Here’s how Google’s Krishna Bharat put it in Fallows’ piece…

… he said that what astonished him was the predictable and pack-like response of most of the world’s news outlets to most stories. Or, more positively, how much opportunity he saw for anyone who was willing to try a different approach.

The Google News front page is a kind of air-traffic-control center for the movement of stories across the world’s media, in real time. “Usually, you see essentially the same approach taken by a thousand publications at the same time,” he told me. “Once something has been observed, nearly everyone says approximately the same thing.” He didn’t mean that the publications were linking to one another or syndicating their stories. Rather, their conventions and instincts made them all emphasize the same things. This could be reassuring, in indicating some consensus on what the “important” stories were. But Bharat said it also indicated a faddishness of coverage—when Michael Jackson dies, other things cease to matter—and a redundancy that journalism could no longer afford. “It makes you wonder, is there a better way?” he asked. “Why is it that a thousand people come up with approximately the same reading of matters? Why couldn’t there be five readings? And meanwhile use that energy to observe something else, equally important, that is currently being neglected.” He said this was not a purely theoretical question. “I believe the news industry is finding that it will not be able to sustain producing highly similar articles.”

Moderating Front Porch Forum in our region while monitoring the local media in our corner of Vermont, I can share that “tonight’s top stories,” as decided by local professional editors, don’t always align with what neighbors are discussing on FPF.  Indeed, a service like FPF is a great way to uncover the other hundred stories that don’t get picked up by traditional local media.

Original post: Regrettably, the Knight News Challenge judges weren’t swayed by Front Porch Forum’s proposal enough to take us beyond the second round of judging this year.  We’re glad that we made it into the top 10% of thousands of project ideas from around the globe, but it’s tough to take “no” nonetheless.

1, 2, 3… deep breath… okay, enough of that… onward and upward.  Lots of other irons in the fire, not to mention the our daily work of meeting the needs of our 17,000 subscribers back home (which include nearly half of our dear state’s largest city!).  These are exciting times for FPF… more good news to come soon.

And… the comments coming in on the Knight News Challenge website pack their own punch.  Here’s a sample…

