Solving Social Media’s ‘Local Paradox’ (SSIR)

Our preparation for rolling the network out included a survey of the community about local civic engagement and a mapping of existing civic groups—both helped us identify potential partners and build an understanding of civic life in the community. This fact-finding and coalition building, along with prior work, informed our approach to building an... See more

It’s difficult to customize, control, and run the software needed for a local social network. Existing commercial solutions are expensive and limit a community’s ability to control and customize the software and data. Open-source software often requires technical expertise to set up, manage, and customize.

the companies do little to encourage accountability, institution building, or integration with existing community structures

Three major explanations have emerged for the decline in local civic engagement in the US in recent decades: eroding social capital, the nationalization of American life, and the decline of local newspapers. Social capital—the relationships and trust that promote civic engagement—has decayed as modern life has become more individualized and less co... See more

imagine if, instead of waiting on a global platform to support partnerships with local institutions beyond the police department, your local network could pursue those partnerships itself, and build the necessary features into the platform as it sees fit.

More experimentation is necessary to find the right mix of technology, scaffolding, and governance to make local social networks flourish, and it’s likely that each community will have a different recipe.

Our research has revealed a potential solution to the local paradox: networks that are values-driven, closely moderated, trusted, and local.

Without close moderation, local social networks risk racism, toxicity, and misinformation. But for close moderation to be acceptable to residents, they need to trust the people who are moderating and running t... See more

That organic growth was key to maintaining one of the key differences between FPF and Nextdoor: proactive moderation. FPF uses a team of moderators that review each post to make sure it adheres to the site’s code of conduct before it’s posted. That helps keep the discussion friendly and constructive. In contrast, moderation on Nextdoor is done reac... See more