We used real-names with civility a decade before Facebook existed. It built trust, public agenda-setting power, and more participatory and deliberative civic engagement.

As a volunteer-driven non-profit we planted seeds for what you now see all over the world with local online groups on Facebook, Reddit, NextDoor and other advertising-based platforms.

We have some bad news to share.

Our forum host was wiped out in June of 2024, including full back-ups of our forums.e-democracy.org site.

• Forums Archive – A partial archive covering 2014-2024
  
  
• Where to land?
  • Mpls-Issues – We recommend /minneapolis on Reddit
  • StPaul-Issues – We recommend /stpaul on Reddit
  • MN-Politics – We recommend /minnesota on Reddit
  • Mpls-Seward
  • Framingham
  • Other neighborhoods – Facebook groups
• Background – For background on our history from 1994-2024 see:
  • About
  • Our Lessons
  • Election Info:
    • 1994 (world’s first) – Some additional history from Scott Aikens
    • 1996
    • 1998 we inspired Web White & Blue (that our founder led) which introduced Americans to the brand new idea that the Internet could be a useful resource for informed voting.
    • Candidate E-Debates
      
      
• Global Knowledge Exchange
  • Civic Technology and Open Government Facebook Group – Remains open
  • Democracies Online
    • Newswire Archives: 2006-2021 – 2003-2006 – 2000-2003 – 1998-2000
    • Global Case Studies – Commissioned by the UK government
    • Also see articles from our founder Steven Clift

While OnlineGroups.Net has restore our website, posting via email or the web has yet to be restored.

The best we can say is that OnlineGroups.Net is working on it. We have no estimate on when service will be restored other than hoping it was yesterday. We apologize for the inconvenience.

An opportunity

On a related note, the Board for E-Democracy.org recently commissioned me to review our future forum hosting options. Before this outage, we knew it was time to explore what was next.

As perhaps the last non-profit in the world hosting local community online groups on an open source platform, we have an opportunity to experiment and do this differently than services filled with ads. Or, frankly, it is time to just go with the flow and “just use Facebook.” Let’s figure that out.

As our forums are 100% volunteer based and our tech costs are covered by your vital donations, E-Democracy has a wee bit of savings to explore our options and transition if needed.

From sticking with the current GroupServer platform, to moving to Facebook Groups or Google Groups, to exploring other open source platforms like Discourse, MailMan 3, or some new platform you recommend, we will be in consultation with you, our participants.

Vitally, if you have software development skills or online hosting capacity you can donate in-kind and you want to help us explore our options, please get in touch ASAP. Certain options will only be viable with your help.

We started E-Democracy with all volunteers way in 1994 and we cherish what we can do differently to serve our communities with better participation and a more engaged democracy. With the right kind of sustained volunteer commitment, we can code our democratic DNA into what we use next or improve the current platform we use to keep this a vital independent service for the communities we serve.

Thanks,

Steven Clift
Founder, E-Democracy.org

P.S. If you would like to make a major donation to expand our options for future hosting, please donate here. Thanks.

Update – Facebook Live Webcast On-Demand

Ask a live question via Facebook comments or watch for a link that will let you do it via video. Or if you are in the Twin Cities, join us in-person – see below.

Last week their open source digital idea generation and participatory budgeting tech was featured globally in the Financial Times: The world watches Reykjakik’s digital democracy experiment. If that wasn’t awesome enough, now they’ve been invited to present at Open Twin Cities. Dream and dream big they have.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Every 1st Tuesday of the month

Granicus – The generous conference room host!
408 Saint Peter St · Saint Paul, MN
Take the elevator to the 6th floor

This message is an invitation to apply for 2-3 openings on the E-Democracy Board. We meet via teleconference, so this is an opportunity for all.

In a social media world dominated by big market players, we are a proudly volunteer-powered and participant supported digital farmer’s market. We are now one of the only independent, non-profit, open-source technology hosted, citizen-based efforts supporting local online civic engagement in the world.

With our recent pledge drive, we doubled our number of individual donors compared to two years ago. These vital funds pay for our essential technology hosting and help desk to support our many volunteers and thousands of participants.

With our ongoing outreach, within two years we’ve built perhaps the world’s most useful and globally diverse online communities sharing knowledge in our space with the Open Government and Civic Technology Facebook Group.

You get involved with E-Democracy because you believe in strengthening your local community with digital tools. And/or you get involved because you care about actually improving democracy and promoting open government with digital innovation everywhere. With this unique local-global hybrid approach, we go locally deep with inclusive online community and civic engagement where volunteers have stepped forward and global with convening and 24×7 lesson sharing online.

Looking Forward

E-Democracy has two major trends/opportunities to consider:

1. Local online civic engagement – From reviewing the open source platform we use or will use in future years to working to share our inclusion mission, lessons, and strategic actions with the thousands of everyday e-citizens fostering local online engagement on platforms like Facebook Groups, we have lots to consider when it comes to serving local communities online.

2. Global civic technology and democracy online networking – Our vibrant Facebook Group, the Democracies Online Newswire, our directory of online e-democracy related groups, and global speaking and online lesson sharing is extremely important. What should we do next that builds on that impact? What could be done to dramatically improve how “democracy builders” (the non tech folks) use online engagement to share knowledge and motivation like the civic tech/open government crowd does so well?

This is just the beginning of what might be explored.

With UK Board member Mary Reid and US Board Member Laura Waterman Wittstock retiring (thank you!), E-Democracy’s Board is ready to take on new members. We will be reviewing applicants over the next couple months.

We do have a strong interest in seeing Board applicants who are active on our online community forums (e.g. Minneapolis Neighbors Forums, Framingham forums) as well as those engaged globally via our civic tech and open government Facebook Group. As we are currently member-supported via individual donations, those with fund raising experience will add to our base. But surprise us with your skills, interests, and passion. All ages welcome as well … note that I started E-Democracy when I was 25.

Here is the process.

1. Read these two short documents:

• E-Democracy Mission and Strategic Plan
  
• E-Democracy Board Members Duties

2. You may optionally review our recent work, current Board list, etc.:

• 2015 Year in Review
• Board Members
• About Issues Forums  – local forums background
• Open Government and Civic Technology Facebook Group  – knowledge exchange

3. Apply Here

4. The Board will review applications and determine which candidates fit our greatest needs right now.

On a related point, if you would rather just volunteer with E-Democracy in our local forums, note this volunteer form (if you want to help with the pledge drive for 2017, note that in the comment box, we have a special committee).

Or if you would like to assist the newly forming Advisory Committee for our Open Government and Civic Technology Facebook Group, send me a note.

E-Democracy was a small civic spark in 1994. Today, it is steady flame in a world swirling with explosions related too often to the negative uses of technology and social media in society and politics. As the social media world around us generates heat, threatens civility in democracy, and often tears our communities a part based on difference, let us find a way to see the light of not just what is easily possible, but what is seemly impossible but essential for strong communities and vibrant democracies in the digital era.

Sincerely,
Steven Clift
Founder and Executive Director, E-Democracy.org

1. Your Neighborhoods/Neighbourhoods

• We love neighborhoods! – Our strongest Neighbors Forums continue to thrive – from lost dogs being reunited to free stuff to vital community issues being discussed the local communities online movement is spreading – particularly on Facebook Groups – all around the world. Our “how to” lessons with Neighbors Online are useful across all platforms. Our volunteer-based, non-profit, inclusive public space and open source for local communities online remains a unique around the world. In addition to serving our communities, we are a lesson-building test bed and passionate about open sharing. What new ideas do you have for communities online? Share them! Let’s get creative.
• Twin Cities Participant Survey Released – Amazing insights were shared with all from a whopping 1300 respondents on our blog. 56% credit their forum for being more satisfied with their local community. 79% more informed about community issues, 45% learned more about how to influence community decisions, 32% learned more about neighbors of different races and ethnicity, 22% do more favors for neighbors than before, 41 attend more community events, 42% visit local businesses or hire neighbors for odd jobs more. Over 750 people have reviewed these results and the University of Pittsburgh continues to generate related research from our activities.
• Finished BeNeighbors.org Report to Knight Foundation – We strongly believe that inclusion is vital including connecting local communities online across race, income, and immigrant/native born is vital. If you would like review our grant report, please contact us. Unfortunately, the venture funded and commercial-based neighbors online connecting efforts with the major resources today are hyper-connecting the most wired and higher income neighborhoods far more than lower income areas. They are not working to intentionally building bridges among diverse communities. We have have many ideas about what is needed to promote more inclusion that is socially essential to counter the exclusive resident-only gated-community approaches so attractive to Silicon Valley investors. Get in touch if you want to help us make those ideas a reality. We will continue to build on our inclusion mission with volunteer capacity in our neighborhoods to show how openness and inclusion works.