• twitter, twotter, facebook, oh bother… I think most of social media is a grand waste of time (and, yes, I’ve read what the fanboys say). this proposal above, though, sounds genuine… gets my vote
• It IS genuine – I’m a loyal user and it’s changed my neighborhood and our quality of life!
• Front Porch Forum has fundamentally changed my ability to be in touch with my town, its happenings, and its institutions. It could easily do the same for other communities.
• The comment I hear most often about FPF in my community is, “I love it!” FPF has greatly invigorated the spirit of connectedness in my town.
• I know this service from its pilot in Vermont and it’s more impressive than they let on. This would be a better country if every neighborhood and small town had access to a Front Porch Forum.
• I actually feel more secure knowing that this communications tool exists. It’s another crucial element of balance in this expanding, globalizing society, akin to the localvore/regional food system movement – it’s about bringing it home, discovering and recognizing the deep, rich resources we have right in our own neighborhoods. I am so grateful to Michael and his team!
• I live in a suburban area where Front Porch Forum has increased the connection between neighbors who seldom see one another during a normal work week. I also work in a very rural area – the Champlain Islands – where communication between neighbors is often difficult. The arrival of Front Porch Forum was greeted with excitement and its use is increasing daily. FPF is a tremendous asset to both kinds of communities.
• FPF dos let us know about what is going on in the neighboring blocks. It is an added security tool, and great for finding lost bikes and dogs, and where to borrow equipment.
• The ice is ready on Gillette Pond!! We’re organizing materials to go to Haiti! I lost my dog…need to borrow a rototiller/posthole digger/buy and share a lawnmower…come to a potluck/interested in doing yoga together? carpool needed ..I LOVE FPF…especially in these hectic (and here in VT,in the winter, frigid) times it’s often difficult to connect with our neighbors-it’s been an amazing resource. We have no local daily paper and houses can be far apart. FPF builds and reinforces comunity.
• In these times of relative isolation, even in our own neighborhoods, Front Porch Forum provides an easy convenient way to connect in many ways.
• Front Porch Forum is an awesome grass roots tool. It helps to get information that you may not see in the usual places out to people in an expedited manner. It also allows people to make connections and ask questions they may not be able to address in other ways.
• The forum has changed the small town that I live in by allowing us to connect to one another, spread the word about local government and school issues, save money, recyle, and inform the community about upcoming events, all while being free and easy to use. PLEASE consider providing one of your grants to this amazing project so that it can spread to even more rural Vermont!!
• I was lucky enough to hear a personal proposal from Michael. His product deals directly with a issue that communities are facing, closed doors and no interaction with neighbors. When I was growing up the neighborhood helped raise the kids. Neighbors watched out for neighbors and if someone’s child was doing wrong the parents knew about it before the child got home. We live in a “sue crazy” society where people are afraid to interact with other people for fear of repercussion. This helps bridge a communication gap between neighbors and leads to handshakes on the property lines and beyond.
• Those of us in the Rural Communities of Vermont wait patiently for access to Front Porch Forum. We are faced we the emergent need to build social capital and cultivate resilient neighborhoods…FPF has proven to do exactly this, time and time agian. Help us spread the :I’m working with my community on a downtown revitalization project, and Front Porch Forum is helping us reach a significant number of people who care about what is happening close to home and want to get involved. The momentum we are creating is magnified in significant ways by FPF….as an added bonus, FPF helped me find my cat.
• FPF is just the very best thing that happened in my neighborhood. I work at home and FPF has allowed me to know more people in my neighborhood, and to find help I need for work, as well as services for my personal life. I would be lost without it.
• I save comments from time to time. Even find out that there are neighbors available for work such as electricians,plumbers and yes the fundraisers are very important. I enjoy being kept abreast of community functions from all venues. I am retired now and expect to participate even more in FPF. I know many people all over our small state and would find this an excellent tool for keeping contacts active. As it turns out our statewide newspaper does not do a very good job at the local level..
• Our neighborhood is much more connected since joining FPF. A wonderful way to interact, post requests, respond to others, keep aware of relevant events & issues.
• FPF is an incredible community-building tool – especially in the depths of Vermont’s winter! And what’s surprised me is how effective it has been at using technology to develop in-person relationships… invariably conversations that start on the forum continue on our real front porches.
• Hi – Vermont is a very rural state and everything that we can do to foster a better sense of Community is vital. FPF helps to fill that gap for both folks that are in their communities all tha time and also for folks who work full time and don’t always hear the latest news right away. It’s a way to stay conencted and cultivates a feeling of belonging that everyone needs to stay psotitve and healthy! I would just love to see FPF receive the funds to get the upgrades they need!
• Front Porch Forum has done so much to help me get to know my small community.
• I find Front Porch Forum a great way to reach people who otherwise tend to avoid traditional media outlets. I work for public library and reach many of our community members by posting to the Forum. I’ve also found it a great help personally — I found my cat sitter, located an owner for a lost pet, and helped a friend get rid of her piano through the Forum.
• There’s no question that FPF has increased civic participation and interest in our region. Our city councilors can let us know about important government meetings affecting our neighborhood; neighbors can describe concerns with development proposals; people announce house meetings to meet candidates. But there are also just neighborly interactions, too — like finding out that a higher schooler down the block is selling taking orders for poinsettias for a fund-raiser, or that someone is willing to pick up unused canning jars. There’s nothing like FPF anywhere. But there should be!!
• I live in a very small town, but am often surprised at happenings, events and information I miss out on because I hadn’t read or heard about it in time. Neighbors and friends I’ve shown the website to agree…this would be a huge asset to our community, and I look forward to the day FPF heads South to my neck of the woods…
• I’ve lived in the same corner of Vermont for 40 years. Although I used to know everyone on the road, the area has gone through rapid change. I’ve met many new neighbors through FPF, first electronically and then in person. I’d like to see its capabilities expanded so it could be used for coordinating rides from outlying towns into Burlington.
• As an elected official, FPF helps me connect with constituents to get out important info and to learn what’s important in each neighborhood in my town. It has the power to revolutionize local gov’t. Now, if only I could figure out how to rate this project the “5″ it deserves. My computer isn’t able to click on the stars, which I presume is how one does so. Please post instructions for using your rating system. Thank you!
• FPF is “hyper-local” done right. Its model of connecting neighbors is both effective and scaleable. This service brings people together face to face more than any online community or social network can. It is the builder of neighborhood block parties, the coordinator of PTA meeetings. In an era where many of us are losing touch with our local government, FPF is rebuilding those bridges in ways they never existed before.
• FPF has fostered a sense of pride in our neighborhood, helped us support our neighbors, and has resolved issues such as traffic, pets off of leashes, etc. It really makes our neighborhood a much happier, safer, and friendlier place to live.
• Hearing the things I have about FPF – and I’ve heard glowing reviews from more than one source – makes me wish that FPF would expand into our area (Washington DC). While our neighbors all seem to be friendly and get along well, it is difficult to make real connections. I think FPF could help with that.
• FPF has the potential to connect people in a way that the virtual Front Porch Forum becomes an actual front porch gathering of neighbors. The value this adds to the community is immeasurable.
• I am a Front Porch Forum user. I would urge the Proposal to more clearly explain just why it has become so popular, attracting a remarkably high percentage of residents to use it. It’s ease of use should be stressed. I’ve found it much easier to use than listservs or email groups. The variety of ways it is being used is amazing. It’s really being driven by the interests of people who live in the various neighborhoods that Front Porch Forum serves. You’ll find discussions/debates about political issues; you’ll find neighborhood alerts (e.g., neighbors notifying each other recent thefts, lost cats, misplaced keys); you’ll find requests for recommendations (e.g., for electricians, carpenters); and much more. But, I need to come back to how easy it is to use. It is well-organized and doesn’t overwhelm users with lots of separate email messages. This is one reason so many residents are using it. Again, make this clearer in your proposal.

