This document discusses online tools for connecting neighbors and strengthening local communities. It provides examples of neighborhood forums and groups that share information, discuss issues, and take community action. While 27% of online adults interact with neighbors digitally, participation is uneven across demographic groups. Ensuring digital inclusion is important for broad civic engagement. The document advocates for local online spaces that are public, open-access, and use real names to encourage accountability and community-building.
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Neighbors Online: Engaging Government to Community Inclusion
1.
2.
3. If you want to …
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4.
5.
6. 20 years of experience “interacting’ online within
and “around” government, 30 countries
World’s first election info website – E-Democracy
White House Champion of Change for Open Gov
7.
8. E-Democracy.org's mission:
Harness the power of online tools to support
participation in public life, strengthen
communities, and build democracy.
Creating online spaces for civic
engagement since 1994.
9.
10. Write down the rough number of residents
you think of when I say “neighborhood.”
What size town/city?
Member of an online neighborhood group?
Any govs with link directory of local online
neighborhood groups?
Any govs here who have partnered with a
commercial service like NextDoor?
11.
12. Disseminating information, providing access
Getting people involved with your
government/organization and activities
Communicating on social media, e-newsletters
with minimal interactivity
Moving to … connecting neighbors to each
other online to strengthen community
13.
14. Shift frame to open community exchange
among neighbors
Breaking out of org/gov in center mode
Hosted by:
Individuals using whatever tool they like (e.g.
Facebook Groups, YahooGroups, etc.)
Non-profits like E-Democracy.org
Commercial sites like NextDoor, Front Porch Forum
15.
16. Someone
needed
help.
The
Wheel of
Cheese
Read more – on
Powderhorn
Neighbors
Forum – Photo CC
jojomelons via Flickr
17.
18. Connecting neighbors and communities …
CC: and BCC:
Email Lists (YahooGroups), rare Web Forums
Social Networking Groups (Facebook Groups)
Placeblogs, LocalWiki, other web sites
Twitter local hashtags like #nempls
Specialty .com sites like Front Porch Forum,
NextDoor.com, EveryBlock, NeighborGoods,
i-Neighbors, OurCommonPlace, OhSoWe (RIP)
E-Democracy’s BeNeighbors.org effort
19. Social connections, family-friendly
Safety and crime prevention
Mutual benefit , sharing stuff – community life
Greater voices and civic engagement
Social capital generator
Openness, inclusion, diverse community
connections (if done right)
= Stronger communities, stronger democracy
Resources: Block Activities, Block Connectors, Locals Online, Soul of the
Community
20. What was your area’s typical population for a
neighborhood? (That you wrote down.)
Decision: Public, Private/Closed, Secret
Place-focused, resident-only, government/ community
org/worship/local biz participation???
Scale covered key to model/tool choice
Impact: Whatever happens? Or a government or
social goal?
▪ E-Democracy’s BeNeighbors.org has social inclusion, civic
participation, and integration goal
▪ Impact on existing community efforts, public agenda setting,
changes to local advertising market
Many models and platforms
21.
22. Standish and Ericsson Neighborhood, Minneapolis
About 10,000 residents - Small homes, big hearts
Shared online “Neighbors Forum” for 6 years
1300 members, ~30% households
25% dly/wkly civic activities online … 7%+ Edem hoods
“All politics is local.” – Tip O’Neill, former US House Speaker
23. Imagine a shared email box for
your neighborhood:
neighbors@inyourarea.org
Like a Facebook Page too …
24. “Local” online public places to:
share information, events, ideas
discuss local community issues
gather diverse people in an open place
take action and promote solutions
Powered by two-way group communication
Over 50 neighbors/community forums in 18 communities
across 3 countries today
25. City Hall
In-person
Conversations Shared on
Facebook
Your
Networks
Local Media
Coverage
Local Biz
Neighbor #1
N
E
I
G
H
B
O
R
S
Neighbors
Forum
Join the Online
Forum
27. Community Exchange
Seeking plumber, insurance,
lawn care
Free couch, desk, cat, TV
Events – 4th July, NUSA picnic
to nearest neighborhoods
Meal swaps, cooperative
cooking
TV/Cable/Net options
Home hazardous waste
Job for Somali speaker
Lost puppy
Community Issues
Crosswalk Safety
Street Cars on East
Lake
Community thanks
Airport noise
Candidate hello
Bridge replacement
One Minneapolis One
Read
Bicycle safety
Youth movement
28. Base Goal: 10% of Households, Reaching ~30%
or more in strongest areas of S. Minneapolis.
