The other week we jumped to over 90 members when our volunteers attended the District 7 Planning Council’s annual party with clipboards in hand (secret lesson – paper sign-ups work with local online forums, particularly when diverse community outreach is the goal) .

Here “Fresh Traditions” entertains the crowd with a mixture of traditional Hmong singing and rap (or view longer clip):

And Atom Robinson, our volunteer Forum Manager, invites the crowd and now you to sign-up.

So to help this forum reflect the great diversity of this area (the Greater Frogtown identity is a “state of mind.” Roughly we mean all of District 7 including East Midway, Frogtown, Capitol Heights, Mount Airy as well as the area north of I-94 to include small businesses on both sides of University Avenue) e-mail your friends inviting them to visit e-democracy.org/frogtown or tell them to simply Google “frogtown forum” to join us.

To take outreach to the next level, print out this flyer to post in local places or use this paper sign-up sheet to gather those on your block or visitors to your small business (be sure to Fax or mail in the sign-up form!). Like the District Council, we encourage people who live, work, or own businesses in the area to join up. If you grew up in the area or have family (particularly those off-line or those who do not speak English) and want to monitor it for them, please join us. While the forum is “online” it will connect i-person with everyday life conversations at the corner store or across the side fence. The forum is open to all who are interested with the topic scope limited to local issues in the Greater Frogtown area and community life exchanges that reflect the common experiences of neighbors (like who can recommend a good plumber or who makes your favorite Pho.)

Councilmember Melvin Carter addresses the annual party while Mayor Chris Coleman lends his shoulder to Melvin’s sleeping daughter:

Finally, we need outreach volunteers (contact us) to help us sign people up at community events and other public places to help this forum – both in membership and posts – reflect the great diversity of this area. In the 2000 Census, this ever changing community was 38% Asian-American, 22% African-American, 24% white and 9% Latino. A third of residents were born outside of the United States and 50% of households speak a language other than English at home. Announcements and discussions are welcome in any language or in multiple languages. And 31% of residents live below the poverty-level compared to 16% city wide and 8% state-wide as of 2000.

Along with our new forum in the heavily East African neighborhood of Cedar Riverside in Minneapolis, initial outreach was supported by the MSNet Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation. In recent weeks, E-Democracy.Org is happy to announce that we’ve received $7,500 to support additional outreach and support for the the Greater Frogtown Forum from the Knight Foundation’s local fund administered by the St. Paul Foundation. You too can donate toward this effort if inspired.

We are in the process of developing plans for how to enhance our outreach efforts to embrace the unique diversity of this area not just in numbers but in the online conversations that ensue. We are gathering “door prizes” to give away at 100, 150, and 200 members – so if your local Frogtown-area business would like to offer discounted gift certificates or goods for us to give away in exchange for a public thank you and link in a post, contact us with “Frogtown Door Prize” in the subject.

Personal Democracy Forum

The big Personal Democracy Forum conference is coming up next Monday and Tuesday. I’ll be speaking on Tuesday, June 30 at  3:45 p.m. in “State/Local Online Politicking: How Community Hubs Can Change the Scene” panel.

More: http://www.personaldemocracy.com/conference
#PDF09 Twitter: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23pdf09
They tend to live blog/webcast … just watch their conference website for last minute options

Participation Camp

I will also be attending the free Participation Camp “unconference” in-person over the weekend – June 27-28. I’ll be leading a couple of discussion sessions that will ALSO be able for live virtual participation via Skype. I am working up some big “electronic block club” ideas that I’ll toss into a brainstorm on building online participation at the neighborhood level. The second is an extended Q&A on  e-democracy’s 15 years of experience, tailored to participants who are new to the field. (With a new e-democracy initiative a minute it seems, why not learn from past experience!)

More: http://mudball.net/pcamp09/
Virtual Participation Info: http://radical-inclusion.com/ (It starts
now I guess, so go and register here http://pcamp.eventbrite.com/ for
free.)
#PCamp09 Twitter: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23pcamp09

If you plan to be at either event, drop me a note: or  http://twitter.com/democracy

Cheers,
Steven Clift
E-Democracy.Org

In my own neighborhood Issues Forum covering Standish and Ericsson in Minneapolis where we have close to 10% of households interacting daily, Erik Mitchell shared:

All, I regret to report that my [Erik Mitchell] wife, Jenny, was mugged today on her way home from work. She was walking from the 38th Street LRT station … a group of approximately 5 females, high school age, approached Jenny from behind, struck her in the face, and stole her purse and the grocery bag she was carrying. We’re thankful that Jenny was not seriously hurt and that no items of significant value were stolen.
- Full message

Over 30 posts later across a few topics – here, here, and here – have resulted in extensive community organizing, a public meeting on safety trends near our newer light rail line tomorrow, and this message from Jenny, who despite being mugged, now feels safer in part because of the role the online forum has played promoting awareness and action:

This is to thank everyone who sent me messages after my mugging on the pedestrian path by the 38th street LRT station. I was touched by your posts and emails. Walking home from work the next day, I felt safer thinking of all of you in your houses! I have a new appreciation for our neighborhood, and for this group especially.

I hope to see everyone at the public safety meeting Thursday–I got the flyer today (thanks, Shirley!).

Also, just an update for those of you who are curious–one of my neighbors saw the girls who mugged me, and he saw them rifle through my purse in his yard. They left my checkbook, so he was able to track me down. He also saw their faces, which he is telling to the sergeant in charge of the case. The transit police also called me and said they have the muggers on camera, and they are also passing on that info to the sergeant.

I doubt they’ll find the girls, but there’s clearly a larger issue we need to address about crime in the area. I’m grateful to live in a neighborhood where incidents such as this get a response–thanks again for your thoughts and (especially) action. – Jenny Mitchell

If your neighborhood doesn’t have its own active online forum (be that an e-mail list, web forum, blog, social networking group, etc.) you are missing out! No one knows if only 1% or 20% of local communities are covered by similar active online spaces (would make a good research project). While the world is amazed at the use of Twitter in Iran, I would argue our democratic revolution online is happening locally right under our noses but instead of the dramatic stopping power of protest, we are in a civic building mode that is beginning to help us meet public challenges even if the results are not made for television. At E-Democracy.Org we are plotting ways to extend these online spaces across neighborhoods (our Issues Forums are started by local volunteers working with (hopefully), but not waiting for permission of government, neighborhood associations, etc. who simply don’t have our experience nor confidence when it comes to hosting truly two-way online communication) in the Twin Cities and beyond. If you want to help us or simply step up as a forum manager in your area, let us know.

If you have stories about local online forums/places doing good in your own community or neighborhood where people have moved from talk to action, please share your story via the blog comments.