2. Your Community

• Growth – Our community-wide efforts in Framingham and now Westwood in Massachusetts continue to grow. The Saint Paul Issues Forum was a hopping forum this year and the #stpaul15 Election 2015 directory and experimental Local Candidates Facebook Interest List collecting posts from scores of local candidates promotes social media connecting with candidates and elected officials.
• Our city-wide “online townhall model” – like the Minneapolis Issues Forum – remains an important missing gap for participation in almost all cities. While neighborhoods online is spreading on many platforms, spaces for city-wide civil discussion of happenings in local city councils remains very rare.
• Open Twin Cities with Code for America – E-Democracy is the proud fiscal agent for one of the world’s best local “Brigades.” With 2 local meetups each month and hackathons, this is a great example of community-wide open government and civic technology innovation.

3. Our Democracies – Local Democracy on up to Worldwide Impact

(These are volunteer or contract revenue generating activities that further support our forums.)

• Global Convening – E-Democracy’s exciting Open Government and Civic Technology Facebook Group is approaching 5,000 members from 100+ nations. Join in on this global sharing engine. This year we’ve hosted civic tech social gatherings in Washington DC (after our Executive Director met one on one with staff from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) and Brussels via the “events” feature on the group. Our Democracies Online Newswire email list remains our most powerful knowledge sharing tool and our directory of over 100 e-democracy related online groups remains popular.
• Taiwan, Philippines, Community of Democracies in El Salvador and more –  E-Democracy’s work and 20 years of e-democracy lessons were shared by our Executive Director Steven Clift as a guest of the U.S. State Department in Taiwan in July. Check out this geekier version of the presentation in video (with Chinese translation). Presentations continued in the Philippines including one to nearly 1,000 students at the City University of Manila. Weeks later, we presented a case study on E-Democracy from our neighbors online work at the 106 nation Community of Democracies conference (a network of national governments promoting democracy). Next up is participation in the World Forum for Democracy hosted by the Council of Europe next week. Steven has been working for the UK-based Knowledge Hub and his 1 Radio News start-up while volunteering for E-Democracy which he co-founded in 1994. These efforts need to be thanked for their flexibility with time spent on E-Democracy.
• Online Deliberation – E-Democracy finished our report to the Kettering Foundation on lessons from our pilot use of their Common Ground for Action platform for online deliberation. E-Democracy provides contract services where possible as grants for inclusive online civic engagement work have dried up with more focus on technological solutions and open data. E-Democracy remains a people first, technology second organization.
• Global Civic Tech Collaboration – Contracted by UK-based mySociety.org, E-Democracy led a special three month project to expand online engagement in the Poplus.org civic tech collaboration effort. Unlike most tech projects that under-invest in human-centered outreach and engagement, Poplus.org made engagement a priority. We increased the number of countries represented on the group from 60 to 80 and added 200 new members. Read the exciting round of introductions.
• YourNextRepresentative – E-Democracy is collaborating with DataMade in Chicago, mySociety in the UK, and Congreso Interactivo of Argentina to deploy YourNextRep for the Minnesota state legislative election early in 2016. This will be the first pilot deployment of the innovative UK YourNextMP project which made candidates for parliament far more accessible online. The crowd-sourced data was so good, Google used it as the semi-official data source of candidate links. Join the Poplus.org online group and/or MN-Politics forum to get involved or contact us.
• Ideas for Open Government and Inclusion – In our meetings with White House staff, the Sunlight Foundation and others, people have expressed an interest in new data from a census survey of 40,000+ Americans on their Internet use which includes a question on e-government service use. We analyzed the previous survey here and see an opportunity for the “open government” community to better understand who is and is not being reached with government online so we can target our scarce resources to do something about it. Join here and contact us for more information. We are seeking funding to lead a research and dissemination effort building on this just released data (which buried e-gov use in “other”). We also included use of this data in a Knight News Challenge proposal about the “democratic data deficit.” That proposal includes some of our latest thinking about filling the gaps with open government/civic tech/e-democracy that need to be filled.

1. Your Neighborhood/Neighbourhood
2. Your Community
3. Our Democracies – Local democracy on up to worldwide impact

At the end of last year, we had our most successful pledge drive to date. One donation drive a year – hopefully short – is our goal!

Thanks to your help, we doubled of our number of donors. With two surprise $1000 donations at the end, we blew past our bare bones budget goal of $10,000 and raised $12,000 to pay for our online hosting and help desk support all throughout 2015.

From our online community forum members in Massachusetts and Minnesota to new donors from our UK forums and global “e-democracy” supporters, we pulled together to make our volunteer-based forums 100% self-sufficient all year. You – our participants and supporters – made it happen. Thank you.

Now it is time to launch into 2016 with gusto. Donate today.

Today is the beginning of our end of year pledge drive.

• Nov. 12 – Donate via Give to the Max Day – Focus on Minnesota forums – So far we’ve raised $1915 from 58 donors today. Keep it going.
• Dec 1 – #GivingTuesday – Massachusetts and UK forums, global e-democracy supporter focus – You can donate now if you like!
• Until we raise $15,000 Total (that’s 10,000 GBP for our UK neighbors) – Donate now to shorten the drive, set a recurring donation, or contact us about making a matching fund pledge to help us build support from new donors
• Donate by Check Option - Mail to: E-Democracy, 3211 E. 44th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55406, USA

Donate to E-Democracy @GiveMN Special donation drives for Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Framingham, MA.

Or Donate in US Dollars Globally – $ Donate from the UK – £

This year, we need to raise $15,000/10,000 GBP to support our online hosting costs (successfully delivering ~30,000 emails from posters to readers everyday is expensive – that’s over one million individual community/democracy building connections delivered a year), our vital Help Desk service, and modest software/feature improvements for 2016. This cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the value of volunteers hours unleashed in every neighborhood we serve on up to our volunteer Executive Director role.

In the coming days and weeks, we will update you on our pledge drive progress.

At the bottom of every email is an opt-out form. We understand that not every member of our local forums wants to receive updates about the entire network. And for the 3,500 new members on our forums site getting this special update for the first time, please note the details on our activities this year below. We are a small non-profit with a democracy building mission, not just a technology provider. Thanks.

We miss you Dan

We share these 2015 highlights in memory of Dan Jellinek, E-Democracy’s first Board member from the UK. Dan was taken from his family and all of us by a sudden and unexpected brain hemorrhage last month. In honour of Dan, we recommend you check out his People to the People book.

