Ghost of Midnight

This just in from a South Burlington neighborhood forum…
The [neighborhood] Pumpkin Contest will be held this Sunday, October 28 at 4pm.  The contest is held in Monkey Park.  Bring a pumpkin ready to show (already carved), a candle and flashlight to get home safely.  There will be light refreshments (cider and doughnuts) and prizes for [...]

I just learned from TechCrunch that Judy’s Book is dead…
We just got word from Judy’s Book founder and CEO Andy Sacks that the Seattle startup will be shutting down operations, and most of the staff of twelve was let go today. The company had raised a total of $10.5 million over two rounds of financing. [...]

Bob Tedeschi wrote in the New York Times today about LifeAt, meettheneighbors.org and i-neighbors.org… three services taking aim at online social networking for neighbors.  About LifeAt (see my recent post)…
Matthew Goldstein, LifeAt’s chief operating officer, said the company is only now completing its advertising strategy. For now, the company, based in Brooklyn, is surviving on [...]

An interesting article in the Business 2.0 finale this month about Marchex.
Marchex CEO Russell Horowitz is launching websites for thousands of cities, big and small. The play? To beat Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo to the punch in connecting businesses to nearby customers.
With smart people, powerful tools, and hundreds of millions of dollars behind it, I’m [...]

Neighbors have plenty of cause to get organized.  One Burlington neighborhood nearly had its zoning changed by a last minute political move to allow lots to be subdivided… potentially a big deal for residents.
One neighbor got wind of it and posted a message… “contact our city councilors ASAP!”  That message was published to about 100 [...]

This is a compelling program and Front Porch Forum will participate…
Voices for the Lake Brainstorming Forums
-Tuesday, Oct. 30th - 9:30 to 2:30 @ ECHO
-Monday, Nov. 12th - 9:30 to 2:30 @ ECHO
-Saturday, Nov. 17th - 9:30 to 2:30 @ Champlain College’s Hauke Family Campus Center
600,000 people CAN make a difference!  How do you get thousands [...]

Interesting article in the New York Times by Louise Story today about how varied website traffic stats are… depends on who’s counting and how.
Online advertising is expected to generate more than $20 billion in revenue this year, more than double the $9.6 billion it represented as recently as 2004. Nobody doubts that the figure will [...]

Awards are great, but comments about Front Porch Forum from a member carry even more weight for me.  So when I asked one of our longest-running members, a stranger to me, for constructive feedback today after helping her with a tech question, I was left with a BIG smile on my face by her response…
I [...]

Again from Greg Sterling about CitySquares…

The Boston-based local site has added many familiar “Web 2.0″ features and introduced a new design, which I like on first blush. It offers more participation, photos (with Flickr), profiles, events (Zvents), local news (Topix), Virtual Earth map integration and personalization… Nonetheless it’s a nice redesign, with clear navigation and [...]

Greg Sterling writes today about social networks as a way to cut through the tangle of information on the web…
Community is something of an antidote to these phenomena. Community has definite limitations and flaws but it also offers a way to navigate the sea of too many choices online.
We’ve been talking about this with Front [...]