29. E-mail - Primary
Web, Mobile Web
Facebook
Twitter
30. Crime Prevention
Disaster Preparedness and
Community Recovery
Emergency Preparedness and
Response
Neighborly Mutual Benefit and
Support
Health Care and Long-term Care
Energy Efficiency
Environmental Sustainability
Senior Care and Inter-generational
Connections
Small Business Promotion
Transportation
Local Food
Diverse Community Cohesion
Education and Community
Service
Recent Immigrant and Refugee
Integration and Support
Sustainable Broadband
Adoption
Rural Community Building
Youth Employment and
Experience
Community Building, Civic
Engagement, and Social Capital
Details on the E-Democracy Blog
31. “Forum Manager” people
person role essential,
supported by forum rules,
real names, local scope
▪ AKA Admin, Moderator,
empowered to guide and deal
with rare, but challenging
conflict/incivility etc., moderate
new users/possible spammers
Idea: Cross-platform need to
connect these local e-leaders
for mutual support, legal
protection too
Identifying various
roles people can play
informally or formally
Forum Manager
Neighbor Greeter
Neighborhood Linker
Social Coordinator
Cultural Connector
Community Reporter
Roles detailed: http://e-democracy.
org/getinvolved
32.
33. 1. Helping
2. Sharing, Announcing
3. Questions
4. Informing and
Outreach
5. Safety and Recovery
6. Influencing
7. Engaging
8. Deliberation and
Decisions
9. Funding and Spending
10. Starting and Solving
11. Buy/Sell/Trade (others)
34.
35. Stories (primarily from my neighborhood)
Community-event for local chef fighting cancer
Search for lost Dad, fundraising for family
Replacing 7 yr olds birthday presents after burglary
Challenges and Opportunities
Unleashing hidden community capacity
Generating “new” capacity beyond existing social
capital?
36.
37. Stories
Free stuff, yogurt containers, borrow stuff
Community announcements galore
Emerging Projects
FreeCycle, Freegle, Craigslist, NeighborGoods
(sharing tools), car sharing, couch surfing
Challenges and Opportunities
Reducing waste stream, less about “democracy”
Hugely popular - “local democratic engagement”
needs to ride along to reach everyday people
38.
39. Stories
Neighborhood clubs? R: Library book clubs+
Arrggh, my car was towed during snow
emergency, what can I do to fight it?
Business recommendations galore
Emerging Projects
Open 311, Yelp! (health inspect), FixMyStreet,
StackExch
Challenges and Opportunities
Feeding public questions into e-gov self-help?
40.
41. Stories
City councilor shares updates – road work, light
rail stop lights, meetings –TIMELY info
Gov e-news/alerts, FB pages, Twitter channels
Emerging Projects
Many tools – Granicus: Webcasting, GovDelivery:
Email Updates, Local Calendars (Elmcity, Gcal)
Challenges and Opportunities
Timely personalized notification – very powerful
Gov hosted vs. gov used, “Representative Deficit”
“Friending for Office” – Facebook native council members
42.
43. Stories
Crime prevention – Neighbors alert each other
burglary wave, I report murder, police info shared
Hurricane Sandy local Facebook Groups thrive
Emerging Projects
Police FB pages quite popular, Seattle model
Recovers.org, crisis mapping volunteers, more
Challenges and Opportunities
Fear factor used as motivator by .com sites
Emergency response/police “command and control”
44. Official: Broadcast – FEMA.Gov, etc.
Community: Many to many
“Like” a Facebook Page to express sympathy
“Share” photos, news – via Tweets
“Gather” data and put on a map, etc.
“Join” a Facebook Group to DO something
▪ http://bit.ly/sandygroups
“Volunteer” via OccupySandy, etc.
“Needs and Offers” via Recovers.org, etc.
45.
46. Stories
Airport noise, ski trails e-petition promotion
Elected official view: “They are my voters.” – Key!
Emerging Projects
PeakDemocracy: Online Townhall, Spreading Issy
France e-Citizen Survey? Learn from PIN
Key is online prompting local media coverage
Challenges and Opportunities
“Digital Squeakers” vs. broad public e-citizens
w/skills and access
47.