Thanks and thanks too to the Knight Foundation… they catalyze and fund loads of important work at the intersection of local news, community, democracy and technology.

… the writer is unfortunately misinformed about the depth and effectiveness that has been reached in filling the gap between formal local government assemblies by the Front Porch Forum… The FPF creators chose to capture its audience at the neighborhood level because people already naturally choose to organize and deal with critical issues in their lives at this level. So, in a way, the FPF forces government officials to “come down” to the neighborhood level and speak more openly about what they intend…

Read the full column.

I am on the Westford Front Porch Forum and look at it as the best way to keep up with neighbors, get community information, form new community connections, and have healthy, respectful debates about local issues. In the year and a half I have been on the Forum I have found it helpful in the following ways (this is just off the top of my head):

1. Started a singing group
2.Found a new home for a friend’s dog
3. Debated   the merits of town meeting vs. australian ballot
4. Debated the merits gay marriage
5. Been reminded of events at the library such as Women’s Game Night and speakers and then attended these events.
6. Started a local neighborhood watch program
7. learned about musicians  coming to the town green
8. Learned what booths will be at the farmer’s market each week.
9. Joined a Westford CSA for local produce
10. Found a neighbor to help carpool to high school with our foreign exchange student.

That is just how I have personally been able to use the Forum. I also get to have an ongoing conversation about everything with my neighbors. I am not a major community organizer. I am just feeling like an active member of my community with this important tool. What is even more telling is that much of Westford does not have high speed internet access. While I know the FPF works fine on dial up, there are people who skip connecting altogether at home because they do not have a high speed option. I only see the FPF expanding as the options for connecting expand.

I talk about the forum at work (which is in Franklin County) and they are intrigued and would like FPF to expand beyond Chittenden.

It actually pains me to read that Brennan Woods is not making good use of the FPF when they have such high participation. It is an opportunity to connect that looks like it is being squandered.

And many others commented about the odd editorial in the Free Press on FPF itself (below), on Twitter, on Facebook, on Free Press online, on this blog, in letters to the editor (we’ll see if the Freeps will run any of them… not yet), and to me directly.  From Patricia in Burlington’s Old North End…

I, too, thank City Councilor Marrissa Caldwell for prompt and continued attention regarding the Battery and Pearl crossing.  Although I am not in Marrissa’s voting ward, she responded quickly to my first Front Porch Forum posting and continued with the second… The FPF postings also revealed that the whole design of Battery Park at its multiple points of pedestrian entry and exiting needs further attention from the city.  Signs stating the Vermont law that cars must yield to pedestrians, speed bumps, and other car traffic calming initiatives were all offered by FPF readers as means to end the thruway mentality.

