December 12, 2021: 10 AM Spiritual Makerspace Service ~ "Holy Social Media: Click Local!" with Michael Wood-Lewis and Rev. Mellen Kennedy. In this Spiritual Makerspace service, we'll explore the problems of Big Tech and the hopes of Small Tech. We've heard much about the negative impacts and dangers of social media. But what does that really mean? And what about the benefits? What do we mean by the "Attention Economy" and "Surveillance Capitalism"? And why are these spiritual issues? What better person to help us delve into these questions than the co-founder of Front Porch Forum (FPF), Michael Wood-Lewis. FPF is a community-building platform which Michael started about 20 years ago in Vermont. About three quarters of Vermont households participate on their local Forum and FPF frequently attracts national accolades for being social media at its best. Along with his entrepreneurial success, Michael is a deeply thoughtful person and happens to be a member, along with his wife and kids, of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6130779853
Michael Wood-Lewis has been pulling neighbors together into community since his Indiana childhood spent organizing ball games and visiting neighbors on his evening paper route. Decades later, he and his wife Valerie founded Front Porch Forum, which hosts a network of online local forums in every town in Vermont. For every 1,000 households in the state, FPF has 750 members. Previously, he led an innovative trade association of New England utilities. Earlier, he guided a consortium of U.S. municipal leaders in developing environmental technologies, building on his experience as an inventor of high-tech recycling equipment. He earned a masters in engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, as well as an MBA.