*E-Democracy’s 2015 Highlights

• 1. Your Neighborhoods/Neighbourhoods
  • We love neighborhoods! – Our strongest Neighbors Forums continue to thrive – from lost dogs being reunited to free stuff to vital community issues being discussed the local communities online movement is spreading – particularly on Facebook Groups – all around the world. Our “how to” lessons with Neighbors Online are useful across all platforms. Our volunteer-based, non-profit, inclusive public space and open source for local communities online remains a unique around the world. In addition to serving our communities, we are a lesson-building test bed and passionate about open sharing. What new ideas do you have for communities online? Share them! Let’s get creative.
  • Twin Cities Participant Survey Released – Amazing insights were shared with all from a whopping 1300 respondents on our blog. 56% credit their forum for being more satisfied with their local community. 79% more informed about community issues, 45% learned more about how to influence community decisions, 32% learned more about neighbors of different races and ethnicity, 22% do more favors for neighbors than before, 41 attend more community events, 42% visit local businesses or hire neighbors for odd jobs more. Over 750 people have reviewed these results and the University of Pittsburgh continues to generate related research from our activities.
  • Finished BeNeighbors.org Report to Knight Foundation – We strongly believe that inclusion is vital including connecting local communities online across race, income, and immigrant/native born is vital. If you would like review our grant report, please contact us. Unfortunately, the venture funded and commercial-based neighbors online connecting efforts with the major resources today are hyper-connecting the most wired and higher income neighborhoods far more than lower income areas. They are not working to intentionally building bridges among diverse communities. We have have many ideas about what is needed to promote more inclusion that is socially essential to counter the exclusive resident-only gated-community approaches so attractive to Silicon Valley investors. Get in touch if you want to help us make those ideas a reality. We will continue to build on our inclusion mission with volunteer capacity in our neighborhoods to show how openness and inclusion works.
• 2. Your Community
  • Growth – Our community-wide efforts in Framingham and now Westwood in Massachusetts continue to grow. The Saint Paul Issues Forum was a hopping forum this year and the #stpaul15 Election 2015 directory and experimental Local Candidates Facebook Interest List collecting posts from scores of local candidates promotes social media connecting with candidates and elected officials.
  • Our city-wide “online townhall model” – like the Minneapolis Issues Forum – remains an important missing gap for participation in almost all cities. While neighborhoods online is spreading on many platforms, spaces for city-wide civil discussion of happenings in local city councils remains very rare.
  • Open Twin Cities with Code for America – E-Democracy is the proud fiscal agent for one of the world’s best local “Brigades.” With 2 local meetups each month and hackathons, this is a great example of community-wide open government and civic technology innovation.
• 3. Our Democracies – Local Democracy on up to Worldwide Impact (These are volunteer or contract revenue generating activities that further support our forums.)
  • Global Convening – E-Democracy’s exciting Open Government and Civic Technology Facebook Group is approaching 5,000 members from 100+ nations. Join in on this global sharing engine. This year we’ve hosted civic tech social gatherings in Washington DC (after our Executive Director met one on one with staff from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) and Brussels via the “events” feature on the group. Our Democracies Online Newswire email list remains our most powerful knowledge sharing tool and our directory of over 100 e-democracy related online groups remains popular.
  • Taiwan, Philippines, Community of Democracies in El Salvador and more –  E-Democracy’s work and 20 years of e-democracy lessons were shared by our Executive Director Steven Clift as a guest of the U.S. State Department in Taiwan in July. Check out this geekier version of the presentation in video (with Chinese translation). Presentations continued in the Philippines including one to nearly 1,000 students at the City University of Manila. Weeks later, we presented a case study on E-Democracy from our neighbors online work at the 106 nation Community of Democracies conference (a network of national governments promoting democracy). Next up is participation in the World Forum for Democracy hosted by the Council of Europe next week. Steven has been working for the UK-based Knowledge Hub and his 1 Radio News start-up while volunteering for E-Democracy which he co-founded in 1994. These efforts need to be thanked for their flexibility with time spent on E-Democracy.
  • Online Deliberation – E-Democracy finished our report to the Kettering Foundation on lessons from our pilot use of their Common Ground for Action platform for online deliberation. E-Democracy provides contract services where possible as grants for inclusive online civic engagement work have dried up with more focus on technological solutions and open data. E-Democracy remains a people first, technology second organization.
  • Global Civic Tech Collaboration – Contracted by UK-based mySociety.org, E-Democracy led a special three month project to expand online engagement in the Poplus.org civic tech collaboration effort. Unlike most tech projects that under-invest in human-centered outreach and engagement, Poplus.org made engagement a priority. We increased the number of countries represented on the group from 60 to 80 and added 200 new members. Read the exciting round of introductions.
  • YourNextRepresentative – E-Democracy is collaborating with DataMade in Chicago, mySociety in the UK, and Congreso Interactivo of Argentina to deploy YourNextRep for the Minnesota state legislative election early in 2016. This will be the first pilot deployment of the innovative UK YourNextMP project which made candidates for parliament far more accessible online. The crowd-sourced data was so good, Google used it as the semi-official data source of candidate links. Join the Poplus.org online group and/or MN-Politics forum to get involved or contact us.
  • Ideas for Open Government and Inclusion – In our meetings with White House staff, the Sunlight Foundation and others, people have expressed an interest in new data from a census survey of 40,000+ Americans on their Internet use which includes a question on e-government service use. We analyzed the previous survey here and see an opportunity for the “open government” community to better understand who is and is not being reached with government online so we can target our scarce resources to do something about it. Join here and contact us for more information. We are seeking funding to lead a research and dissemination effort building on this just released data (which buried e-gov use in “other”). We also included use of this data in a Knight News Challenge proposal about the “democratic data deficit.” That proposal includes some of our latest thinking about filling the gaps with open government/civic tech/e-democracy that need to be filled.

• Donate to E-Democracy @GiveMN Special donation drives for Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Framingham, MA.

  Or Donate in US Dollars Globally – $ Donate from the UK – £

• 1994 – Worldâ€s first election information website. First online candidate debate. MN-Politics online forum launched creating longest lasting statewide online citizen-to-citizen discussion active to today.
• 1995 – Our statewide “online town hall” takes hold and E-Democracy becomes a trusted, neutral, nonprofit host of dialogue among people with differing views and backgrounds

• 1996-97 – E-Democracy invited to share lessons starting in Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, and more
• 1998-99 – The Minneapolis Issues Forum and St. Paul Issues Forum took the online town hall model local. More women, elected officials, and active citizens participate
• 2000 – Winona Community Forum launched; global Democracies Online Newswire promoting civic participation online grows to 1,000 members
• 2001-03 – E-Democracy receives Minneapolis Award from Mayor R.T. Rybak, the John F. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award, and is listed among the 25 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics
• 2005 – British government funds pilot forums and “how to” guidebook for the UK; E-Democracy receives Honourable Mention for online communities in the Ars Prix Electronica Awards in Linz, Austria
• 2006 – E-Democracy receives Minneapolis Foundation MSNet Fund planning grant for inclusive Minneapolis neighborhood forums targeted to lower income, highly diverse, high immigrant areas; lead founder Steven Cliftâ€s election to the Ashoka Fellow fellowship for “leading the way to healthier democracy by using the Internet for local discussion and citizen participation” allows him to focus on the nonprofit full-time
• 2007 – Bristol and Oxford neighborhood forums launch; E-Democracy blog starts; MSNet funded Neighborhood Forums Project starts; Minnesota Rural Voices project launches with Blandin Foundation support; Forums launch in Minneapolis in Cedar Riverside, Roseville, Seward, and Standish Ericsson neighborhoods, and in Las Vegas, Nevada
• 2008 – New forums include Twin Cities: Minneapolis- Northeast, Powderhorn; St. Paul- Frogtown; Greater Minnesota- Bemidji, Cass Lake Leech Lake, Cook County, Grand Rapids, Minnesota Voices online community of practice; UK- Bristol: Brislington, Greater Bedminster; Oxford: Cowley, Headington and Marston, Central and Southwest
• 2009 – PACE, in collaboration with the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, features E-Democracy in the guide “Funding and Fostering Local Democracy: What Philanthropy Should Know About the Emerging Field of Deliberation and Democratic Governance;” new forums include St. Paul- Highland Park and the United States Issues Forum

2010-2011- E-Democracy receives a multi-year Ford Foundation grant to deepen inclusive – serving lower income, strongly immigrant/diverse neighborhoods – online forum engagement in the Cedar Riverside and Frogtown neighborhoods and to prepare for expansion; Digital Inclusion Network, Locals Online, and other online communities of practice launch 2012-2014 – Major Knight Foundation funding received to expand inclusive online community engagement to reach 10,000 forum members across St. Paul and to share lessons nationally. Minneapolis forums in Standish Ericsson and Powderhorn cross 1,000 members each and connect an estimated 25% of local households daily. E-Democracy in collaboration with Code for America, serves as the host for Open Twin Cities, an open government civic technology meetup and network.

• 2015 – 2016 – Worldâ€s most comprehensive “neighbors online” participant survey results released showing many reason why forum members love their forums.  E-Democracy transitions to self-sufficiency doubling the number of individual donors to support forum hosting and support 100%. Contracts with the Kettering Foundation to lead experiments with their Common Ground for Action online deliberation platform and with UK-based mySociety to grow the global Poplus.org to over 80 nations in their online community. As a global convenor, E-Democracy brings their Open Government and Civic Technology Facebook Group to nearly 5,000 members from 120+ countries.

