The Future of News and Civic Media ConferenceCenter For Future Civic MediaMIT Media LabJune 18th, 2009

Civic mediaas a tool for place-basedcommunity building & organizing

central questions• how to collect individual stories in a larger narrative:

how to represent a diversity of voices with one piece• how to "sell" old school community organizers/builders on using

new participatory tools• advantages of power building by making media WITH people

instead of FOR people• how to train youth and adults on the ground in communities to

make their own media as a tool for community development andleadership building

• aligning existing network or community organizing techniques withnew media tools for sustained, genuine use by communitymembers

• using new media as tools for reflective practice andinstitutional memory building

mit@lawrence• action-oriented scholarship

through university-communityengagement for the purpose ofcontributing to an equitable andsustainable future in the City ofLawrence

• a self-sustaining network forreciprocal knowledge transfer andinnovation

• program areas:– affordable housing– community asset-building– youth pathways to career and

education– green building development and

job creation

http://mitatlawrence.net/matl-story-project/

lawrence: practicum 2009

• Lawrence CommunityWorks (LCW), a community development corporation invigorated by 4 MITalumna

• Union Crossing (UC) project – an innovative mixed-use mill redevelopment project that aims tobe a completely "green" building, both in design, building and implementation as a communityinvolvement center

• historical "threads”:– energy and technical innovation, most recently "green" public and private-sector initiatives– organizing and mobilizing people for change, from the Bread and Roses Strike of 1912 to

LCW's nationally renowned "network organizing" model• participatory action-research using ICT to develop specific strategies and prototypes to incorporate

participatory historical narratives and oral histories both physically and virtually into the new space• interpretive history data gathering through youth-led

oral history interviews with factory employees, architects, real estate developers, and themselves!

lawrence: storymill

http://uclawrence.ning.com/

lawrence: yes we will

http://www.ywwlawrence.org/

nyc: the bmbc neighborhood media diary

http://thesoulofbrooklyn.wordpress.com/

watertown: h20town

http://h2otown.info/

framingham: snapshot photo hunt

http://framinghamgame.ning.com/

springfield practicum: public health

springfield: food vendor map

springfield: video story map