American Towns update
Peter Krasilovsky offers some interesting points about American Towns current status. Worth a read.
Civic Engagement… the new black
Civic engagement is all the rage. I addressed three different state-wide gatherings about the topic in the past week alone! Front Porch Forum is a long-term civic engagement catalyst and accelerator.
The concept goes by many names (see “public engagement” below), but mark my words, this will be THE NEXT BIG THING for nonprofits, academics, government [...]
Jeff Jarvis takes on “hyper local”
Jeff Jarvis blogged about his latest ideas in “hyper local”… some interesting points, including the comments. Here’s Bob Wyman…
The obvious question is: “Why isn’t Front Porch Forum integrated into the BurlingtonFreePress.com site or the sites of the New York Times, WSJ or other newspapers that serve those in your community?”…
Community Policing and Front Porch Forum
The Burlington Police Dept. is stepping up its community policing efforts, the Burlington Free Press reported today, including this bit…
Some officers are already reaching out. Officer Mike Hemond, for example, posted a message on the Front Porch Forum for the Five Sisters area, providing a link to the department’s Web site, updating residents on graffiti [...]
Douglas Rushkoff Goes Local
Glad to see another of our society’s megaphone holders catching on to the importance of local. Douglas Rushkoff’s new book, Life, Inc., apparently gives corporatism the once over and realizes that we’re in kinda deep. Okay.
Further, he prescribes turning real and local as a solution. Here’s a quote from Scott Heiferman’s review…
84. instead of reconnecting [...]
Housefire Damage Limited by Good Neighbors
On Front Porch Forum in Burlington’s Old North End today…
Hello Neighbors! We wanted to thank everyone who saw our home on Pitkin Street catch fire and called it in. Nobody was home and, thankfully, you were there. Thanks especially to [those who went] out of their way to contact us that night. There was so [...]
In tough economic times people invest in community
Local traditional media could write a story like the one below from the Washington Post. Vermonters are flooding into Front Porch Forum to help connect with neighbors and build community at the neighborhood level. The harsher the economic climate, the more folks look for shelter by investing in community.
In Recession, Some See Burst of ‘Neighboring’
Tough [...]
Local Information Tools Assume Local Engagement
Mark Glaser and Paul Lamb each blogged about online community information hubs recently. Good discussion in the comments of both postings. Here’s my response to Paul’s piece…
U.S. local communities are suffering from a lack of engagement and a decline in social connections… people are not as involved locally as they used to be and they [...]
Civic engagement: Terminology and Groups
Clips from Funding and Fostering Local Democracy by Matt Leighninger. First, on language… how many ways can you say “civic engagement?”
Civic synonyms
In common usage, “deliberation and democratic governance”
= active citizenship
= deliberative democracy
= citizen involvement
= citizen-centered work
= public engagement
= citizen participation
= public dialogue
= collaborative governance
= public deliberation
Different people define these terms in different ways – and [...]
New Report: Funding and Fostering Local Democracy
From Pete Peterson of Common Sense California…
The DDC (Deliberative Democracy Consortium) has worked with PACE (Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement) to develop “Funding and Fostering Local Democracy,” a guide designed to help the philanthropic community grapple with the question of how to support innovative and effective forms of democratic governance. The guide provides a detailed [...]