Currently, we have over 40 online forums with over 26,000 members across the globe focusing on inclusive online community/civic engagement. Of the 18,000+ forum memberships in the Twin Cities, over 80% of our participants engage at the neighborhood “community life exchange” level where our funded programming is currently focused. As of today, our story has been told by co-founder and Executive Director Steven Clift, around the United States and in over 35 countries.

While we have more in-depth analysis to do, we wanted to share the top line results from our 1350 respondents. That’s a big pool – about 10% of our individual participants just on our Twin Cities Neighbors Forums (not our city-wide forums or other cities) with active accounts.

If you are new to E-Democracy and our Neighbors Forums (our BeNeighbors.org project), our online neighborhood spaces (combined email/web forum/social network) connect up to 30% of households ~daily in some areas.

Here are our top line results in PDF and responses comparing Minneapolis and St. Paul forums (PDF) (notable differences) – the answer tables for questions 9-12 are most insightful.

The questions PDF might be useful for those creating similar surveys for use elsewhere – we spent nearly two years crafting these based on dozens of surveys we collected and gathered feedback along the way including support from Network Impact who was commissioned by the Knight Foundation to work with a number of leading civic technology projects they had funded.

We will add more analysis as it is available here.

Here is some useful background on the three year inclusive outreach project which ended with 2014 funding wise. We even received some White House Champions of Change recognition along the way.

We used Census data to help target our Saint Paul outreach and our forums use official city neighborhood boundaries which in theory mean Census data can be used in further analysis (we used this data source on neighborhood profiles extensively). We are seeking opportunities to further this extremely unique online inclusive engagement work as part of a research initiative for greater lesson-sharing. Along those lines, our public forum data is generating useful research and leading to academic papers and publications. We are interested in how survey data might be combined with forum data (of course on an anonymous basis) to generate more knowledge on impact and what works.

Some analysis now:

Some compelling results …

Percent of participants who said “as a result of information or discussions on your Neighbors Forum” (Q11) they:

• 79% are more informed about community issues
• 67% were introduced to new ideas and views
• 45% learned more on how to influence community decisions
• 32% learned more about neighbors of difference races, ethnicities (39% in the lower income parts of St. Paul we targeted for inclusive field outreach)

And amazingly (to us anyway):

•  56% credit their forum for making them “more satisfied with my local community as a place to live or work.”

In deeper analysis, we’ve found that increasing community satisfaction is an indicator question where respondents on our four most engaged Minneapolis forums credit their forum far more at 70% for increasing satisfaction. For neighborhoods and cities seeking to attract and retain residents including new talent, fostering online neighborly connections appears to be part of the secret sauce “welcome mat” for great communities.

While our funded inclusive outreach makes our network perhaps far more representative than other online civic engagement/online neighborhood efforts, participants are essentially self-selected. To that end, we are excited to share our rough analysis from the 3,000 respondent Minneapolis Digital Inclusion survey which actually allows us to see our forum’s likely direct impact on the population as a whole.

In terms of prompting action (Q12), forums that led “you to do or increase any of the following” the forums delivered (Yes, I did this AND it increased because of the forum):

• 8.5% more volunteer locally (39% did this already at level not increased because of forum)
• 11% donate more often to a local charity or cause (43% did this already…)
• 15% work more with residents to make change (32% did this already…)
• 16% sign a petition more often (34% did this already…)
• 17% meet community members in-person more (36% did this already…)
• 18.5% contact elected officials or government more (32% did this already…)
• 22% do favors or share goods with neighbors more often (31% did this already…)
• 28% attend more community meetings (28% did this already…)
• 41% attend more community events and festivals (35% did this already…)
• 42% visit a business, restaurant or hire someone recommended on forum more (25% did this already…)

See question 12 for results on what people already did (Neighbors Forums do attract community-spirited people). Separating out those who would have generated social capital anyway without our forum from those who credit the forum with moving the needle on civic engagement is hugely important. Future analysis on the characteristics of forums generating more action will be useful. Future projects that build on these positive outcomes would be exciting the explore.

Emerging analysis

• Other Platforms – With question 19, it is notable to point out that only 19% of our respondents are members of NextDoor and 29% report being on a private online group/email list for their nearest neighbors. 32% in St. Paul compared to 23% in Minneapolis report being on a public or large Facebook group or other forum outside of E-Democracy for their larger neighborhood. In St. Paul, folks who are both E-Democracy and NextDoor members compared to all E-Democracy members are somewhat less likely to be immigrants or the children of immigrants, higher educated, less likely to be a renter, more white, and higher income. This requires more analysis, but initial results support our concern that without inclusive outreach online neighborhood groups will cement ties among neighbors who are most similar or already socially connected and leave out vital parts of our local communities by the design of their systems even if not by intent. (Mar 3)
• Gender – Also notable is that 64% of our respondents were female. A 2010 survey by PewInternet.org found a similar gender mix. Notably a recent participant survey of mySociety’s online political participation efforts had the reverse gender mix – it is our view that intentionally connecting neighbors online up into civic participation is perhaps the best path to better representation in civics online. (Mar 3)
• Word of Mouth Power – Despite the focus on our in-person outreach on St. Paul, more people in Minneapolis learned of their forum offline (44% offline, 38% online) compared to St. Paul (37% offline, 48% online). Why? An active and engaged online civic forum like those in South Minneapolis can spread via community connections face to face. Such invites probably increase trust in the forum building a virtuous circle. Of course this also suggests just how challenging it is to go into new neighborhoods with less existing civic capacity from scratch AND how important it is to do what we did with inclusive intent to go beyond existing ties. In future work, combining our inclusive outreach with our strongest existing forums presents an untapped opportunity for reaching all neighbors with an integration oriented and inclusive bring all neighbors approach (for example Latino outreach in Powderhorn or East African outreach in Seward neighborhoods).Here is a recap on how our participants found out about their forums:
  • St. Paul – 48% Online, 37% Offline
  • Minneapolis – 38% Online, 44% Offline
  • Of those who found out offline:
    • St. Paul
      • Door – 20%
      • Community event/festival – 41%
      • Word of mouth – 27%
      • Community newsletter – 7%
    • Minneapolis
      • Door – 1%
      • Community event/festival – 29% (we did table in Mpls at major/ethnic events)
      • Word of mouth – 66%
      • Community newsletter – 7%

(Added Mar 8)

This article is a work in progress …

Survey Says … (text from our e-newsletter)

The exciting participant survey results are coming in from Minneapolis and Saint Paul with over 1350 responses. They show great comparative success in reaching the broader local community with inclusion in Saint Paul while clearly our Minneapolis neighborhood forums are stronger.(1)

Door to door worked. Community festivals worked.

Working with two awesome summer outreach teams that spoke ten different languages total over two summers was amazing. The dedication and perspiration of young people who once lived in refugee camps in Kenya and Thailand to an African-American Grandmother homeless and living with friends when we hired her was was amazing.

Here is what participants find “very important” in ranked order:

• Get community news and event announcements
• Neighbors helping neighbors
• Learn about local businesses and services
• Share information or ideas
• Discuss or understand others views on community issues
• Get involved in local initiative or causes
• Meet neighbors and other community members (in-person)

The survey tells us that the more active your forum is the more you are actually satisfied with your community as a place to live. Wow.

Because of your forums directly, more of you attend community events (41%) or meetings (28), visit local businesses or hire neighbors for odd jobs (43%), do favors for neighbors (22%), donate to local groups (10%), contact elected officials (18%), sign petitions (16%) or work for local change (15%), or volunteer in the community (8%). This is above and beyond the many who said they already did these things and did not credit the forum for an increase. Our members are community builders.

In fact, on our four super active forums in South Minneapolis 70% agreed that because of their forum, they are “more satisfied with my local community as a place to live or work.” On our less active Saint Paul and Minneapolis forums, the average who agree with this came in under 50%. Notably however, those who better represent the diversity of Saint Paul that we signed up at their door reported in with one of the highest percentages strongly agreeing with this statement – more so than all but one of our super active forums!

