New "community" discussion forum

[lmermaid501.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing many of you also got a postcard in the mail advertising a new discussion forum (ourcommonplace.com). While attempting to be "local" and making it seem like it was started up by Somerville residents ("a couple of neighbors and I were talking..."), it's hard to do that when you forget to change the name of the city in your form letter ("an online community newsletter and bulletin board just for Sudbury residents.") It seems dishonest to try to make it seem like it's locally driven. Does anyone have more info than is available on their web site? Seems like an interesting startup tech effort by some Harvard students but it's unclear from the site whether they actually work with local communities, or just have manufactured "local-looking" spam mail.

Comments

[darxus.livejournal.com]

whois / domain registry information on ourcommonplace.com:

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: OURCOMMONPLACE.COM
Created on: 15-Apr-09
Expires on: 15-Apr-16
Last Updated on: 17-Nov-12

Registrant:
Peter Davis
608 Highland Avenue
Falls Church, Virginia 22046
United States

Administrative Contact:
Davis, Peter PeteHappens@gmail.com
608 Highland Avenue
Falls Church, Virginia 22046
United States
+1.7038692975

Technical Contact:
Davis, Peter PeteHappens@gmail.com
608 Highland Avenue
Falls Church, Virginia 22046
United States
+1.7038692975

Domain servers in listed order:
DAVE.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM
JEAN.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM


So all the contacts for the domain are in Virginia, and it was registered in 2009.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

A quick look at their site (without registering) suggests that they may have reinvented the listserv. A description talks about a community that "fits in your e-mail inbox." Since it's a for-profit project, I would venture to guess that a number of those emails would be spam from their commercial partners.

Also this:

We help local leaders “plug in” to the Internet.

Really now? Because so few people use the Internet, particularly leaders, and they need an introduction it its miraculous potentials. /snark

[somervillebeat.livejournal.com]

I was recently contacted by someone working out of the Harvard Innovation Lab who is associated with the project locally. Not sure of the details, but when I get the story, I'll be sure to post some information!

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I liked the postcard. I taped it up on the fridge. It never even occurred to me to ...visit the site....

[ron_newman]

I got one of these postcards. A different one from yours, as mine did not have the 'Sudbury' error on it. It did, however, say this:

"why isn't there one place online for Somerville neighbors and community leaders to go for sharing information?"

and this:

"there's no open place for discussing community issues, sharing stuff, posting events, getting connected to civic groups and getting local questions answered."

As one of the co-moderators of davis_square, I think we serve that purpose. The folks at SomervilleVoices think they serve it, too.

So I e-mailed the address on the postcard, Ricky@OurCommonPlace.com , and we agreed to meet for coffee a few days later. Ricky Porco does live in Somerville, a few blocks from Union Square, but he hasn't been here very long. When he wrote that postcard, he was unaware of both davis_square and SomervilleVoices.

He told me that he sent out two different postcards, each to one postal carrier route within zip code 02144. So far, this is the only publicity that OurCommonPlace has produced for Somerville. They do have sites in several other Massachusetts towns -- including Sudbury.

I like what these folks are doing, but I think it may do better in places (maybe Sudbury is one of these) that aren't already well-connected by Internet forums.

I'm sending a message to Ricky, pointing him at this post. I hope he'll add his own comments here.

[freetobeme18.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had the same thought. I don't think I'll use the site because I like LiveJournal and this community works for my purposes. I haven't seen the site myself but perhaps some people prefer it to this community. I know people who have an active dislike for LJ and LJ communities. Having options is not a bad thing.

[rickyporco.livejournal.com]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Ricky Porco, and I was invited to this thread by Ron Newman to address your questions. Before I begin, I would be happy to talk to any of you personally, either by phone or email, so reach out to me. I would much prefer that anyone who has questions about what I'm doing actually ask me about it, rather than make assumptions and spread false information.

I'd first like to point out at that I'm typing this response from my bedroom on Glen Street in east Somerville, a few blocks down the road from my community partner - Max Novendstern's house on Cross Street. I think that should probably ease any of the minds in this forum who consider us to be "making it seem like it was started up by Somerville residents" - which it was. I have been working for OurCommonPlace since last May, and since moving to Somerville (this summer) I have dedicated a lot of my own time to make an energy to this personal project of getting a site up and running in Somerville, because I've seen it work for communities and I wanted it for my own. I am grateful for the fact that OurCommonPlace paid to print the flyers (which I'll add, were printed right here in Somerville by a small business owner) as I it would be a nice way to drum up interest and save me a bit of walking door to door talking about this effort to the ~78,000 people in this city. I chose 02144 to send the postcards because it's on the opposite side of town from me, and it's easier to do the walking over here. I hope that puts to rest those who consider the postcards a "dishonest effort to make it seem like it's locally driven" and if there's still any doubt about whether or not I live in Somerville, I'd be happy to upload a picture of my cable bill or rent check. As far as the typo (addition of Sudbury) to some of the flyers - Sudbury is one of the sites that I'm working on launching right now, along with Carlisle and Westwood. As I previously mentioned, I've spent a lot of my own time working on Somerville and I wrote the language for that particular flyer sometime past 2 AM on a Wednesday night. I made a mistake. I am sorry for this mistake, and I've clearly paid for it as this has certainly caused some outrage among folks in town. Additionally as Ron mentioned, I hadn't encountered Somerville Voices or this page upon writing the language for those flyers - I did not mean to insult anyone with what I had written, I was simply using language styles from a PR textbook that I got in college.

