For future webinar version see: http://neighborsonline.eventbrite.com The audio for download: http://e-democracy.org/files/sound/neighborsonlinebayarea.mp3 Audio in SlideShare is not synchronized with slides.

2. Connecting Neighbors, Building
Communities, and Raising Voices since 1994

3.  Welcome
 Why? Neighbors Online Surf
 Local Online Groups and Hurricane Sandy
 Introductions - Bay Area Share-a-thon
 Inclusion: Who’s Missing?
 Our Spin: Neighbors Forums
 In-Depth: Outreach, Inclusion, and
Engagement in St. Paul and Minneapolis

4.  Someone needed help.
 The Wheel of Cheese
 Frantic online forum request:
“Is anyone flying to Seattle in
next 12 hours? I am stuck out
of town. Can you take a wheel of cheese to the national
competition? Ours went missing. Homeland Security won’t
let us overnight replacement.”
 Neighbor replies, “I am a former airline employee and I’ve
been looking for a reason to go to Seattle. “ Cheese makes
it in time.
 Read more – on Powderhorn Neighbors Forum – Photo CC jojomelons via Flickr

7.  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.

8.  1994 – World’s first election information web site
AND Minnesota Politics two-way e-list
 1998 – Minneapolis and St. Paul Issues Forums –
“online town hall” model
 2005 – UK grant to pilot, Bristol and Oxford asked
for neighbourhoods in ’07
 2008 – Minneapolis neighborhoods get started
 Mixed classic “neighborhood e-list” with PUBLIC online town hall with
neighborhood watch, Freecycle, Craigslist (non-selling), community
news and bulletin board for areas with 5,000 to 15,000 residents

9.  Our goal to build civic engagement and raise diverse
voices was NOT being met by all volunteer start-up
activity … built on volunteer foundation with:
 2010-11 – Ford Foundation - pilot Inclusive Social
Media effort – deep engagement in Cedar Riverside,
expanding to Frogtown (note 60 page evaluation)
 2012-14 – Knight Foundation – scaling to 14+
Neighbors Forums reflecting diversity with outreach
and active forum engagement to reach ~10,000
daily participants

11.  Social connections, family-friendly
 Safety and crime prevention
 Mutual benefit , sharing stuff
 Greater voices and civic engagement
 Social capital generator
 Openness and inclusion (if done right)
 = Stronger communities
 Resources: Block Activities, Block Connectors,
Locals Online, Soul of the Community

12.  Crime Prevention  Local Food
 Disaster Preparedness and  Diverse Community Cohesion
Community Recovery  Education and Community
 Emergency Preparedness and Service
Response  Recent Immigrant and Refugee
 Neighborly Mutual Benefit and Integration and Support
Support  Sustainable Broadband
 Health Care and Long-term Care Adoption
 Energy Efficiency  Rural Community Building
 Environmental Sustainability  Youth Employment and
 Senior Care and Inter- Experience
generational Connections  Community Building, Civic
 Small Business Promotion Engagement, and Social Capital
 Transportation
 Details on the E-Democracy Blog

13.  Two-way online “groups” at core
 Connecting at two primary levels:
 Block-level, neighborhood crime watch
▪ Very Private, Covering ~100 households, typically
resident-only, often “cc:” e-mail chains
 Neighborhood/Community-wide
▪ Public , Semi-Public (request to join), or Private -
Covering hundreds to thousands of households

14. 27% of adult Net users (22% overall) use
“digital tools to talk to their
neighbors and keep informed
about community issues.”
 Source: Neighbors Online study from PewInternet.org, 2010

15.  “Joiners” – 10.5% of adult Net users
members of neighborhood e-mail lists, forums, or
social network site groups
 Includes 7% on e-lists/forums or ~10 million
folks across ~20,000 to 40,000 online spaces
– DC, Seattle, Mpls, etc. have deep history
 Source: Neighbors Online study from PewInternet.org, 2010

17.  Seattle must have the most placeblogs per capita!
 Editor in center with “news” models vs. groups

18.  West Seattle Blog’s
Forums
 Most successful
media-sponsored
local online forums
in the world??
 Local web-based
“forums” in U.S. rare,
popular in UK