(1) Our South Minneapolis forums became well established a few years earlier before the diffusion of local online spaces like Facebook Groups and NextDoor. These new choices divided neighborhood attention and likely attracted the engagement of people in St. Paul similar to those who naturally flocked to our Minneapolis forums and to this day share community content actively. Participants who share – who post useful content are key to engagement. While not all Neighbors Forums in St. Paul today are more limited one-way community announcement services, two-way community discussions and trust-building community engagement on our strongest Minneapolis forums continues to thrive.

Key Tables and Charts

Here are someone detailed results. See the full PDF for more including how people learned about their forums specifically.

9. How important to you are the following things you can do on your Neighbors Forum?

10. To what extent is your forum meeting your needs? How *satisfied* are you with the opportunity that your forum has provided in the last 12 months to…

11. As a result of information or discussions on your Neighbors Forum, in the last 12 months…

It will be very interesting to compare Minneapolis and Saint Paul results related to learning about neighbors across diversity. As our field outreach was only funded for St. Paul and our four most active Neighbors Forums are in Minneapolis, to really test this goal new resources to do inclusive outreach in S. Minneapolis would be crucial. It is our experience that location-based neighborhood connecting, particularly on commercial sites, connect wired, wealthier, whiter home owners most easily and that inclusive outreach requires real intent and resources.

Being more satisfied with their community as a place to live because of their Neighbors Forum tells a big story about about forum quality. Those one our four “super” forums as noted above were far more likely to give their forum some credit. In forums that are honestly relatively quiet (particularly in areas of St. Paul with competing Facebook Groups or Next Door traction) I our view people were more satisfied than they should have been. If they only knew what they were missing from how our active forums really thrive. This question showed the impact of a strong forum versus those not used on a literally an hourly basis to connect the community.

12. In the last 12 months, did something on your Neighbors Forum lead you to do or increase any of the following?

Here are open ended survey responses sorted into theme.

Select survey comments/stories sorted by theme:

• Promoting local festivals and events –
• Promoting local businesses and service providers –
• Discussing community issues and happenings –
• We especially appreciate the neighborhood councils, recreation centers and libraries using the forums –
• And the connections made between being alert about crime and building strong neighborhoods –
• And other local issues that matter –
• Being connected and informed helps us take action –
• Together, we make things happen –
• Our ideas get carried forward to committees and local councils –
• We build strong communities when we meet –
• That keep us in touch with our humanity –
• We strengthen our connections when we exchange things –
• And, together, we care for our companions –
• And build welcoming communities –
• And yes, thereâ€s more work to be done –
• But in the end –

Having just completed the participant survey, this is an opportune moment to give a shout out to those who make the forums thrive by:

Promoting local festivals and events –

• Because of this forum my family attended several summer events in the area. Thank you.

• Events shared are always appreciated and make me feel more involved in my community.

• Without a neighborhood newspaper the forum has provided basic community happenings, which has improved my sense of community.

Promoting local businesses and service providers –

• I think one of the biggest things the Neighbors Forum does is help you when you’re looking for a service. We discovered a new mechanic who we are extremely happy with thanks to the forum. Same goes for our plumber. It’s great to hear the different suggestions and experiences folks have had. Invaluable.

• As a local business owner, I make an effort to support other local businesses near my own. I try and use the hardware store, gas station, restaurants and other service providers in my neighborhood.

• I just contacted one person highly recommended for handyman, and discovered he had lived across the street on my block since 1980–the same year we moved here! He’s going to patch our ceiling soon.

• Our neighbors forum has been celebrating small business in the area. My partner and I are launching our own venture, and it has been so helpful to have community support behind our shop. This has been made possible by the Neighbors Forum, as we meet people that we don’t really “know” but have a mutual affinity for, as they are neighbors, locals who really want us to succeed.

• I found amazing locally sourced fresh strawberries available the last few autumns by a local farmer only available with E-Democracy.

• Someone shared CSA options in the neighborhood and I signed up for one and I very much enjoyed it this summer.

• Finding recommended vendors and service providers has taken the stress out of guessing.

Discussing community issues and happenings –

• The forums keep me up to date on the issues of the city, especially the controversies that people want to talk about. Theyâ€re the best place to learn about what is going on with proposed developments, vacant lots, city ordinances that impact the neighborhood.  [combined]

• Even though not all topics are of interest to me, reading them gives me a better understanding of community perspectives other than my own. I believe this to be a crucial component of an inclusive and diverse community.

• I did learn a little more about the complexity/differences between long-standing community members and newer residents, differences in perception regarding whose voice is “authentic,” “credible,” “legitimate”.

We especially appreciate the neighborhood councils, recreation centers and libraries using the forums –

• I work for SENA – the neighborhood organization for Standish & Ericsson. The forum has been a very valuable means for us to get information out to a large part of the community.

• We were able to get the word out about National Night Out and had lots of participation from the neighborhood.

• Excellent programs and lectures at the library are posted. I have discovered this is a much better resource than expected.

• A community member on the Forum read one of my library postings about the Library Card Art Contest. She entered her art piece and it was picked as a runner-up!

• I like when the police liaison and the neighborhood association chime in on discussions.

And the connections made between being alert about crime and building strong neighborhoods –

• It has made a big difference to me to know about crime in my neighborhood and how connecting with others can make a difference in how we watch for each other.

• Being informed and aware of what is going on has made me feel safer and more connected.

• I think in general when someone shares about crime or suspicious activity in the neighborhood it is helpful. Everyone knows to stay more aware and keep their eyes open for things like that.

• There was a lot of discussion about the Ray Widstrand incident — very heated at times, with opposing voices being heard, albeit not without some hurt feelings. I felt this ongoing discussion was very enlightening because it gave insight into how differently neighbors from the same community saw this and other negative events that occurred around the same time.

• A few years ago, when the woman was sexually assaulted in Powderhorn Park at gunpoint, with her children present — the way people in the community organized an event and got the word out through the forum was great.

• We have helped each other be more aware of increases in specific crimes, and helped each other take precautions against them.

• Weâ€re not in the safest neighborhood, but when we heard gunshots right outside our house, our friend and neighbor was quick to find the police report and post it for everyone. It made me feel a little safer, just that everyone was talking about what happened, not ignoring it or hiding, or becoming too scared.

• I attended the open forum on crime at the local police station which was advertised in the forum. The tips on how to make your home, garage, and yard more secure were very helpful. I really appreciated the time and effort of the neighborhood crime specialists to share their expertise with the public.

• It’s kind of like a virtual neighborhood crime watch. I love knowing what is going on in the area!!  It makes me feel more secure. [combined]

And other local issues that matter –

(formerly Campaigns/Elected Officials)

• It really helped me to understand the rationale behind some decisions being made by our local government. It was nice to hear others opinions, both those that agreed with me and those that did not.

• When I was an appointed official, it helped me stay connected to the community and plugged into their thoughts/ideas, and what was important.

• It has been a very useful source for information about candidates running for public office.

• Powderhorn Park hosted a school board candidate forum which was mainly geared toward the Spanish-speaking community. As a white person, it was fascinating to listen to the stories and hear candidates point of view.

• The discussions about Ranked Choice Voting in St. Paul allowed us to discuss different opinions on that important subject, including a lot of misconceptions.

• I enjoy reading others’ take on city matters–what our politicians are doing and the progress or lack thereof in the school district.

• I like it when people who know the facts of a matter can share those facts and change perceptions and the tone of a discussion.

Being connected and informed helps us take action –

• I learned about the city’s Adopt a Trash Container program and got one placed in a garbage-strewn area. It REALLY made a difference!

• I attended several forums/community meetings because of the Neighbors Forum.

• I went to a local meeting and learned about the plans for the Snelling and University area.

• I learned about the Library Love Run and Historic Hamline Village and attended a community meeting.

• It got me to attend a couple of meetings about biking and bike lanes at the NE Library.

• I heard about meetings concerning the new co-op that I was able to attend.

• I heard about – and attended – a crime meeting at Matthews Park.

• I went to the community meeting at the church next to the Arlington library and got introduced to the Youth Ambassadors. I learned a lot.

• I was prompted to attend a MPRB meeting about “the yard” and to speak at the meeting.

