Recent news from the Center for Civic Media

Comics as Civic Media and Other Matters...

Submitted by Henry on November 5, 2007 - 7:53am

The blog which we launched for the new Center for Future Civic Media has started to generate some real momentum. The site was created not simply to announce or report events hosted by the center but also as a space where the students and faculty of the two affiliated programs -- the MIT Media Lab and the Comparative Media Studies program -- can share their thoughts about the nature of civic media. I am blessed this year with a team of four veteran journalists working in the Comparative Media Studies Program, each of whom is bringing their reporting skills to the task of identifying compelling examples of civic media practices around the world. For example, incoming CMS Masters student Abhimanyu Das, a veteran culture reporter from India, wrote a compelling account of the work being done by the Comics Defense Fund, an organization fighting to defend the First Amendment rights of comic book creators and consumers:

Orthodox community leverages special phone functions

Submitted by clay on November 3, 2007 - 4:31pm

Here is an example of an organized community that has adapted technology and business to meet its concerns.
In Israel, ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities have used combined purchasing power to alter the pricing system and functions of “kosher” phones.

Their incentive for turning cell phones off during their Sabbath is paying 25 times the [...]

A civic media success story: examining the BBC Action Network

Submitted by abhidas on November 3, 2007 - 2:43pm

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has a long history of innovation in civic media. One of the more intriguing instances of this tradition is the BBC Action Network, a grassroots online civic engagement initiative. It launched in 2003 under the name iCan, and quickly succeeded as a medium of choice for local community activism groups. The Action Network provides a space for the creation and organization of local action groups, incorporating a set of tools into the site that facilitates the operation of these groups.

Using tech to talk back

Submitted by huma.yusuf on October 31, 2007 - 2:39pm

Here at the Center for Future Civic Media, we try to be careful not to be technological determinists when brainstorming ideas for new technologies that can foster civic engagement. Most students remain wary of thinking that a well-designed device will promote participation, no matter what. Instead, our discussions emphasize the need to keep the social mores and everyday practices of a community in mind, so that the tools we design are culturally sensitive, and thus more likely to be deployed.

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak to Revi Sterling, a Microsoft Research Fellow who designed Advancement through Interactive Radio (AIR), a Digital Inclusion initiative of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Sterling’s work serves as a good model of a project that has been tailored to accommodate for cultural practices and on-the-ground realities in her test community in Southeast Kenya.

From "Informing" to "Empowering"

Submitted by mres on October 30, 2007 - 7:37am

For me, our new Center for Future Civic Media at MIT provides an opportunity to weave together several strands of my career.

I started my career as a journalist, writing about science and technology for Business Week magazine. Then I decided to make a career shift. I went to graduate school in computer science, and I began developing educational technologies -- in particular, technologies to engage children in creative learning experiences.

How do I make sense of these two seemingly-disconnected careers? I have often explained that both careers grew out of the same underlying motivation: to help people understand the world around them.

That's true. But I now realize that it's only part of the story. Over the years, I have come to realize that I have a strong preference for certain ways of helping people understand the world. I am skeptical about approaches that focus primarily on "transmitting" or "delivering" information. I believe that the best way to help people understand the world is to provide them with opportunities to actively explore, experiment, and express themselves.

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