Posts Tagged ‘community-citizen engagement’

Should you be using the Front Porch Forum? Or will Facebook Work?

March 11th, 2011

Yesterday, I highlighted the Front Porch Forum as a great example of a social media tool that facilitates the growth of community.  Initiated before the rise of online social networking, the tool enables neighbors to connect with each other via online forums. 

Here’s a video with its founder, Michael Wood-Lewis describing how it works.

(source: “Front Porch Forum Helps Build Community – One Neighborhood at a Time,” Champlain Initiative, Youtube, Sept. 4, 2009)

In the video, Michael describes how the Front Porch Forum is different from other forums of social media, like Facebook, which brings up an interesting question: Should you be using the Front Porch Forum instead of Facebook?  

Which tool should you use?

Regular readers know that I regularly encourage rural communities to use Facebook as a tool to create a sense of community among residents and to reach out to people who care about the community but might have moved away.  In many ways, I’m recommending that people try to showcase the authentic relationships that already exist in rural communities in a way that helps market the community. 

The Front Porch Forum is different in that it is designed for local uses only.  People have to live in the neighborhood in order to participate.  It is also different in that its central purpose is to increase face-to-face interaction among residents.   For instance, Erik Filkorn, from Richmond, Vermont, is quoted in a Yankee Magazine article saying: 

The real feedback loop is on the main street of town. You’ll be coming out of the store and someone will say, ‘Hey Erik, I saw the thing you wrote. Here’s what I think.’ You’re not just creating an avatar and hanging out in a singles bar in Second Life–not that I would do that. But this is very much grounded in the flesh-and-blood community.” (source:  “Vermont: Neighbors and Online Networks Local networks are bringing people together in Vermont,” Bill McKibben, Yankee Magazine, March/April 2010)

That type of face-to-face interaction is possible on Facebook, but I doubt its common.   

It’s about your goals

I think there is value in both approaches.  If your goal is increase the face-to-face interaction among local residents, the Front Porch Forum approach will better facilitate conversation among local residents, leading to greater face-to-face interaction.  If your goals also include connecting with people who have moved away from your community and people who might be interested in moving to your community, then maybe Facebook is your tool.  There’s no perfect answer. 

The point is, be clear about your goals first.  If you are, you have a much greater chance of success

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Quality of Life, Rural | Comments (1)

Front Porch Forum: Building Community

March 9th, 2011

A while back, a friend told me about an experience he had with his granddaughter and texting.  He was taking her and a friend on a shopping trip.  Except for the occasional giggle, his granddaughter and her friend sat in silence in the backseat.  Instead of talking, they were texting. 

My friend found this disturbing.  “How will they ever learn social skills if all they ever do is text each other?”  I chuckled and replied he should be thankful.  After all, he wouldn’t really want to know what they were talking about. 

Many people who resist technology think of it as a tool that disconnects people from each other.  In other words, people are becoming less social because they are spending time on their computers or using their phones for texting. If true, it would serve as another reminder of the decline of community life.  (see Bowling Alone for evidence of the decline in social capital)

For the most part, I disagree with this line of thinking.  And I’d like to lift up the Front Porch Forum as a case in point. 

How connected are we in our small towns? 

In 1998, Michael Wood-Lewis and his wife Valerie moved to Burlington, VT, a community of 42,417 residents. They looked forward to meeting their neighbors and participating in community events, like neighborhood picnics and other social events.  Unfortunately, neither was forthcoming.

In an interview on the Orton Family Foundation blog, Michael acknowledged that they have great neighbors.  They are friendly and caring.  But they are also busy, making it difficult for newcomers to experience a sense of community. 

In response to these difficulties, Michael created the Front Porch Forum.  Launched in the pre-Facebook days, the Forum makes use of “forum” technology as a means for helping neighbors “connect and foster community within the neighborhood.” Once a resident becomes a member, they are able to participate in a neighborhood forum by posting comments and questions about their specific neighborhood.  Members also receive e-mail updates highlighting what’s going on within the forum. 

Why do people participate?

People participate out of self-interest.  They want to know if anyone else heard the strange noise made late in the evening.  Was it a burglar?  They want to share their approval or disapproval with local city and school officials, just as they would in face-to-face conversation.  And they want to ask their neighbors for help.  Has anyone seen a missing cat or dog?