Together, we make things happen –

• We were trying to get bike racks installed at the post office. I shared information about the City of Minneapolis bicycle rack program with neighbors and now we have two new bike racks at the post office. [two combined]

• The city parks department was going to tear down a bunch of trees and make a parking lot in our community and the neighborhood forum announced it and organized a group to make our voices heard and we were successful in stopping their actions.

• We helped to build the new playground at the St. Paul Music Academy.

• We helped get the co-op built.

• I volunteered to help spread the word about the Powderhorn365 Kickstarter campaign, and we used the forum extensively.

• Our direct neighbor was being cited for junk by a new inspector. Everyone on the forum and many others signed a petition and got them to understand it was garden art. It worked.

• We used the forum to help spread the word about the privatization of a local recreation center and got over 100 people to attend a meeting with officials. This stopped the process and allowed us to set up a community task force to discuss what a partnership would look like.

• We used forum to organize group to care for Hamline Park– “Friends of Hamline Park.”

• The controversial Marshall Avenue median galvanized me and my neighbors, and the forum was instrumental in exchanging ideas and motivating attendance at meetings associated with the issue. The forum helped coalesce support to reduce the proposed length of the median on Marshall at Wilder. [two combined]

• I have been very grateful to the work and efforts of the folks trying to get MAC to listen to our neighborhood concerns about increased air traffic, decibel levels, and noise/air pollution. They have kept us much better informed about studies, meetings, and issues than the local news.

• When I saw that the studies on the Snelling Avenue road design were coming to a close, I was able to dig a little deeper into what that meant for our block and intersection, the West side of Snelling and Taylor Avenues. We organized, met, and discussed how the closure of the left turn lanes would affect residents on our block, and the surrounding area. This led to a signed group letter, individual letters, and documentation being sent to the proper MDOT and other government staff involved in this project. As of today, we’ve been told that the project will leave the northbound left turn lane onto Taylor Ave. W. open. I credit e-democracy in alerting us to this important study while we could still have an impact on the outcome. It is important for us to be involved in important decisions which affect our everyday lives in our community. [Edited down]

Our ideas get carried forward to committees and local councils –

• There have been discussions about a household hazardous waste site that was going to be placed in the neighborhood and due to a lot more discussion than some local officials expected, it appears such a site will be located in a different and more desirable location than originally proposed.

• I enjoyed the discussion on the forum about what to do with the old Rainbow store building and brought some of those ideas to the Longfellow Neighborhood Development Committee.

• I sent an email to the list to explore ways neighbors could work together to make their homes more energy efficient. Several people responded and as a result, a group of us met several times during the year and several homeowners did energy efficiency home improvements. We are continuing this energy efficiency work now through the District 10 Environment Committee.

• When I was on ParkWatch we posted minutes and Park Board agendas on the forum with opinions of what we thought this meant to the city. This led to the MPRB actually putting their agendas and minutes online and actually announcing newly released agenda on this forum

• I first learned about some controversial issues (Randolph Ave) in the forum and was able to bring those issues to the MGCC Transportation committee and worked with Ramsey County to provide feedback.

• Discussions on the forum showed me that I was just as informed on issues as anyone else, so I decided to have more influence on the community by joining the Highland District Council.

We build strong communities when we meet –

• I was asked to lead a neighborhood history tour (posted on the forum) that led into two free sessions (posted on the forum) for neighbors to learn how to research their houses’ histories at the Hennepin County library. Forty people got to know each other and talk about their houses. Soon I will invite them all (via the forum) to share their research findings at the Hennepin County History Museum.

• We organized a book reading with a local author at our house. A lot of people from the neighborhood whom we did not previously know came to the event. A big driver for this was the announcement posted to the forum. A lot of neighbors met each other for the first time because of this.

• I went on a Seward Walk and met a lot of people from the neighborhood while learning some great history and having a hoot!

• It was a source of networking for my family and me when we first moved into the Powderhorn Neighborhood and did not yet know anyone. We were able to post about ourselves as a family and offer a gathering for other people interested in meeting for social engagements.

• I have always liked the “introduction” email that pops up at intermittent times. Sometimes I wish people shared more about where they lived (900 Block of Wilson Ave, for example) because if I “meet” someone on the forum, it would be nice to know how close they are relative to where I live. At times I have taken the next step to ask more about them and say “welcome!”  [Edited down]

That keep us in touch with our humanity –

(formerly Help neighbors in need)

• I like hearing about neighbors who help others and make a difference in the lives of others in my neighborhood.

• A local neighbor with a lot of history died recently and her funeral was announced on the forum. I believe many more people came than would’ve otherwise. It was a great time to catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and learn some fascinating neighborhood history.

• One of my friends who is getting older needed some help with heavy things, and he found a young person through the forum who was happy to help him. He didn’t know where else to turn.

• I used the forum to create a list of those in need of snow shoveling help and those that could offer such help.

• Last year during a huge storm that downed 100s of large trees in the neighborhood there was an outpouring of email exchanges sharing tools and offering help to residents who were affected. Wonderful to see.

• I learned how quick neighbors are to help one another in times of need.

• I am new in the neighborhood and had a bike stolen from my yard. A neighbor told me about the forum and when I posted, I think three people offered to lend me bikes if I needed one.  Heartwarming kindness and real neighbors!

• After the New Year’s building explosion/fire last year, the forum was a great way to see what had happened and to know where/what to donate to survivors

• I offered up some free worms for composting. Two ladies took me up on the offer so I left containers of worms on my porch for them to pick up. Later I got an email from one of the ladies. She had noticed my concrete front steps were falling apart after the brutal winter. She wanted to pay it forward and she offered to fix my steps for free. I agreed but wanted to learn a skill so I joined her. She told me that her neighbor had taught her the simple fix and she was so excited when I wanted to learn the skill, knowing that I could pass it on to others.

• There was a call for the high school baseball team needing equipment that really stuck with me. I hope there are more requests from good people doing good things who could use more community support.

We strengthen our connections when we exchange things –

• The reuse opportunities have been very valuable. When a neighbor took down a chimney, we were able to salvage them to better our property. They saved on hauling away costs and we saved by not having to purchase landscape materials.

• I had a friend moving into the neighborhood from another state who was needing support with resources. I was able to help her find items for her home through postings from neighbors who were giving things away.

• I was able to get a very nice ceiling fan for free because one of my neighbors was giving it away on the forum.

• • I have used the Neighbors forum to connect with other gardeners in the community, and we have shared plants. It’s fun to connect with other gardeners and to learn about gardening from people with actual experience in our neighborhood, and the plants I’ve gotten from them have been much more successful than nursery-grown plants.

• I had a lawnmower that I wanted to get rid of and was able to give it to a new neighbor because of the forum.

• • I was looking for raspberry bushes and the forum help me find options to transplant from a neighbor.

• I was able to find a free A/C unit for my daughter’s father for his apartment. The outreach from the forum was enormous and fast! I really enjoy the frequency and timeliness in which people share their ideas/post questions, etc. on this site. I visit every day!

• I was looking for a Cherry tree branch to graft onto my Cherry tree. I happened to find the exact variety I needed through a neighbor.
• I was feeling overwhelmed by yard work and hired a youth in response to his mom’s post. Not only was I glad for the help, I enjoyed connecting with the mom and the young man.
• I was able to get many perennial plants for the teen program I facilitate at a homeless shelter downtown.

• I have been trying to find a home for Christmas tree that was given to me, and was delighted to pass it along and so relieved to have it out of my house.

And, together, we care for our companions –

• I love all of the posts about missing pets. Having lost a pet, I understand how hard it can be. Given our technological advances, it pleases me that we go to the forum before sending a rogue pet to the shelter. Very inspiring!

• We rescued a puppy and needed to fence off our yard quickly. We posted on e-democracy and within 30 minutes a neighbor offered to lend us his posts and wire fencing and we were able to contain the pup immediately and keep her safe until we could put up a more permanent fence.  

• We moved in to this neighborhood in March. I posted about our cat who escaped and many helpful neighbors responded and we got him back!

• A chicken appeared in our yard and we were able to locate the owner via the forum.

