Now that the fall semester is in full swing, I thought I would write a little Intro about my proposed project for the Center for Future Civic Media [C4FCM] where I work as a Research Assistant, and the ideas and ideals behind it.

Since its central themes, as that of my Master's program in Comparative Media Studies, are free speech in all media formats, new and old, including cyber rights, and that my research focuses on preserving them by identifying censorship, control, surveillance and similar threats, I plan to explore ways of creating a free and secure space for the production, exchange and distribution of information, especially of a sensitive, controversial nature, an open space where unpopular opinions will have a place. Investigative journalism is a perfect area in which to explore this.

Noam Cohen writes an interesting piece in today's NYT about news, user-supplied content, transparency, truth, and more. Read it in his column, Link by Link: "Spinning a Web of Lies at Digital Speed." http://tinyurl.com/4z3rtk

I'd love to hear your comments

As new students consider what projects to do under the wing of the Center for Future Civic Media this semester, Henry Jenkins and Mitchel Resnick offered some advice this week:
The projects should be about civic media, which includes behaviors as well as information. They should be about using civic media tools in new ways, or creating new tools, to foster or facilitate community engagement in local geographic areas. Some advice about how to start creating a project:
1) Get an understanding of the situation where the civic media tools might be used.
2) Develop technologies or activiites to help deal with that situation.
3) Figure out how to implement these tools in a real local community.
Please come see me (Ellen Hume, research director) if you are interested in doing your project under the auspices of the Center. My email is ehume@media.mit.edu and my office is in E15-120K.

Having Gene Koo and Eric Gordon talk about their work in urban planning through Second Life sparked a good conversation in our C4FCM group Sept. 10. Some discussion points:
--Urban real estate developers think "communities are obstructionist," and when they come to get input from communities, the lay people "see a blank screen onto which you project your anxieties."

That's why using Second Life to engage the Allston community in the midst of Harvard's development process seemed like a nifty idea.

This semester we are expanding with a combination of Wednesday research discussions, community dinners, forums, bull sessions, films and brown bag lunches.

RESEARCH DISCUSSIONS: MIT students and researchers are welcome to join our Wednesday research discussions, which are from 3:30 to 5:30 in the Media Lab, except as noted on some days, when they are in 14E. These Wednesday meetings also serve as labs for Henry Jenkins’ class 21L.715/CMS.871. Students registered for this class are obligated to attend only from 3:30 to 5 p.m., although the discussions normally will continue for other participants until 5:30. These lab sessions will be in the Media Lab, Building 15, 20 Ames St., except as noted below on Sept. 10, Oct. 22 and Dec. 3, when they are in 14E 310.

Here is the rundown:

Sept. 10: (14E-310) Hub2: Using Second Life for Civic Engagement and Urban Planning, Gene Koo and Eric Gordon
Sept. 17: (E15-209) Research update, Walter Bender, former director of the Media Lab

on the VIDEOS page

Convened group of visualization experts to review presentation of selectricity voting results.
Attendees included: Alyssa, Mako, Yair, Seth, Anita, and Emily.
Next Meeting: 07.03 || 8pm || Acetarium

Priorities:

1. Tthe relationship between candidates
2. The relationship between voting methods

Points to note:

1. no verb, don't know what does what
2. has similarities to a social network graph
1. pivotgraph
2. many eyes
3. prefuse
4. flare
5. visual thesaurus

Opinion Notes from: Sharing the News: Reaching Students, training citizens
"A one day workshop for teachers, advisors, professors, editors, bloggers, and citizen journalists"
Saturday, June 28th, U-Mass-Lowell
http://dbs.hosting.crocker.com/wiki/index.php/Sharing

Takeaway: Rich communities will be able to buy reporters. (note 1). The truth of journalism and science forgets philosophy (note 2). The battle continues over fair use (note 3). And we're all trying to figure out how the trained and untrained, the local and global fit together (conclusion).

Reporter's subjectivity: Operationally exhausted from thesis. Notes organized by personal interest, and cr
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1) Representative Journalism--the Northfield, Minnesota Experiment