Neighbors stepping up to reclaim ailing pocket park at S. Winooski and St. Paul.
- Seeking kombucha tea culture… I have no idea what this is.
- Snowpants needed for Somali Bantu kids sledding this week.
- Details of emergencies sent to specific neighborhoods from Burlington Fire Department.
- Discussion about changing Barlow Street to one-way in Winooski.
- Intervale car break-ins reported and discussed.
- South End car ransacker nabbed; police ask forum members to reclaim recovered loot.
- The usual array of housing, cars, furniture, contractor, etc. postings.
- Free couch, iMac, printers, linens, baby stuff, desk, slip cover, ficus plant, misc. electronics, etc.
- Lots of discussions about broadband and TV options across the county.
- Lots of Town Meeting lead-up announcements and opinions.
- Lots and lots snow-related requests, offers, complaints and thanks.
- Oh… and there’s always cats. This month’s tip… look under your porch after a blizzard. Several folks found snowed-in kitties eager to get out, get fed and get warm!
Build Igloo for Chocolate… before it’s too late!
A group of Lakeside Neighborhood Forum members in Burlington’s South End recently formed the Lakeside Climate Club… or something to that effect. They gather to take a hard look at global climate change and discuss a personal and neighborhood response.
But this group isn’t letting a little cataclysmic manmade disaster get in the way of some fun. Witness their first action… a neighborhood igloo building contest… “before it’s too late!” I love it.
And the kicker, all neighborhood participants (kids and adults) will get a treat from neighboring Lake Champlain Chocolates, with the grand champion carting home something even better from this favorite local sponsor… a chocolate polar bear? Have to wait until Sunday’s judging to see, I guess (March 4 at noon).
And this isn’t the only neighborhood group forming locally to address global climate change. Others in the South Union, Five Sisters, The Addition, and Lakewood Neighborhood Forums have met at least once. Some are using a program called the Low Carbon Diet from the Empowerment Institute.
In fact, my wife just told me that we’re hosting the second meeting of just such a group in our neighborhood this weekend… but, alas, no mention of igloos or chocolate. Gotta work on that.
Anyone in Chittenden County interested in getting something going in his/her neighborhood, it’s simple… post a notice on your neighborhood forum, hold a first meeting/social event, and get rolling. Use the Low Carbon Diet, watch Al Gore’s award-winning movie, or forge your own path.
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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