I discovered a great example of this in action in a NewGeography article titled “Online Neighborhood:  The Front Porch Forum.”  Written by Pete Peterson, it told the story of Sharon Owens who was trying to organize a canoe outing for her daughter’s birthday.  Afraid that she wouldn’t be able to rent the necessary canoes due to cost, she turned to The Front Porch Forum with a request for canoes.  Her neighbors responded with all the canoes she needed.

 I find it interesting, however, that something else emerged out of Owen’s self-interest:  she developed new relationships with her neighbors, which in turn led to a stronger sense of community.  She is quoted in the NewGeography article saying:

Not only did my daughter have a great birthday and I saved a couple hundred dollars, but now I have a genuine connection to a half-dozen neighbors. Why didn’t I know these good people years ago?”  (source: “Online Neighborhood: The Front Porch Forum ,” Pete Peterson, New Geography, Oct. 21, 2009)      

This example points out that people are social creatures.  We want to know and trust the people we live around. But life sometimes gets in the way.  While many forms of technology, like the automobile, have hindered human interaction, online social technologies like The Front Porch Forum can increase it.  The conversations that start online can and often are extended offline in real life situations. 

Technology can build community

The next time you hear negative talk about social technologies, I hope you will think of the Front Porch Forum.  And better yet, think about how your rural community can build a conversation online that leads to deeper conversation in face-to-face settings. 

If you do, I think your rural community will become a better place to live.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Rural | Comments (4)

Community-Citizens Engagement

February 12th, 2009

When first I read the Knight Foundation’s report “Soul of the Community,” I was unfamiliar with the term “community-citizen engagement.”  As I wrote about it, however, I became more interested in understanding what they meant by it.

I suppose the short definition is that community-citizen engagement means that a community’s citizens are engaged within their community.  That seems pretty simple.  And the report’s claim that communities with higher engagement have stronger economies makes sense to me:  after all, when community members give their time and effort, the community becomes stronger.

But the Soul of the Community report offers a more robust definition.  The report states that “Community-citizen engagement is the psychological connection and commitment residents have with the community in which they live,” and that it consists of two parts loyalty and passion.

The report goes on to recommend how communities can build community-citizen engagement.  I’d highly recommend that anyone interested in community development check this information out!

I’d like to highlight one recommendation, however, that I feel is particularly important for rural communities;  “Connect students with businesses while in school through internships, community ties, problem solving, etc.”

Yes, if you’re a regular reader of our blog, this should sound familiar.  It’s great to hear that advice come from elsewhere.

Other ReImagineRural posts on engaging Gen Y

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, Economic Development, Gen Y, Rural, Youth | Comments (0)

The Soul of the Community — Community-Citizen Engagement

February 10th, 2009

Economic development professionals often focus solely on job development.  The more jobs created the greater likelihood the community as a whole will judge their job performance a success. A study of 26 communities by the Knight Foundation, however, suggests that economic growth is linked to residents’ loyalty, emotional attachment and engagement to a community.  This suggests that how people feel about their community should be a measure of an economic development professional’s job performance. 

Funded by the John S. and John L. Knight Foundation and conducted by Gallup Inc., the study measured residents’ emotional connection to their community and found a direct correlation to the community’s gross domestic product (GDP).  In other words, the greater the attachment people have towards their community, the greater the community’s economic growth (as measured by GDP).

The following video offers a brief summary.


 

While I definitely believe the Knight Foundation is onto something big, I want to caution that so far they’ve only shown a correlation between community engagement and GDP.  Over the next two years, they intend to “analyze the trends to prove whether emotional connection drives economic growth, or the other way around”(from foundation’s press release ”How much do you love where you live?”).

I’d also like to be clear that community and economic development professionals can’t neglect job creation strategies altogether.  Job development and community engagement need to go hand-in-hand.

The Knight Foundation has published the results of this study on a website titled “The Soul of the Community.”  I intend to dig into the research further and will report back.  Until then, I’ve summarized a few of the studies main points, which were highlighted in the foundation’s press release.  

Other Key Points of the study

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, Economic Development, In the News, Quality of Life, Rural | Comments (1)