UPDATES: Good for the Freeps… they published two letters to the editor on Sept. 4 about this.  And here’s one FPF member’s response, as posted via FPF to her neighbors…

Today’s Burlington Free Press, in Letters to the Editor, praises the Front Porch Forum for helping us to be informed in a democracy.  I second this!  Thank you  Front Porch Forum, for helping us all, in our media-connected, busy work a day lives, for giving a sense of community.

UPDATE 2: The Free Press just published another piece about this… a My Turn by James Sullivan of Burlington.

More communities throughout Vermont should make better use of social media if only to keep residents informed and engaged. More people are turning to online services such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to be informed (entertained) and connected.

Local governments must make every effort to be where the people are. The Free Press reports that connection is missing in many towns and cities. Many towns post information on their official Web sites. Some towns also monitor Web-based networks with a hyper-local focus — by streets or neighborhoods — such as Front Porch Forum. But these kinds of online tools are largely passive…

Yes, I agree that local government’s mission is well served when they make effective use of social media.  But the reporting and conclusion about Front Porch Forum miss the mark.  (In fact, here are two examples of past Free Press articles that reported just the opposite of today’s editorial… here and here.)

For example, in the City of Burlington, 40% of the households subscribe and nearly every city councilor, school board member, and state rep. uses the service.  Most Neighborhood Planning Assembly steering committee members partake, as do almost all City departments.  In all, 250 local public officials make use of Front Porch Forum in Chittenden County, our pilot region.

And their use of it is anything but passive.  A call to City Councilors, like Joan Shannon or Bill Keogh in the South End, would have set the record straight.  They, like many other public servants, make frequent use of FPF to engage voters about a wide array of issues.

Further, citizen use of FPF is certainly not passive… that’s who does all the postings… thousand upon thousand of messages are exchanged among clearly identified nearby neighbors through Front Porch Forum (as many of the Free Press reporters and editors should know from personal experience in their own neighborhoods).

“… these kind of online tools are largely passive” — that’s actually a better description of traditional media, e.g., a newspaper, where professionals provide nearly all of the content.  On FPF, the content comes from your nearby neighbors.

Finally, “social media” consultants are a dime a dozen these days, and most are telling businesses, governments, nonprofits, etc. the same thing… get into social media and start screaming your message across many different platforms.  Anyone deaf yet? It’s growing ever harder to get people’s attention and hold it, let alone to get them to contribute to a discussion.  Gratefully, FPF is full of more than 15,000 local people, most of whom are tuned in and making a difference.

UPDATE: An update is posted above.

From its founder…

EveryBlock has been acquired by MSNBC.com

From the Local Onliner…

While the site takes a unique approach, it is poised to compete with other hyperlocal sites such as Outside.in, Topix.net, Placeblogger and Patch.com (acquired by AOL this summer for $10 million).

From TechCrunch…

EveryBlock currently covers only about 15 cities in the U.S. and comScore estimates its U.S. audience to be only 143,000 unique visitors a month (July, 2009). In contrast, competitor Outside.in attracts 800,000 unique visitors in the U.S. These are relatively small numbers, but these services do a good job of collecting neighborhood news without the expense of actually reporting it.

From Kara Swisher…

MSNBC.com–a joint venture of Microsoft (MSFT) and GE (GE) unit NBC Universal–paid several million dollars for the “hyper-local” information site, which is up and running in 15 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Boston, sources said.

In June, Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL paid about $10 million to buy Patch Media.

The New York-based start-up is a platform that does deeply localized coverage of communities on a range of topics, from announcements to news to events to obituaries. It is aimed at competing with local newspapers and other media.

EveryBlock takes a slightly different approach, scouring a mass of publicly available data in a variety of U.S. cities from a variety of public records–such as crime stats, building permits and restaurant inspections–and reassembling them into more comprehensible and geographically relevant news feeds, depending on what a user asks for.