19. Imagine a shared e-mail box for
your neighborhood:
neighbors@inyourarea.org

20. From our directory:
 YahooGroups mostly,  Admiral - 123 members
“forum host” is crucial  Alki Beach- 185
 Ballard - 110
 Few are “public” - hard  Beacon Hill
to “see” the  Hillman City - 192
awesomeness your  Georgetown - 557
area is missing  Greenwood - 420
 Montlake - 946
 Talk2 Seattle.Gov  North Ravenna
 Dozens! Mostly nhood  Squire Park - 330
assoc work??? Can’t tell  South Park- 759
how active

21.  Moms/Parents E-Lists
 Seattle has a massive
network ~20
 MUST live in a certain area
 Biggest – Ballard 1705, N
Beacon 1876, Madrona
2785, Magnolia 903 …
Seattle “Dads” 1 

22.  Hillman Brighton
moved from
YahooGroups
 Host likes pictures
in Member
Directory
 Few FB Groups for
Seattle Nhoods?

23.  We Grew Up in
San Francisco
Chinatown
(1232, Open)
 San Francisco
Chinatown Just
for Fun 2
(1522, Private)

24.  One Week in Seattle  Free trees
 Missing bike  School walk
 Chickens
 “foro de discusión” –
Seeking Spanish-
 Gunshots
speaking folks
 Free stuff  Voter registration
 City council  Nickelsville
 Folk club  Bikes for books
 Food forest
 Suicide prevention
 Spanish lesson guy
 Strawberry plants
 Neighbor needed for
 Nhood meeting school project

25.  Green Lake blog
moved to
EveryBlock
 Everyblock
serves ~20 major
cities, started as
local data to map
site, added
community

26.  Private residents-only
“social network for your
neighborhood”
 Venture funded, partnering with
some governments
 Mostly small groups, but can
cover thousands of residents
(no access for non-resident local
businesses, community orgs,
elected officials by design)

27.  #bainbridge
 Very social
 “Organic”
 Tags launched
during crisises

29.  Official: Broadcast – FEMA.Gov, etc.
 Community: Many to many
 “Like” a Facebook Page to express support
 “Share” photos, news, Tweets
 “Gather” data and put on a map, etc.
 “Join” an Online Group to get involved
 “Volunteer” via OccupySandy, etc.
 “Needs and Offers” via Recovers.org, etc.

30.  Hurricane Sandy – Facebook
Groups Galore
 More local groups with
leadership have sustained
activity
 Lesson: Have a local online group
before you really need it
▪ http://bitly.com/sandygroups - Guide linked here too
▪ Examples:
▪ Rockaways, Staten Island Strong, Union Beach NJ, Black Rock CT

33.  Everyone  Neighbors Online
 Name
Group Members
 Neighborhood/Place
 Which one
 Top question?
 Which tech platform
 How long a member
 Diverse Voices  Most recent example
Social Media  Important or useful
 Which community(ies) example
 Current online efforts

36.  Neighborhood E-Lists/Forums – 7% Overall
 15% of online households over $75K – 5 times higher!
 3% of online households under $50K
 3% Latino
 2% Rural …
 8% Blacks and Whites
 9% Women, 5% Men
 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

37.  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

38.  Digital inclusion for community engagement leverages
other key efforts
Engagement
Digital Literacy
Online and Computer Skills
Technology and Broadband Access

39.  Series by Eric Fisher
 Red is White, Blue is Black,
Green is Asian, Orange is
Hispanic, Yellow is Other, and
each dot is 25 residents.

42.  “Local” online public places to:
 share information, events, ideas
 discuss neighborhood issues
 gather diverse people in an open place
 take action and promote solutions
 E-Democracy.org’s neighborhood-level Issues Forums are
powered by two-way group communication
 We host over 50 neighbors/community forums in 17
communities across 3 countries today

43. You
 Everyone welcome
 Residents, local workers, business owners
 People who “serve” the community
 Local governments, non-profits, etc.
 Outreach essential:
 Diverse communities: http://e-democracy.org/inclusion
 100 members for strong opening
 1070 members on largest forum today, ~25% households

44.  E-mail
 Web
 Facebook
 Twitter

45. City Hall
Local Media
Neighbor #1
Coverage
N
E Neighbors
Your I Local Biz
Networks G Forum
H Join the Online
B Forum
O
R
S
In-person
Conversations Shared on
Facebook