As far as the domain registry: That is Peter Davis, one of the founders of OurCommonPlace. His hometown is Falls Church Virginia and he registered the domain name there back in '09, though I'm not sure as to why that's such a concern when we're all communicating on a forum that is registered to a California-based for-profit corporation. Also, if my understanding is correct, Livejournal is owned by a Russian Company. With a group of folks so conscious about where profits of sites they use are going, it's slightly confusing to see that nobody has addressed the fact that any money to be made off the users of livejournal isn't staying in the states.

(continued in a second post due to character limit...)

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

thanks for writing, Ricky. One of the things i really love about Davis Square LJ is that way people come in and address issues directly.

I'm reading your description and trying to get a handle on it. Are you working in some sort of franchise relationship with OurCommonPlace?

I'll tell you that it doesn't make a good impression on your fledgling business that you started it without becoming aware of what resources were already out there serving in the sector you're entering. It's not uncommon, someone having a business idea or plan, jumping right in, then later finding out that someone else has been doing it for some years and has an established ecosystem already, but it doesn't inspire confidence in the ability of the new comers. :/ Are you aware that there's a Somerville sub-reddit, too? And active discussion via the Somerville News? There are a lot of players on this field, not even mentioning the informal coffee klatches, that are the literal embodiment of people coming together to talk about the issues that matter to them

If the "a couple of neighbors and I were talking" makes sense to send to Somerville people because you're on Glen Street, how does it make sense to send that text to Sudbury? Again, I can't quite get a handle on what niche you're trying to fill.

[ron_newman]

I wasn't aware of the "Somerville sub-reddit". Can you describe that and link to it? Thanks.

(I am aware of the "active discussion via the Somerville News", and sometimes participate in it. But I find most of it to be destructive rather than constructive.)

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Somerville/

[ron_newman]

Thanks. I've added both that and OurCommonPlace.com/Somerville to the links list on the davis_square profile page.

(That link list is a bit disorganized and random at the moment; I welcome suggestions for improving it.)

[rickyporco.livejournal.com]

Hello,

I have been subscribed to the Somerville sub-reddit since a few days before I moved there, though it's not as active as I wouldve liked. Also, the language is different for every flyer that we send out. I actually had just written out the word Sudbury instead of Somerville, as I had already launched the site in Sudbury and was responding to emails and the like while writing the language for the Somerville flyers. Also, the reason we're in Sudbury is because a group of 5 neighbors who had friends in Belmont, another town we launched in May, had heard of the success and worked with us to bring OurCommonPlace there. So in that case, it would make much sense to send that text to Sudbury, as it was signed by those neighbors and included their pictures.

As far as what niche we're trying to fill; we're just trying to be a 'common place' online for everything Somerville, as the name suggests. If I volunteer with Somerserve, want to keep up with the plans for the next SOS, and like to stay in tune with messages and events from the Council on Aging for my less tech savvy Mother, can I cover all of that in one place? We're just trying to offer a single, more organized place than just a forum with threads for people to represent their organizations and get in contact with their neighbors. It's not a complete and total difference from any of the things that you've suggested, but it is a difference. It's a new form to many of the same functions. A form that we've spent years talking to local leaders, sociologists (like Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone who is one of our biggest advisors) and other companies in the local tech sphere to try to perfect. It's that type of innovating on things that are already working to try to make them better than brought things like the Davis Square livejournal and Somerville Voices together, is it not? Otherwise, would we all not be communicating through the 'community' section of Craigslist?

If all innovators in the past had simply given up because something similar to what they're working on already existed, then where would we be? Would the Model T have been created? Or would Ford have simply given up as the horse and buggy had already satisfied the need? Would we still be walking around with those two pound bricks they called 'cell phones' in the early 90's? We're just trying to be open to the fact that things like yahoo groups and forums, while they do work, might not be the best thing to make it easier to communicate with people in town, increase the amount of face to face interactions people have with their neighbors, and make communities stronger. We're just trying to tackle a problem that hasn't been entirely solved yet with open minds.

[rickyporco.livejournal.com]

As far as the "venture to guess that a number of those emails would be spam from their commercial partners", here is our privacy policy: https://www.ourcommonplace.com/somerville/privacy (https://www.ourcommonplace.com/somerville/privacy) . This should save me from having to write another long response but in short, no, we have do not have commercial partners, no we will not sell your email address to anyone. Again, I put my email address on every single one of those flyers for this very reason, so nobody would have to guess.

I'm not sure why this matters much to a group of tech-savvy folks that I assume use sites like facebook, google, livejournal, patch, yelp, etc, every day (all of which are for-profit entities) but, long before OurCommonPlace was incorporated as a for-profit company, Pete had tried to go the non-profit route. He filed as a 501c3 and spent nearly 6 months while working in his hometown of Falls Church to see whether or not a site like this would be useful to his neighbors, meeting with many groups and private investors and pitching them the idea. He was unable to get a single dollar from any private investors for a non-profit social networking company, and very quickly realized that his dream could not be possible if there was not a dollar towards the cost of servers, and decided if he could fuel the idea by instead incorporating as a for-profit company. Nearly one month after that, the same folks who had turned him down before were now interested in helping fund the launch of his first town. I think this should speak more to the broken system of funding non-profits as well as the angelic stigma that comes from them, than the intentions of Peter Davis upon founding this company. Let's not forget that Karl Rove's "American Crossroads" is a nonprofit entity, that I'm sure has less honest motivations than OurCommonPlace.

If anyone is interested in actually talking about this project, I would be happy to. Don't hesitate to reach out: ricky@ourcommonplace.com, but please, please, keep it reasonable. I much prefer to engage in conversation with other civic-minded folks like myself and some of you, who enjoy new emerging technology, rather than defending myself from accusations of dishonesty and sinister intentions.

Thanks,

Ricky