And build welcoming communities –

• I just moved here from out of state, and it has been incredibly helpful to know that there’s a community of people out there working to make this place a more welcoming, equitable, livable place.

• We are new to the community so having access to the online forum helped us decide if it was the right neighborhood for our family. We were able to gauge how involved people are and what they do. We are looking forward to participating in this on a regular basis.

• I enjoy living in a large city, and the sense of community that the forum provides enhances the experience.

And yes, thereâ€s more work to be done –

• I wish the city council leadership and police had actively used the forum to help us understand the discussions.

• In the last few elections, even the primaries, I didn’t just feel like I was checking off random names on the ballot based on a few lines of political propaganda written by someone’s campaign manager; some of these people had actually engaged with each other over local issues in a forum that wasn’t carefully vetted and scripted, which too few of our candidates for elected office are willing to do these days.

But in the end –

• It’s really inspiring to see how benevolent the community is. I appreciate reading about people taking animals in, or giving away free stuff, or standing up for things.

• I just love that it exists. It makes me feel connected to the people in my community.

We ended the year with 263 donors contributing $9,180 to help us maintain the forums and provide user support. Thank you for helping make that happen. We want to extend a special thanks to our newer friends in Framingham. Your support is truly outstanding.

Having just completed a participant survey in the Twin Cities, weâ€d like to give a shout out on the feedback we received:

“Being informed and aware of what is going on has made me feel safer and more connected.”

“I think one of the biggest things the Neighbors Forum does is help you when you’re looking for a service. We discovered a new mechanic who we are extremely happy with thanks to the forum. Same goes for our plumber. It’s great to hear the different suggestions and experiences folks have had.”

“The forums keep me up to date on the issues of the city, especially the controversies that people want to talk about. Theyâ€re the best place to learn about what is going on with proposed developments, vacant lots, city ordinances that impact the neighborhood.”

Sometimes the forums inform and generate action:

“I attended several forums/community meetings because of the Neighbors Forum.”

“We were able to get the word out about National Night Out and had lots of participation from the neighborhood.”

“The city parks department was going to tear down a bunch of trees and make a parking lot in our community and the neighborhood forum announced it and organized a group to make our voices heard and we were successful in stopping their actions.”

“We used the forum to help spread the word about the privatization of a local recreation center and got over 100 people to attend a meeting with officials. This stopped the process and allowed us to set up a community task force to discuss what a partnership would look like.”

“We used forum to organize group to care for Hamline Park – ‘Friends of Hamline Parkâ€.”

“I sent an email to the list to explore ways neighbors could work together to make their homes more energy efficient. Several people responded and as a result, a group of us met several times during the year and several homeowners did energy efficiency home improvements. We are continuing this energy efficiency work now through the District 10 Environment Committee.”

And we heard how the forums help us keep in touch with our humanity:

“A local neighbor with a lot of history died recently and her funeral was announced on the forum. I believe many more people came than would’ve otherwise. It was a great time to catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and learn some fascinating neighborhood history.”
“I love just seeing neighbors looking out for each other. There are a lot of things about lost pets, crime watch, etc. that shows me that everyone is looking out for each other.”

“The reuse opportunities have been very valuable. When a neighbor took down a chimney, we were able to salvage them to better our property. They saved on hauling away costs and we saved by not having to purchase landscape materials.”

“One of my friends who is getting older needed some help with heavy things, and he found a young person through the forum who was happy to help him. He didn’t know where else to turn.”

“I was able to get many perennial plants for the teen program I facilitate at a homeless shelter downtown.”

As E-Democracy charts its course into the future, weâ€re looking for more and better ways to activate volunteers, starting with a monthly evening conference call. Would you be interested? Please email contact@e-democracy.org.

We appreciate your contribution and look forward to staying connected into the future.

Short Version

Thank You Supporters!
We broke our record for the number of donors in one year with 184 contributing so far in our end of year pledge drive. Weâ€ve raised $6,684 on our way to meet our essential goal of $10,000 US.

(For those who have donated already, skip to the long letter that shares our future optimism and an honest sense of reality.)

We need you.
If you havenâ€t donated, please join your neighbors/neighbours who are standing up for community connections that matter online. From our new friends in Framingham and new participants in Saint Paul to long-time Minneapolis members to global supporters of our knowledge sharing efforts, together we are making this happen!

DONATE NOW ONLINE

Or simply mail your check to:

E-Democracy, 3211 E. 44th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55406 USA

Donations to our non-profit are tax-deductible in the U.S. and depending upon tax laws in other places. You may donate anonymously or set a recurring regular donation.

• The $10,000 will cover our bare-bones technology and help desk costs for all of 2015. This directly supports your online community forum and your awesome local volunteer.
• I will personally match the first $5 of every donation made in the next 48 hours.
• As our major grant funding for forum work is now finished and we see no grant opportunities for our vibrant online forum work, all forums must cover their real costs going forward.

To get involved in a “Forum Futures” meeting/teleconference, please fill out our simple volunteer form and mention this meeting. Time to get creative on costs and resources. If you are an existing volunteer, contact us: contact@e-democracy.org

(For the long-version below, grab some coffee and read on! – Steve)

Letter from Steven Clift, Executive Director, E-Democracy

In a world filled with buzz words, we do something simple:

• We connect you to your community.
• You make it happen by participating in local public life online.
• Together, led by local volunteers, we do this with an inclusive spirit to make our communities more open, friendly, and proudly better places to live.

To keep this civic dream alive we need your financial support. (Bored already? Donate here.)

As a Midwesterner, I honestly get extremely uncomfortable asking for money.

For the first decade of E-Democracy, I and many others simply donated our time – lots of it – to this digital era civic cause. We innovated with the worldâ€s first election information website and the local online town hall using real names a decade before Facebook.

And then we grew up.

In our second decade, our tech improved and we went open source. We expanded from two city-wide online town halls to dozens of very local community AND civic life online forums attracting over 25,000 forum memberships. Heck, combining our global convening and knowledge sharing on all things e-democracy and open government, we even received White House recognition last year.

I’ve personally entered an E-Democracy phase informed by an exciting community life with a family – a wonderful wife, a house and two cute kids – that connects so well with our neighborly focus. I feel connected to my local community like I could have never imagined.

We attracted small grants and an Ashoka Fellowship that allowed me and others to go from subsidizing the organization to actually working for E-Democracy.

Then over the last three years the Knight Foundation (after five years of pursuit) invested in an audacious and unparalleled inclusive community engagement online effort. We thank them for all of their support.

Weâ€ve sought to expand Neighbors Forums across all of Saint Paul that actually include ALL kinds of residents including lower income neighbors, people of color, immigrants, renters, older and younger residents, etc. The $625,000 weâ€ve been able to invest in online community engagement has focused on Saint Paul but it benefited our entire network. It is also generating lessons of interest to community builders and democracy activists around the world (from Finland to Estonia to the United Kingdom).

Survey Says …

The exciting participant survey results are coming in from Minneapolis and Saint Paul with over 1,350 responses! They show great comparative success in reaching the broader local community with inclusion in Saint Paul.

Door to door worked. Community festivals worked.

Working with two awesome summer outreach teams that spoke ten different languages total over two summers was amazing. The dedication and perspiration of young people who once lived in refugee camps in Kenya and Thailand to an African-American Grandmother homeless and living with friends when we hired her was was amazing.

Here is what you find “very important” in ranked order:

• Get community news and event announcements
• Neighbors helping neighbors
• Learn about local businesses and services
• Share information or ideas
• Discuss or understand others views on community issues
• Get involved in local initiative or causes
• Meet neighbors and other community members (in-person)

The survey tells us that more active your forum is the more you are actually satisfied with your community as a place to live. Wow.

Because of your forums directly, more of you attend community events (41%) or meetings (28), visit local businesses or hire neighbors for odd jobs (43%), do favors for neighbors (22%), donate to local groups (10%), contact elected officials (18%), sign petitions (16%) or work for local change (15%), or volunteer in the community (8%). This is above and beyond the many who said they already did these things and did not credit the forum for an increase. Our members are community builders.