46.  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

47.  Volunteer-driven, Non-profit
 (Pictures of some of our awesome volunteer Forum Managers and contractors )
 Local scope key
 “Public life” openness not “virtual
gated communities”
 Government can access us
 Unlike Facebook which is blocked by many organizations
 Open source technology, sharing
 We use GroupServer.org GPL tech out of New Zealand

48.  Online advantages
 24 x 7 – Anytime, anywhere convenience
 Engage people unable to attend meetings,
with limited mobility, two jobs, children
 Less intimidating for some – open and
accessible “ice breaker” into public life
 Local approach coupled with in-person
activities increases value and trust – Online
only would be a major disadvantage

49.  Civility matters
 Real names build trust
 No name calling
 Post just 2 times a day (on most forums)
spreads participation, retains audience
 Facilitated by local volunteer “Forum
Manager,” rules are enforced
 Major contrast with often anonymous,
nasty online news comments

50.  Action
 Discussion
 Announcements

51.  Being local means we can easily meet
and act together
 Community garden effort launched
 “It’s cold” discussion results in winter wear drive to
help recent immigrants
 Sexual assault response by “Mom”
and 400+ rally on a cold winter
night, community brainstorming

53. Photos from Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune.

54.  Topics like: • Helping neighbors
 Community news • Local history
 Crime and safety • New small businesses
 Crisis response • Landlord issues
 Schools and parks • Local
 Service provider
environment/recycling
recommendations – • Questions of every kind
home repairs, child – “What was that
care, etc. noise?”

55.  Community/cultural events
 Neighborhood meetings
 Local news, photos, video
 Free stuff (selling is rare/not promoted)
 Elected official updates
 Lost or found pets
 In any language
Bi-lingual announcements encouraged

56.  Via the web:
 e-democracy.org
 Or beneighbors.org
▪ Directory starting in Twin Cities
▪ Join via Facebook Option Available

57.  Via simple paper sign-up sheets
 Sign up at local events, by neighbors, or
when doorknocked.

60.  46% People
of Color
 17% Foreign
Born
 Lower
income
areas,
renters, etc.

63.  1. Online spaces for neighbors to connect
with each other in the ways that they want
 2. Spaces as representative as possible of
the neighborhoods, 10%+ of households
 3. More people having a voice, who often
do not have a voice in their neighborhood
 4. Engagement that builds trust, bridges,
and social capital

65.  60 Page Report and
Webinar
 e-democracy.org/
evaluation
 Funding from Ford
Foundation 2010-11,
Minneapolis Base
65

66.  Pilot expansion methods across three
neighborhood/forums
 Special outreach to diverse communities in
Minneapolis and St. Paul:
▪ Latino, Native American, East African,
African American, Hmong/SE Asian

67.  Face-to-face outreach, paper signup sheets,
and a personal approach most successful
 Building trust is essential. Knowing that
“someone like me” is on the forum helps
 Personal invitations and direct support help
people get started with posting.
67

68.  Work with community event organizers to
bring forum members out “IRL” to their
community events, sign up new people too
 Understand people’s interests and needs, then
find ways to address them through the forum
to encourage sustained participation
 Ford Foundation funded, 2010-2011

69.  Members: Forum provides new information and
alternative viewpoints
 Elected officials pay attention to forum posts
 Community organizations who actively participated
found it relevant and rewarding
 Range and depth of conversations dependent on
forum members’ willingness to share opinions, ask
questions, and seek input

72.  Goal: Recruit and engage 10,000+ Saint Paulites
by end of 2014
 Focus outreach on highly diverse, immigrant
and low-income communities
 Knight Foundation funded, 625K 3 year grant
(through end of 2014)
 Applied Ford lessons

73.  Utilize grassroots community organizing
techniques to bring a diversity of neighbors
onto the forums.
 Bring in around 3000 new members over the
summer and begin building relationships in
Saint Paul communities.
 Hire ~10 multi-lingual outreach team
members working 15 hours a week

74. 1. Research and set goals
2. Intensive recruitment and training
3. Utilized open access tools to manage
logistics increasing mobility and capacity of
team (GDocs, Dropbox, etc.)
4. Major on the ground outreach!
5. Remembering to think long term about
empowerment and voice
74

