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Friday, August 18, 2006
Front Porch Forum
Wrote a story this week about Front Porch Forum. It's a free, neighborhood email newsletter service run by Burlington resident Michael Wood-Lewis.
Wood-Lewis started Front Porch Forum in his own neighborhood, the Five Sisters section of Burlington's South End. It's apparently been highly successful there — check out this mention in Cottage Living Magazine — so he's now expanded it to include all the neighborhoods in Chittenden County.
It's an interesting concept, though I wonder how well it'll take off in places like, um, Winooski, where I live. I would love to use it to communicate with my neighbors, but I have no energy to promote it. Beyond, you know, writing an article in the paper and mentioning it on my blog.
August 18, 2006 at 10:11 AM in House Rules | Permalink
Comments
Front Porch Forum is a good idea but they need to let the technology cook a while longer. I don't want to be too harsh here because they seem like really nice people and and they're my neighbors and everything, but seriously, the experience I had signing up to my local forum was very frustrating for dumb little reasons.
Their website says they've been doing a "successful model" for six years, but I had a really tough time signing up. For instance, there was no way for me to tell what addresses are covered by what forums. The interface only lets you type in your address, not look at maps or anything. According to that interface, my address is not covered by any FPF, but I actually do belong (now - I was signed up automatically somehow) to the "Oakledge" forum (probably due to my earlier thwarted attempt to sign up). Still, if I go to the home page and type in my address right now, it tells me I'm not covered.
I'd like to see the GoogleMaps interface available to all site visitors--right now you can only see the neighborhood outlines if you are already a forum member (as far as I can tell). The names of the various forums aren't specific enough (I would have thought I'd be in the Flynn-Pine-Home forum rather than the Oakledge forum judging just by the name).
In order for this to be successful, it needs to be VERY easy to join and it needs to be really useful. As it is, its just a series of tiny listservs that are hard to get on. I think the one I'm on has like three members (I understand it's brand new and will get bigger). I'd like to be able to read the other neighborhood forums too. The folks in the Five Sisters area are my neighbors just as much as the people in the Southwind condos.
I want to reinterate that I love the idea of using the internet in this way and I'm really happy the FPF folks have done it at all, but it doesn't seem terribly easy or useful to me yet. I wonder if starting a series of separate lists was the right move. Perhaps just expanding the already-successful five sisters list to include more south end streets would have been better, critical mass and all that. Perhaps all it needs is a little time to gestate. It does say "beta" after all.
Posted by: Bill Simmon | Aug 18, 2006 1:57:09 PM
Cathy did a great job of capturing what the Five Sisters neighborhood has done with its Neighborhood Forum and what we're attempting to accomplish with Front Porch Forum across Chittenden County. So, thanks Cathy.
Bill raises several points in his post and offers valued feedback. So, thanks too to Bill. First, we tried but can't replicate his registration problems, so hopefully the technical issues have been resolved (we've learned much during our beta phase). Bill and hundreds of other Burlington-area people are successfully registered now. Feedback is always welcomed.
As the testimonials from the nearly 300 members of the Five Sisters Neighborhood Forum indicate, our concept has worked great there. We hope to replicate it far and wide. One of the underpinnings of our success is the concept of limiting access to only folks who live within each Neighborhood Forum area. That is, each forum is just for the neighbors who live there. And every posting is automatically signed with full name and street address. The idea is to get to know the people around you... online, but, more importantly, out on the sidewalk and in the park. This has happened in the Five Sisters and is starting to happen in some other early successes (several Neighborhood Forums attracted more than a dozen neighbors in their first few days). In order for a Neighborhood Forum to succeed,the people who live there will need to step up and recruit their neighbors and then make good use of it.
This is a different use of the internet than we've seen elsewhere. It's worked surprisingly well in one place. Let's see if we can make a go of it in others! Most folks report that the registration process takes less than two minutes... give it a try!
Posted by: Michael Wood-Lewis | Aug 18, 2006 9:24:27 PM
Hi Michael,
Thanks for not taking my criticisms personally. I am behind your efforts 100%.
So, I figured out the problem is with address specificity. I tried several different approaches. My address is:
80 Austin Drive
#163
Burlington
It's the #163 that seems to throw it off. 80 Austin Drive refers to Ledgewood condominiums, but there a couple of hundred addresses there. So anyone typing in their Ledgewood address would get a "no match found" result. I tried a couple of times changing "drive" to "dr." and messing with letter cases before I tried dropping the "#163." I suspect most users would just get frustrated and give up, but maybe not.
Please try it and tell me I'm not crazy.
Also, this is just one man's opinion, but I do think the neighborhoods are too small. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong in practice. I'm eager to find out.
As I said in the comment, a front page googlemaps interface showing the outlines of the different forum coverage areas would not only be useful, but it would also just be cool, and I suspect it wouldn't be that difficult to do.
Anyway, keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing what shows up in my inbox.
Posted by: Bill Simmon | Aug 19, 2006 12:02:21 AM
I've known about the Five Sisters Neighborhood Forum for a few years now and am excited that the Front Porch Forum has come to fruition and expanded to include all of Chittenden County. Even though it is a beta site, it is pretty well put together. Beta versions are an intermediate step in the development cycle where bugs can be reported/fixed and features can be added/removed.
I think the FPF is a good way to meet folks in your neighborhood, short of walking door to door and introducing yourself. It's a great way to break the ice when you see one of your neighbors. "Hi, I'm Peter. Hi, I'm Basil. Oh, you posted that note on the Front Porch Forum. Nice to put a face to the name..."
While the forum is great for neighborhood-specific news and chatter, one feature I'm sure that is requested alot is to be able to tap into other neighborhood forums, or at least surrounding neighborhood forums.
Great job with the site so far Michael. FPF is a welcome addition to the web.
Posted by: Basil Vansuch | Aug 21, 2006 1:16:25 PM
AL GORE'S "AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH" COMES TO UU THE FIRST WEEK IN OCTOBER
Through VT Interfaith Power and Light, this powerful
film about climate change will be shown FREE twice during the
first week of October by the Social Action Ministry of the UU Church at the top of Church Street, Burlington
Wednesday October 4 at 7:00 in the Community Room downstairs and
Friday October 6 at 7:00 p.m. in The Parlors. Child-care provided in the Community Room.
. Discussion will follow each
showing, based on topics and questions suggested by Climate Crisis, the
organization sponsoring this free distribution to churches all over the country.
In the discussions following the film there will be opportunities to
actually do something effective at a personal level about the
greenhouse-gas emissions whose devastating effects are already being
felt all over the world: the Empowerment Institute (formerly the
Global Action Plan), thru their 'eco-team' approach, has helped
thousands of people to make significant cuts in carbon emissions (and
the money they spend because of them); this is a group-process called the "Low Carbon Diet" using a workbook, in which
households support each other over a 30-day period in taking a number of
'action-steps' which cut C02 (the steps are suggested by the Institute
.
At the film-discussions, there will be an opportunity to form eco-teams of 5-8 households each to pilot this process for VT. The eco-team process embodied in the "Low Carbon Diet" has
been tested in Portland, Oregon and found very effective, cutting these households' carbon dioxide emissions by 22%.
For more info, contact Wes Sanders 355-5278
Posted by: Wes Sanders | Oct 3, 2006 9:43:20 PM
FOUND IN MIDDLE OF SOUTH COVE ROAD, VICINITY OF # 240 on New Year's afternoon: Pair of tan women's , Thinsulate-lined gloves which may have fallen from a moving car.
Posted by: David Babbott | Jan 2, 2007 6:54:05 PM
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