History of Northfield Citizens Online, Northield.org, and Locally Grown Northfield

Northfield Citizens Online (NCO) was conceived at a neighborhood discussion group in Northfield, Minnesota, in December of 1991. The discussion questions for the evening: What’s the likely impact of the Internet on the local community? How can it be used to strengthen a geographic community rather than undermining it like other electronic media tend to do?

A group began meeting a year or so later and eventually set up a BBS called the Northfield Free-Net, which started operation in 1994 before changing over to a website (using the domain nco.northfield.mn.us ) in late 1994/early 1995. The NCO Web Cafe (web message board) was added in late 1995.

Some low-res historical images of Northfield Citizens Online Board members, 1995-2006. Click to enlarge some images!

NCO was formed as a 501c3 non-profit in 1994 with the help of the Northfield Community Action Center. The Northfield.org domain name was secured in March of 2000, and the site was converted to a blog in 2003.

From 1996 through 2004, NCO board members moderated online discussions via the NCO Web Cafe and the NCO-News email list. The site also created and hosted the Northfield Blogosphere project and the aggregation service that it provided.

Community Issue Forums

From 1996 through 2004, NCO also hosted twenty-one Community Issue Forums, a series of time-limited online community forums that featured panels, interviews, and group discussions with community leaders about issues relevant to local citizens. NCO partnered with the Northfield News, KYMN Radio, NTV, the City of Northfield, the League of Women Voters Northfield, and other local organizations to host these time-limited events. This was an effective way for citizens to become more informed about an issue through simultaneous channels: the Internet, newspaper, radio, TV, and F2F (face-to-face). The list:

• Burning brush at compost site Aug 04

• Police Chief Q&A May 04

• Hospital reuse, Dec 03

• Library long-range planning Mar 02

• Redistricting Feb 02

• Middle School Reuse Nov 01

• City Charter Amendment Oct 01

• City Hall Q&A Aug 01

• Talk to your Teen about Sex Oct 99

• Community Rec Ctr Aug 99

• City Council election Oct 98

• District 25A election Oct 98

• The Target proposal Sep/Oct 98

• Park trails Jul 98

• Transportation Plan June 98

• Growing a Healthy Economy in a Livable Community Feb 98

• Community Resource Center referendum Jan 98

• Building Cohesive Family Dec 97

• City Parks Oct 97

• Sustainable Residential Development and the Livable Communities Initiative Apr 97

• State of the City Sep 96

From 2004 through 2017, the site primarily operated as a community calendar of events authored by community members. The NCO board discontinued the operation of the website in 2022. Ownership of the non-profit and the domain name was transferred to two of its original co-founders, Griff Wigley and Tracy Davis Heisler. In the fall of 2023, they and 2017 board member Jane McWilliams decided to begin work on relaunching the site.

Locally Grown Northfield

In 2005, NCO co-founders Tracy Davis Heisler and Griff Wigley, plus Ross Currier, Executive Director of the NDDC, created the LocallyGrownNorthfield.org podcast and blog.

LoGro initially partnered with KRLX Radio at Carleton College for its podcast under the direction of KRLX news director Morgan Weiland and station manager Cameron Nordholm. It later partnered with KYMN Radio under the direction of owner Jeff Johnson.

Locally Grown Northfield (LoGro)

In the ten years of operation (December 6, 2005, through May 26, 2015), LoGro:

• published 3,861 blog posts

• published 189 podcast episodes

• received 44,475 public comments

LoGro ceased publishing in the spring of 2015. The LocallyGrownNorthfield.org website remains and is searchable.