75. Courtesy of University of Minnesota:
Center for Urban and Regional Affairs 75

76. 76

77. 77

79. 79

80. 80

85. 85

86.  More pictures in
our slide show.
86

87.  ~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

89.  Over 50% of paper form survey responses
were from people of color
 Surname analysis shows 30%+ of targeted
forums appear to be from racial/ethnic
communities (Asian, Latino, East African)
 Demographic profile being built into tech,
quarterly participant survey planned

90.  All 17 St. Paul neighborhoods (District
Councils) covered with online neighborhood
spaces, 3 outside our network
 6,000 Forum Memberships, up from 3200 =
+266% in St. Paul, 1,000+ more on original
city-wide St. Paul Issues Forum
 Minneapolis 0ver 9200 memberships
 Detailed Blog Post, Insider Google Doc

91.  266% increase in St. Paul (blue)
memberships in 2012
 Mpls (red) all volunteer “organic”
word of mouth growth

93.  Utilization of volunteers
 Partnerships need to grow beyond links
 Forum engagement staffing delayed to ‘13
 Light guidance for contractors, more hands
on needed
 Logistics of hand processing 3,000 paper
sign-ups

95.  Build volunteer capacity in forum
engagement to developing deeper
relationships in community - goal:
Forums that better reflect the diversity of
neighbors in the “virtual room.”
 Ensure partnerships are mutually beneficial
 Execute an intense forum engagement plan
95

96.  Unleashing the power neighbors helping
neighbors for ALL communities.
 Neighbor uses forum organize an awesome
birthday party and holiday gifts for their
immigrant neighbors daughter after the
family’s money was stolen.

97. Public outreach
 http://beneighbors.org
Webinars, training:
 http://e-democracy.org/learn
 http://e-democracy.org/practice

98.  We’d love to connect with you more!
 Steven Clift - clift@e-democracy.org
 Corrine.bruning@e-democracy.org
 612-229-4471
 On Twitter @edemo
 More: e-democracy.org/contact
98

102.  Do you work with minority/low income/
immigrant populations?
 Are you interested in building up a network
that allows more neighbors to connect with
each other?
102

103. 1. Doorknocking, Clipboards, and Sneakers
2. Careful Recruitment, Hiring, and Training of “outreach
team”
3. Team vs. Individual
4. Mobile & Open Access to Logistics
5. Thinking Long Term about Empowerment

104. 1. Utilization of volunteers

105. 1. Utilization of volunteers
2. Partnerships (Not yet anyway!)

106. 1. Utilization of volunteers
2. Partnerships
3. Forum Engagement (Short Term)

107. 1. Utilization of volunteers
2. Partnerships
3. Forum Engagement (Short Term)
4. Light Guidance

108. 1. Surname analysis shows 30%+ of targeted
forums appear to be from racial/ethnic diverse
communities.
2. We launched neighbors forums in 16 of 17 Saint
Paul neighborhoods
3. The Saint Paul Neighbors Forums virtually
doubled from 2,863 on June 4 to 5,609 on
September 11.

109.  200% increase in St. Paul (blue)
memberships since Jan 1.
 Mpls (red) all volunteer “organic”
word of mouth growth

110.  Develop and launch Volunteer Engagement
Plan
 Utilize a set of local engaged volunteers on
EACH Saint Paul forum for deep forum
engagement
 Build up and maintain partnerships
 More outreach; lesson sharing
 Convene in-person meetings of forum
members

111.  Want to hear from you
 First write down your initial thoughts
 Small groups, discuss, and share
 “Harvest” pieces of your conversation that
caught your attention.

112. E-Democracy.org is in the process of building the largest online civic
network in the nation serving a single community.
We hope to engage 10,000 people in St. Paul in online neighbors forums.
Critical to the success of our project, is reaching out and engaging
diverse, immigrant and low income communities using low-tech
strategies such as door-knocking and paper sign-up sheets.
The process has been thoroughly documented with both photos and
video. We are eager to share what worked for us as well as what didn’t
work, highlight stories from the field, and hear about similar projects in
other communities.

113.  All kinds of
neighbors can be
connected online
 60 Pages:
 e-democracy.org/evaluation
 Free in-depth
webinar

114.  “Community life” exchange builds
audience for inclusive civic discussions
 “Little Mekong” branding for Asian business
promotion on University Ave
 Triple homicide - Who can we trust to keep us safe
after a tragedy in East African grocery? Police? More
guns? Led to off-line discussions with local teens.
Vigil proposed, hundreds gather.
 Also: Cats indoors or outdoors?, Airplane noise, etc.

