Locals Online – For hosts of neighborhood e-lists, placeblogs, and community social nets

Ashoka Fellow Steven Clift recently created the Locals Online forum on e-democracy.org, to bring together people round the world who are working to connect neighbors with one another.

In his April 21 post, he noted: “From neighborhood e-mail lists to social networks, placeblogs to block-level Facebook groups, thousands of people are doing what we are doing in isolation. The challenge with this online group is to get enough of us gathered to begin sharing tips, lessons, and ideas on a regular basis.”

He invited hosts of neighborhood e-mail lists, place blogs, community web forums, building or block-level social networking groups, hyper-local online communities, and online journalism sites designed for active community participation. Dozens of local leaders signed up, and on May 5, Steve asked them to start introducing themselves to one another. As of this morning, 17 people did. Links to their intros, and excerpts:

• Aldon Hynes, Woodbridge Citizen, Woodbridge, CT, USA, since 2009, 300 members.
• Art Campbell, The Groton Line, Groton, Massachusetts, 1,050 members, since 1995.
• Barry Parr, Coastsider, Community news for coastal San Mateo County, USA.
• Bill Kahn, Prospect Park East River Road, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
• Bruce Schuman, Purple Alliance, a map-based a family of networks.
• Cheryl Honey, goodneighbors.net and the award-winning communityweaving.org, uses technology that enables people to self organize, since 1993.
• Dan Knauss, Riverwest Neighborhood Network, began as a webpage in 2003 for a fledgling neighborhood association, now with a reach of around 5000.
• Franz Nahrada, Floridsdorf district, Vienna, Austria, uses dorfwiki’s “fractalised” wiki.
• Hugh Flouch, Harringay Online, 2,800 members, Started July 2007.
• Michael Morisy, morisy.com, Spare Change News, a street paper based in Cambridge, MA, USA.
• Michael Wood Lewis, Front Porch Forum, hosts a network of 140 online neighborhood forums that covers 25 northwest Vermont towns, more than 18,000 subscribers, since 2000.
• Miles Fidelman, hosts several e-lists, web sites, and blogs for local PTOs and UU Churches (Newton, MA area).
• Noam Kuzar, Jerusalemite, Jerusalem, Since 2001, averages 1000 hits/day.
• Philip Sorrell, Hartwell Village, Started in January 2007 for a village with a population of under 2000.
• Stephen Sherlock, Franklin Matters, Franklin, Massachusetts, USA, reaching 5-6,000, since 2007.
• Steve Magruder, Louisville History& Issues, Covers the Louisville metropolitan area, 426 registered members, Started November 2006.
• Steve Thompson, Tees Valley Community Media & East Cleveland Online, Tees Valley UK, East Cleveland, North Yorkshire, County Durham, 400 people, started Jan 2000.