In fact, on our four super active forums in South Minneapolis 70% agreed that because of their forum, they are “more satisfied with my local community as a place to live or work.” On our less active Saint Paul and Minneapolis forums, the average who agree with this came in under 50%. Notably however, those who better represent the diversity of Saint Paul that we signed up at their door reported in with one of the highest percents strongly agreeing with this statement – more so than all but one of our super active forums!

Inclusive forum recruitment is NOT truly inclusive on-forum engagement

Building on our base, the next big challenge we attempted to present in over a dozen grant proposals to local Twin Cities foundations was how to build on this inclusive base of participants. The honest truth is that on our rocking South Minneapolis forums, where most people were invited by neighbors off-line, we have a vibrant weekâ€s worth of activity in a day compared to our forums in lower income areas built with in-person outreach. Forums will be used differently and even have a bigger social impact where community news is less accessible, but we need to do better.

Having important inclusive engagement work to do – that is fundamentally charitable in nature – on likely the worldâ€s most representative local online forums doesnâ€t make funding appear. With the shrinking pool of community engagement funding, it is hard to compete with so many compelling needs that are far less speculative than our online engagement approach.

Today, we are innovating in the face of private resident-only online models (aka gated communities) that exclude our communityâ€s civil servants like our crime prevention officers, library and park staff etc., small businesses, journalists, places of worship from full online participation. Efforts like NextDoor have attracted $100 million in venture capital. Today, Facebook Groups now work a lot better and Facebook has a near monopoly with online engagement but share no revenue with those seeking to do more than just connect the easiest to gather in our communities via their tools. From printing flyers to going door to door, those activities have real costs.

While weâ€ve been told that national foundations figure the market is taking care of neighborhoods online, we see reinforced barriers and enclaves emerging that connect neighbors who are the most similar. We see governments cutting themselves off from direct citizen engagement that our very public community forums offer. This may be the Silicon Valley vision of neighborhoods, but it doesnâ€t need to be ours. As location based advertising grows on Facebook and likely gets turned on with NextDoor, we fear for our cherished neighborhood press that is vital to community information and local government accountability and engagement.

What to do?

Where we are strong now, where we have a foothold, in an new era volunteer energy, we can do something different. We must.

Our non-profit, community-driven network touches the lives of thousands of people everyday. Within our network are ideas and passions that will sustain us.

We can also share our lessons so that those who love their neighborhood Facebook Group or NextDoor community can step it up with inclusive in-person outreach to build stronger communities for all. In fact, we see engaging other communities via multiple platforms as a good path to greater social impact while still innovating within our base.

Core costs – real money, but under 50 cents a year per participant!

We must raise $10,000 to cover our base technology and help desk costs for 2015. We literally make over a million individual community connections via email every year. We donâ€t have a fancy Facebook-like “filter bubble” where a computer tries to send you only the community messages in which it thinks you will be interested. Our embrace of active community serendipity has a real cost.

Over the last five years weâ€ve carefully built up a reserve of around $10,000 from fee-based contract work, public speaking, etc. So, this year we have the time to “right size” our organization costs, increase the role of volunteers (Become one!), etc. I am committed to our efforts, but when it comes to our community forum work it will also become again a volunteer effort that generates amazing community value for the effort.

To get involved in a “Forum Futures” meeting/teleconference, please fill out our simple volunteer form and mention this meeting. Time to get creative on costs and resources. If you are an existing volunteer, contact us: contact@e-democracy.org

Ideally we will build on our open source approach and find creative ways to cover the real and increasing costs of our technology independence (now $6,000 a year up from a fairly subsidized $2,000 a few years ago via our OnlineGroups.Net partner who keeps our service up 24 x 7, 365 days a year).

So, please donate any amount. (If you have donated THANK YOU!)

I will personally match the first $5 of every donation we receive in the next 48 hours. While big donations are important, setting a recurring donation of $25 a year or more will shorten our yearly pledge drive.

The next decade … or next year anyway …

If we donâ€t see funding opportunities to subsidize our forum network, you might be asking what other plans do we have to pursue our broad online civic engagement mission?

I thought Iâ€d take this opportunity to share where we do see fundable opportunities:

1. Expand global knowledge exchange on open government and civic technology – Our new Open Government and Civic Technology Facebook Group has rocketed to over 2,700 members from 100+ nations. We seek sponsors to grow this group to 10,000 participants from all nations and add a weekly “best of” email newsletter along since our our long-time Democracies Online Newswire service.
2. Innovate with Open Twin Cities – Weâ€ve served as a vital incubator for Open Twin Cities, which is emerging as one of the nationâ€s leading local Code for America Brigades. With partners, we are seeking to be one of three cities nationally funded to use open government data for social impact engaging and serving lower income communities. The national funder will require local funders to match. Stay tuned.
3. Online engagement and outreach – We are being contracted by mySociety to lead creative online engagement efforts within the global Poplus federation. Based in the United Kingdom, mySociety is one of the worldâ€s most respected and innovative civic technology initiatives. We will be fostering engagement in their online group and reaching out nation by nation, city by city to technology developers and democracy builders to further this truly next generation sharable technology components approach to sharing democratic innovations across borders.
4. Civic technology and open government “test bed” – Leveraging perhaps the worldâ€s most representative base of online civic engagement participants in our most active local areas, we see an exciting opportunity to build on the experience of helping test the Kettering Foundationâ€s beta online deliberation platform. As someone from Google once said to me, it doesnâ€t do any good to only test civic technology with early adopters who already show up. With thousands of users not locked into a proprietary platform, we have some very unique flexibility. If someone wanted to test a civic app with immigrant youth for example, we have the trusted community relationships to foster meaningful engagement.
5. Neighbors online and real life community building – We are exploring, with the University of Pittsburgh and potentially other partners, a research grant proposal to bring neighbors online down to the block and building level within our strongest neighborhoods to develop knowledge and research on what works build bridges from online activity into off-line asset-based community connections, social capital generation, and more. As the only open source, non-profit, public life online civic engagement project with online exchange in the Creative Commons, we see huge potential in being both an authentic local-up civic engagement project and a global engine for knowledge generation and lesson sharing. In fact, it is our view that had we not built in wide lesson-sharing into our Knight-funded BeNeighbors.org effort, it would be hard to justify the resources invested. If accessed, our lessons will help civic technology projects everywhere be far more effective with the inclusive outreach needed to be far more representative in their work and not just further empower the already powerful.

We excel at convening and hosting online exchange be it in a neighborhood or in a global online community of practice – we seek to help other organizations meet their civic goals online.

In general, we expect our future revenue to come from projects and other fee-for-service work. The era of the big grant is likely over.

That said, should a door be opened or an opportunity appear, we have no shortage of big ideas from 3333 Community Sparks to Open Groups for Internet freedom to launching a collaborative effort to promote inclusion across the civic technology and open government field to proposed Open Minnesota legislation to smaller scale efforts to build on our base ideas like an online emerging leaders network led by immigrant across ethnicity led by the kinds of young people who led our field outreach to collaborating with groups like the Somali youth arts group Kajoog to foster inclusive participation on our Seward and other forums. We do not have a shortage of ideas that seemingly do not fit the priorities of funders NOR are they appropriate to fund with donations meant to support the core needs of your local forum.

The reality is that community-based foundations, who care deeply about inclusion and equity, may well think of technology as by its nature an exclusive tool or are not comfortable with our integrationist, multi-ethnic approach. Or as they say, we have hundreds of applicants and fierce competition for resources. National foundations want to fund national efforts that can “scale” or they want skip ahead and focus online tools on national decision-making and addressing partisan gridlock rather than fostering the widespread community engagement we see as the precursor to rebuilding democracy and civility in public life.

Perhaps in time, these kinds of ideas will find a receptive ear, but not tomorrow when our well funded initiative comes to a close.

So, if you read this far, I suppose I should you pay you. The best I can do today is match the first $5 of your donation via PayPal, GiveMN or check sent to:

E-Democracy, 3211 44th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55406

It is important to note that everyday weâ€ve connected more people to their local communities online than the day before for twenty years. We need to keep reasonable expectations, for momentum is more important than an instant success as a non-profit. While the coming year will be challenging with many changes, that makes it a time of opportunity. Necessity is the mother of all invention, so letâ€s innovate together!

All the best in 2015,

Steven Clift
Executive Director, E-Democracy