115.  Post announcements and events – reach
hundreds for free
 Monitor the community agenda, advocate and
organize locally
 Answer questions, share info
 Connect people to your programs
 Encourage your members/clients/etc. to join us

116.  Neighbors Forums promote:
 Community building
 Neighbors helping neighbors
 Sharing/reusing things very locally
 Engagement with government and
accountability
 And much more

117.  Join your local Neighbors Forum today!
 Every community needs a vibrant local online place
that makes your part of the world a better .
 The lowest cost model for effectively building real
community and civic participation available today(?)
 Start a forum. You can make this happen in your
neighborhood. If you don’t who will?
 Contact us:
 http://e-democracy.org/contact
 team@e-democracy.org @edemo - Twitter
 Tel/Text: +1-651-400-0880

119.  Yes, we reach people “where they are” via
many channels and technologies
 Our “unified” integrated public forums
 Facebook Page – Forum excerpts
 Twitter – Topic headlines
 “Blog” style Web Feed – Full-text
 E-mail and web options – Most accessible, required to post
 E-mail key to active “bridge building” and
mobile use – old-fashioned but EFFECTIVE

120.  Stat tuned for more knowledge sharing
 Inclusive Social Media Lessons, Evaluation
 How to Start a Forum - Detailed
 Forum Manager How-to Webinar
 Follow our blog for updates:
 http://blog.e-democracy.org
 Key existing resources
 http://e-democracy.org/if - Guidebook and more
 http://e-democracy.org/webinars

121.  Our neighborhood-level “Issues
Forum”:
 24 forums across St. Paul and Minneapolis
▪ Many new forums - join our funded start-up campaign now
 25 start-up forums in Christchurch, New Zealand
▪ Created for post-quake recovery by two volunteers
 5 in the United Kingdom
▪ Where our “neighbourhood” level work started
 11 “city-wide” online town hall “Issues Forums”
▪ Extensive details: http://e-democracy.org/if
▪ City-level forums provide place for city-wide issues and politics
▪ Includes five Greater Minnesota towns

122.  Request one:  Recipe
 http://e-democracy.org  100 start-up members
 http://tcneighbors.org  1 local volunteer “Forum
 We technically set it up Manager” –You?
 Paper sign-ups at
 Outreach essential community events
 E-mail outreach, e-letter
 10+ forums in start-up signed by initial members
mode  Friendly round of virtual
introductions with real
people using real names
 Lessons/training from: to build trust
 http://e-democracy.org/if

123.  Strong “critical mass” launch is key to success
 Need mix of local institutions – parks, officials,
places of worship, community groups AND everyday
residents
 Forum Manager plays crucial role – needed to
“seed” forum with announcements until community
groups begin to do it themselves
 ~10% of households across forum area is a magic
threshold for “self-generative” community life
 Forum facilitation prevents difficult topics from
turning into “flame wars” – one blow out can kill a
forum

124.  Post via web
 Login at http://e-democracy.org
 Click on desired forum
 New Topic :
▪ “post a new topic” - “Topics” tab
▪ Fill in text box, press “Start”
▪ Add files (PDF, Word, etc.)
 Existing Topic:
▪ Login, read topics
▪ Text box at bottom

125.  Connect your neighbors and neighborhood?
 Make your community better? Improve civic
engagement?
 Raise diverse voices? Share local information?
 Do all this cost-effectively leveraging volunteers?
 If yes, here is an introduction on Neighbors Issues
Forums from E-Democracy.org

126.  Read via e-mail
or web
 Daily e-digest
option - topics with
direct links
 Text, files, photos,
YouTube videos

127.  Post via e-mail
 “place”@forums.e-democracy.org
 e.g. mpls-phillips@forums.e-democracy.org
 Post via web
 Login at http://e-democracy.org
 Visit desired forum and post
 Post/attach files easily (Photos, PDF, Word, etc.)

128.  Dozens of companies are getting into
the neighbor connecting business
 Visit the local social media directory
 Join the Locals Online community of
practice to join people from .org, .coms,
and many independent free spirits