Editors Note: This Inclusive Social Media update is from Julia Opoti (pictured on right), our Community Outreach and Information Leader focused on Cedar Riverside. In related news, we’ve been experimenting with Facebook advertising and now in addition to the 275 full forum members we now have close to 750 followers on Facebook (many younger residents). [...]
Special Invite – Note the Pew Internet and American Life report author special Q and A discussion on the Locals Online community of practice. According to the just released Neighbors Online report from Pew Internet and American Life, 27% of American adult Internet users (or 22% of adults overall) use “digital tools to talk to [...]
I had the honor of being a “virtual” guest of Grassroots Grantmakers yesterday. Listen and watch the presentation. Or click through the slides-only further below. The audio alone is available in MP3 format (~90 minutes). If you are involved in local community building online or want to use these approaches and tools in your neighborhood, [...]
Update: Drafting guide from here. Please offer your comments on the blog or via our short survey. The other week, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released an excellent report on Government Online. When I left Minnesota state government in 1997 after launching our main portal in 1995, I left because the sense I [...]
We’ve now officially closed our Rural Voices grant from the Blandin Foundation and thought we’d share the full 10 page evaluation with you. Our four rural Minnesota forums continue as all volunteer local enterprises within our 15+ community network. Below are some excerpts to give you a sense of what is in the Word, PDF, [...]
Editor’s Note: Every few months our Community Information and Outreach Leaders with our Inclusive Social Media effort will share their lessons via and update on our Project Blog. This special outreach effort is funded by the Ford Foundation with additional contributions from the St. Paul Foundation for St. Paul efforts. This new digital inclusion to [...]
Our Neighbors Forum adaptation of our Issues Forums model is taking off. Neighborhoods next to our established forums are asking, “Hey, what about us!” New volunteers are stepping forward. The full story, especially our special Inclusive Social Media efforts in lower income, highly diverse/immigrant neighborhoods, is covered by a recent Twin Cities Daily Planet article. [...]
Whether you are launching a new Issues Forum or want to refreshing your membership, we’ve found nothing more effective than in-person recruiting. Nothing. Because our forum are hyper-local, the only way to get to the 10% of households we now have in Cass Lake Leech Lake and the Minneapolis neighborhoods of Powderhorn and Standish Ericsson, [...]
The Issues Forum model is always evolving. While real names and civility remain central, over the last few years we’ve being going even more local – be that at the neighborhood level or in smaller rural towns. Now that we have 25 forums across 15 communities, our central support costs are now measurable and growing. [...]
Over the last week, we’ve been in the field building socially inclusive online neighborhood networks AKA “Issues Forums.” Frogtown, St. Paul, Minnesota Last Wednesday, the volunteers of start-up team and local district council staff met at the Hmongtown Marketplace over lunch to discuss the next phase of bringing the Greater Frogtown Neighbors Forum to life. [...]
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