Great Article on Online Community-Building in Vermont

Covered here in the past, Vermont’s Front Porch Forum is an incredible “micro-online community” platform that has been spreading across the state - town by town. The latest issue of Yankee Magazine carries an encouraging profile of the service and its founders, Michael and Valerie Wood-Lewis.

More of a community-building than deliberative/policy-making resource, Front Porch Forums nonetheless promote and support public participation in local policy solutions: “The real feedback loop is on the main street of town,” says Erik Filkorn, in his eighth year on the select board in Richmond, Vermont. “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.”

Congrats FPF…we’re watching your good work!