When Michael Wood-Lewis moved to Burlington, Vermont, he was excited to start a family and to meet his neighbors ... but they weren’t as eager to get to know him and his wife Valerie. So – long before Facebook – Michael built a community-based social network. And not only did it introduce the Wood-Lewises to their neighbors, but it also transformed how most Vermonters interacted with each other in their own neighborhoods.

Michael describes the events that led to his forming Front Porch Forum and how he, Valerie and their young family finally became members of the Five Corners community. We hear from Kathleen Cagney, a professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, who explains the behavioral science of social capital and the health risks of not knowing your neighbors (really!). We also meet Lauren Curry and Julia Andrews, who founded the food bank Westford Food Shelf ... and found a lasting friendship—all spurred by one message on the forum.  And finally, tech/sci-fi journalist Andrew Liptak provides a sense of the rise of social networking in the early 2000s.  

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