In hope of increasing communication about the issues related to life on Maine’s islands, two islanders have created an online discussion forum. The forum – which can be found at www.onisland.org – currently has nine topics: logistics, island visitors, stewardship, government, services/vendors, real estate/ rentals, island property owners newsletter, islands in the news, and islandness with a number of ongoing discussions in each.
Recent conversations have included difficulties for islanders getting homeowners’ insurance and the pros and cons of island tourism.
Bob Nichols, who created the site along with fellow island owner Curtis Betts, said he hopes OnIsland.org can be a resource for members of Maine’s year-round island communities, summer residents and owners and renters of private islands. Even people associated with “freshwater” islands may find they have some to learn from or contribute to the site, Nichols says.
“I think that a lot of people on Vinalhaven and the other year-round islands have similar problems and could potentially share some solutions,” Nichols says. “Because when it comes down to it, we’re all in the same boat.”
“Islands are more fragile than the mainland, and you can easily use up finite resources or corrupt delicate systems,” Nichols says, adding that this delicacy and finiteness of resources seems to have made islanders traditionally more creative when solving problems.
In the few months that the forum has been online, 40 people have subscribed. Nichols adds that it’s apparent that many more users are going to the forum and observing without adding comments or creating new topics. He says the forum was intentionally created so that it would be easy for people to observe without subscribing, and to add comments anonymously. He believed this would ensure that the site would be valuable to as many people as possible.
“It takes some work to publicize something like this,” Nichols says, “But the more participants we have, the more valuable it will be for everyone. New people offering differing opinions all the time is good. We’re trying to make this as non-partisan as possible.”