ellen hume's blog

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