crossed my radar:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/news/WCMS1P-142765
Were any neighborhood associations, neighborhood newspapers, neighborhood
Facebook Group leaders, etc. consulted about this?
Were you???
I can tell you that E-Democracy.org, the Minneapolis-based non-profit that
connects over 10,000 local residents online, was not.
Was there a public hearing on this? Should there have been (if not)?
It is hard for me to imagine the city announcing a "partnership" with a
local newspaper or website with local information without a sign-on effort
open to every organization who loves connecting neighborhoods online.
Using our tax dollars to intervene in the market on behalf of a company
gearing up to extract local advertising revenue from our cherished
neighborhood press is very surprising.
I once met a NextDoor rep who commented that they were focusing their
$200M+ in Silicon Valley venture funds on member growth. When I said that
geo-targeted Facebook Ads may drive neighborhood press out business before
they did, he replied, "Facebook can only target to the Zipcode." I don't
think governments should be propping up the next hopeful Internet
billionaire. Sorry.
Some people may love the exclusive resident-only gated community aspect of
NextDoor. Great, use them, but our city should definitely not pick a
favorite. Honestly, many love the app feature and despite the civic flaws
in their model, NextDoor is doing more good than evil.
Other models embrace inclusion and openness including small business
owners, local workers, neighborhood staff, our awesome civil servants in
libraries, our parks, and in crime prevention, etc. ... so you can join
Facebook Groups, E-Democracy neighbors forums, etc. ... and be welcomed as
equal community members. Personally, I have no interest in living in a
gated community - be it real or virtual. That's not Minneapolis.
Any government endorsement of neighbors online should absolutely be
non-exclusive and completely fair and balanced. BTW, we link to the many
forums on different platforms likw Facebook here: http://beneighbors.org
For an inclusive Minneapolis forever!
Steven Clift
P.S. I put in a request to my local council member for a meeting on this
next week when I return from out of the country. I also Facebooked the
Mayor asking to meet as well.
If you'd like to join some kind of community meeting on how we restore
digital fairness in community engagement in our awesome city, please drop
me a note: <email obscured> clift (at) e-democracy.org
P.S.S. Our awesome participant survey - http://bit.ly/edemsurveyresults -
found that our members who were also on NextDoor were somewhat whiter,
wealthier, and more likely to be homeowners than other members. Again
NextDoor is a fine platform as a choice, but we also need the city to
endorse more inclusive models that embrace their stated equity goals and
suspend this announcement until it can be done right.