And we’ve been asking the same question as Gotham Gazette…

… anyone familiar with the Knight News Challenge knows about Knight’s open source requirement: projects developed with Knight funding must be released under an open source license — it is one of the terms of funding. EveryBlock released their source code a few months ago, but Biella Coleman posed an excellent question

“Since the code is under a GPL3, doesn’t MSNBC.com have to also keep it under the same license if modified? Or can they take the code base since Everyblock is a web-based service?”

… And, James Vasile at Hacker Visions has an answer. It is a complex answer, and worth a read. Loosely? The holder of the copyright is not necessarily bound by the license a project was released under.

Vermont towns and cities have not joined the herd to embrace social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Millions of individuals have accounts on the two sites, which enable people to trade comments, updates and information. Many businesses consider Facebook and Twitter de rigueur for marketing and communicating with their audiences.

Many managers and clerks in Vermont municipalities have not found a good reason to get on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon. However, some cities and towns have found a more local social Web site, Front Porch Forum, more useful.

Front Porch Forum enables people in specific towns or neighborhoods to communicate via the Web with each other and provide updates. Many of the entries announce block parties, warn of car break-ins, ask questions on where to get services or comment on neighborhood issues.

“I look at each time it’s published, and basically I monitor it for problems,” Colchester Town Manager Al Voegele said. If an issue is causing a lot of discussion, he’ll discuss it with a town department head who would deal with that type of issue and see whether the town can help solve it, he said. Voegele said he sometimes comments on Front Porch Forum to clarify and explain issues affecting the neighborhoods.

Other communities, such as Williston and South Burlington, also frequently monitor or post comments on Front Porch Forum…

Click here for the full article.

First, from Bianca Slota, WCAX (video clip)…

Residents in a north Colchester neighborhood are fed up with a recent rise in home burglaries and they are banding together to keep each other safe.

Organizers thought maybe a dozen people would show up for their neighborhood watch meeting Thursday night. Instead dozens came to find out how they can help keep their community safe.

The meeting started as a discussion on Front Porch Forum. Neighbors were concerned about a string of 7 recent burglaries in the Clay Point area.

“We didn’t feel like there was a lot of communication going, or a network for communication,” said Helen Bishop, one of the meeting organizers…

“I think when you have a face to put with a name you might take better care of your neighbor,” she said… (click here for full text).

More than two dozens households have signed up with FPF’s Clay Point Neighborhood Forum in the past couple days.  FPF is a great way to enhance the goals of a neighborhood watch.

And from John Briggs, Burlington Free Press…

Burlington City Council President Bill Keogh, D-Ward 5, who is old enough to remember roadsters in their heyday, suggested this week that it might be nice to re-create the drive-in overlook at Battery Park.

The park, which dates to 1815, had a road added in 1936. Until 1979, drivers could park there and look at the lake…

“What a view,” he wrote when he presented the idea on the Front Porch Forum. “Sunsets at their finest.”…

FPF is popping with feedback and debate about Council President Keogh’s suggestion.

And finally, from Lauren Ober on the Seven Days staff blog, Blurt…

Dawn O’Connell’s homemade flyer, which ended up on my porch last night, is really making me bummed. The notice is simple — the word “MISSING” is printed in handwritten capital letters over the photo of her cat, Cody…

I knew Cody was missing earlier in the day. Dawn noted her feline’s disappearance on Front Porch Forum and entreated her neighbors to let her know if they’d seen him…

If we only had a dime for every lost cat found through FPF…

… internet activities like the Front Porch Forum are direct competitors to community newspapers…

… subsidizing these forums and spreading their access is hastening the demise of [community newspapers]…

… you enable the neighborhoods to believe that news of their community is being covered by the siting of trash being dumped on the side of the road, or of a neighbor who attended a meeting and reported on the one item of real interest to them…

What happens with these types of forums is news is filtered out to the community by those with an agenda. School boards or planning commissions, for example, could designate a member of the board to write the report of the meeting and put it on the forum. The potential to have that report cover what the board wants and how it wants is huge, and it is not, in the end, in the public’s best interest in cases that may be controversial. (Given, that much of the news coming out of such meetings is not controversial and such reports could be unbiased and with no consequence.) But in cases that are controversial, how is the community best served if what happens is that Front Porch leads readers to believe they don’t need the local paper except on those few occasions of controversy. That is, they cancel their subscription and only buy it at the store on those weeks when a professional reporter comes to town to report important issues. That type of thinking, of course, hurts circulation and undermines the advertising base.