48. Stories
Neighborhood council sparks business ideas
Gov directly engaged, two-way – Light rail signals
Emerging Projects
AskBristol (UK), econsult advice from BangtheTable
(Australia), IdeaScale/User Voice/MindMixer: Ideation,
Gov and .com petition sites, Google Civic Info API
Challenges and Opportunities
Interactive elections to governance, Digital Native e-offi
Democratic info not in data set, Meetings, Who reps?
49.
50. Stories
St. Paul Payne-Phalen deep dialogue about violence
E-Dem experiment with Kettering’s online
deliberation tool – our audience, their tool
Emerging Projects
UK local gov Knowledge Hub (peer exchange)
Estonia TID, Finland e-petitions to parliament
Strong interest in NCDD, IAP2, Kettering Fnd, etc.
Challenges and Opportunities
Beyond Estonia and Finland which govs have platforms?
Many projects fail to appreciate incremental approaches, outreach needs
to engage broad spectrum of voices
51.
52. Stories
Ski trail grooming effort wins $1K “Big Idea” vote
Forever St. Paul, $1 million challenge does forum outreach
Emerging Projects
From budget online to actual spending - Louisville
Participatory budgeting, e-assisted – crowd
“spending” with teeth – Brazil, US, Tartu
Challenges and Opportunities
Many commercial platforms – charity and/or gov
“Taxes - the ultimate crowd spending opportunity”
53.
54. Stories
Starting a new community garden – Citizen action
Emerging Projects
Loomio from NZ, tools for “shared purpose”
decision-making
Mixing real-time tools from virt meetings to docs
Future community solution forums @ E-Dem?
Challenges and Opportunities
“Ad-hocracy” opportunities
Neighborhood associations, gov task forces?
55.
56. Stories
E-Democracy allows small business introductions
“as neighbors,” but not unsolicited advertising
No selling individual items, just free stuff – use
Craigslist to max return – but we have Garage Sale
exception as “community connecting” events
Emerging Projects
Gazillion Facebook Groups emerging locally, growing, but
don’t allow community content
NextDoor has classified section, large portion of content
Concern: Geo-targeted advertising on biz services will hurt
local journalism and remove income from local community
57.
58.
59.
60. Those who already show up offline, showing
up online.
Lots of people talk politics offline, but more
polarized online
Participation gap even worse with fewer
lower income, minorities doing “civic
communication” or taking action online
Clift analysis and links to Pew’s 2013 “Civic Engagement in
the Digital Age Report”: http://bit.ly/pewcivic
61.
62. 27% of adult Net users (22% overall) use
“digital tools to talk to their
neighbors and keep informed
about community issues.”
74% of those who talk digitally with their neighbors have talked
face-to-face about community issues with their neighbors
compared to 46% overall
Source: Neighbors Online study from PewInternet.org, 2010
63. Neighborhood E-Lists/Forums – 7% Overall
Of 22% of ALL adults who “talk digitally with
neighbors”: Only 12% under 30K, Over 75K 39%
Source: Neighbors Online study from PewInternet.org, 2010
64. ASKED TO TAKE ACTION - work for a candidate, give money to a
cause, go to a meeting, or get in touch with a public official. Source
2013: http://bit.ly/pewcivicreport
Q17a. Email
Overall Net User Yes - 36% - White 41%, Black 31%, Latino 19%,
LTHS 18%, HS GD 25%, SmCol 38%, ColGd 51%
Households 75K highest at 53%
Q17b. Telephone
Overall All Adults Yes - 38% - White 40%, Black 32%, Latino 18%,
LTHS 18%, HS GD 32%, SmCol 37%, ColGd 45%
Households 75K highest at 53%
Q17c. Letter
Overall All Adults Yes - 43% - White 49%, Black 39%, Latino 20%,
LTHS 21%, HS GD 38%, SmCol 45%, ColGd 57%
Households 75K highest at 58%
65.
66. Digital inclusion for community engagement leverages
other key efforts
Engagement
Digital Literacy
Online and Computer Skills
Technology and Broadband Access
67. See this presentation video and/or slides for a much more in-depth
review of inclusion related numbers/context
This presentation contains a collection of statistics from various studies
produced by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The key study is
here.
The graphs contained were produced using Pew data. With the help of
volunteers, I am seeking to present this data in additional ways.
Further notes and analysis (a mix of raw materials)
My “inclusion” analysis/summary
DC, San Francisco event notes and links
Help visualizing data, raw Google doc
New Voices – Proposed online working group
68.
69.
70. 46% People
of Color
17% Foreign
Born
Lower
income
areas,
renters, etc.
71. Seward is 55%
white, 33%
black (mostly
East African)
Pop 7,308
Cedar Riv is
45% black
(EA), 37%
white, 11%
Asian
Pop 8,094
73. Public (vs. private groups)
Open access (vs. invite only)
Publicly searchable archive (vs. member only access)
Local scope
Encourage strong civility
Must use real names, accountability
81. ~3,000 memberships in-person in 2012, 800 online
129 Tracked Summer Outreach Events:
917 via door-knocking in 20 targeted areas
692 via 39 different community events
340 via 28 community locations (libraries, etc.)
182 via 10 National Night Out sites
89 via 4 ethnic soccer matches
76 via 12 community members
After ~12% error rate in e-mail addresses, opt-outs
82. 266% increase in St. Paul (blue)
memberships in 2012
Mpls (red) all volunteer “organic”
word of mouth growth
83. Initial utilization of volunteers
Partnerships need to grow beyond links
“Forum engagement” staffing challenges
Light guidance for contractors, more hands-on
needed
Logistics of processing 4,000+ paper sign-ups
Competition from Facebook Groups, NextDoor in
St. Paul (wired homeowners enclaving) versus
Mpls strength
Turn over among volunteers in community orgs
w/content not familiar with E-Democracy
84. Build volunteer capacity, next pledge drive,
promoting inclusive *public* engagement
“Forum engagement” - goal:
Forums that better reflect the diversity of
neighbors in the “virtual room.”
Share lessons across many communities:
http://e-democracy.org/learn
http://e-democracy.org/research - U Pitt, etc.
Leveraging base with Kettering Foundation for online
deliberation: http://e-democracy.org/cga
84
85. This six minute “mobile” video from early
2013 introduces the outreach. Hand-outs too.
88. 1. Ask yourself does this make MY life as
a citizen better?
Qualify with “Is it special to people most
like me or is this to the benefit of all?”
2. New Voices – Must be intentional,
need new initiatives to move the
field and reach mass participation
http://e-democracy.org/newvoices
89.
90. Should gov pro-actively foster neighbors
online?
How should govs and civil servants engage on
neighbors online spaces?
What policies will encourage civil servants to
engage online like they would in-person? (e.g.
embedded librarianship)
Should gov pick a single provider to promote?
Should impact on local advertising and local
journalism be considered?
Should inclusion, equity, business, place of
worship, worker participation be supported?
91. E-Democracy.org
Blog.e-democracy.org - dowire.org
@edemo -Twitter
e-democracy.org/contact
Join our new 2,000+ member Open Government
and Civic Technology Facebook Group:
▪ http://facebook.com/groups/opengovgroup
Steven Clift
clift@e-democracy.org
StevenClift.com
@democracy -Twitter
91
92. http://e-democracy.org/sunshine
20+ Government 2.0 Reports
Earn Five “Suns,” 10 Draft Indicators
Draft guide for national League of Women Voters
Representation
Decision-Making
Information
Engagement
Online Features
Editor's Notes
We extensively sent out our job description to many places we knew were involved with social justice issues or working with different ethnicities. We received a lot of great applicants and ended up with an extremely diverse team who brought different skill sets, educational and life experiences, different ages, and most importantly a number of languages spoken: 2 Hmong speakers, Vietnamese, Oromo, Somali, and Spanish. We had members who had previous experience with doorknocking, working on campaigns, etc.
Orientation week (May) and ongoing weekly meetings greatly improved staff confidence, sense of belonging and support, and likely outcomes (from Survey Results)
We extensively sent out our job description to many places we knew were involved with social justice issues or working with different ethnicities. We received a lot of great applicants and ended up with an extremely diverse team who brought different skill sets, educational and life experiences, different ages, and most importantly a number of languages spoken: 2 Hmong speakers, Vietnamese, Oromo, Somali, and Spanish. We had members who had previous experience with doorknocking, working on campaigns, etc.
Orientation week (May) and ongoing weekly meetings greatly improved staff confidence, sense of belonging and support, and likely outcomes (from Survey Results)