… activities like these are no small threats to community newspapers…

… you might reconsider how to carry on this part of your mission. Partnering with the local paper may be one way to do that.

Here’s my response…

Small town community newspapers are crucial to local civic health.  And many of these newspapers face a dire future.  This should be a big concern for anyone focused on local social capital and civic engagement.  It’s one of the reasons I’m working on Front Porch Forum.  You should be congratulated for your forward thinking in this area.  I would be interested in seeing innovative proposals from community newspapers for new sustainable business models to support local journalism.

Front Porch Forum’s mission is to help neighbors connect and build community.  Any sharing of news among neighbors is incidental… it’s one of many things that neighbors do when they have access to an easy communication channel.  We don’t directly compete with newspapers, we help and complement them.

In fact, in Chittenden County, news stories bubble up out of neighborhood conversations on FPF.  In dozens of cases, The Burlington Free Press, Seven Days, WCAX, VPR and others have used Front Porch Forum to get leads for their news stories.  We’re happy to play this role (assuming proper attribution).

And forward thinking newspapers use FPF to attract more readers.  For example, Seven Days has been running weekly messages on FPF about its stories drawing significant traffic to its website.

Further, many of our subscribers travel an arc from (1) getting direct results from postings (e.g., found lost cat, gave away a stroller), to (2) feeling more a part of their community due to these interactions and routine reading of neighbors’ postings, to (3) increased involvement in the civic life of their town (e.g., volunteering at Green Up Day, serving on a committee).  This heightened sense of what’s going on in the neighborhood leads to people being more tuned into local issues… thus FPF helps nurture an environment loaded with more potential readers of the local newspaper.  It’s up to the each newspaper to capitalize on this opportunity.

For example, in Burlington’s New North End, past monthly Neighborhood Planning Assembly meetings typically drew five or six people, in addition to the committee members.  Once the committee started using FPF, attendance ballooned to 50 or 60.  This wasn’t just because FPF was a better way to announce the meetings, rather it’s been the regular neighborhood-level discussions stirred up via FPF that have increase awareness and interest in local issues.  So when the meeting is announced, many people are tuned in and caring enough to show up and participate.

We’d be thrilled if one of Burlington’s newspapers approached us with ideas for tying into this exciting development.  Perhaps we could even work up a proposal and seek funding together.

The decline of the newspaper industry is closely tracked and widely discussed.  Here’s one such recent piece that warrants careful reading.

Here are some other respected resources about the upheaval in the newspaper business…

• http://citmedia.org/blog (spoke at UVM recently)
• http://www.buzzmachine.com
• http://www.yelvington.com
• http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist

Many factors contribute to the current status of the newspaper industry, including past business decisions, the current economy, volatile changes in the advertising world, the effect of the internet, participatory and decentralized journalism, etc… suffice to say, it’s complex and the sea change underway now has been a long time coming.  It’s hard to imagine that supporting a small local civic-engagement dot.com experiment has much of a role in this larger, centuries-running drama of the American newspaper.

The newspaper publisher appears to have some misconceptions of how Front Porch Forum works.  FPF is open to all residents of its service region, those with agendas (of any stripe) and those without.  It’s a discussion among clearly identified nearby neighbors about topics of their choosing… like a block party with name tags.  Newspapers, on the other hand, bring their own agenda, determine the topics, and limit who can speak.

While some FPF members may quit their local newspaper subscriptions, as he suggests, that’s not our intent.  If that happens, I submit it has more to do with the readers’ perceived value of the newspaper than with FPF.

Finally, we’re humbled by the recognition and awards from the following organizations bestowed on Front Porch Forum for its cutting edge work in building social capital and civic engagement, including…

• American Press Institute
• Wall Street Journal
• Morning Edition
• PBS
• John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
• Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society
• Personal Democracy Forum
• Case Foundation
• Sunlight Foundation
• National Night Out
• PlaceMatters
• Action Coalition for Media Education
• Snelling Center for Government
• Orton Family Foundation

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on this subject and I’d be glad to continue the conversation with you, newspaper folks, or others.  I have much to learn and remain openminded and flexible.