So I’m down in DC this weekend, not for the cherry blossom festival (although the cherry blossoms are quite nice), but for a board meeting of the Urban Communications Foundation (UCF). We’re meeting today primarily to discuss the nature of the “communicative city.” The question is: what does it mean for a city […]

Categories: placeofmedia · citygovernment · civic_engagement · Community_Informatics · cities · place

The key is presented to Mayor Menino

The virtual mayor takes the key to the virtual city
The Hub2 kick-off event was a big success. We had a packed room, both in first and second life, and there was an overall positive reception to the work we are doing. Bill Oates, the Chief Information Officer […]

Categories: placeofmedia · boston · citygovernment · city · hub2 · civic_engagement · net-locality

Last week I was in Chicago at the National Communication Association conference. I never used to go to this conference, but over the past several years I’ve been attending a pre-conference seminar with this group called the Urban Communication Foundation. It’s an interdisciplinary group of folks who are concerned with the various aspects […]

Categories: placeofmedia · boston · SecondLife · city · hub2 · gene_koo · civic_engagement · cities

CCTV is a community media center in Cambridge, MA that is doing some fascinating work in the integration of web media to the mission of community television. My grad student, Colin Rhinesmith, is doing his master’s thesis on this topic and has done some exemplary research thus far on the implications of this integration. […]

Categories: placeofmedia · civic_engagement · net-locality · Community_Informatics · cities

In class last week, we spent about 90 minutes arguing over the merits of community networks. The real question was: why would we want network technologies overlaying physical space? Don’t we have enough “connection?” Shouldn’t urban planners and architects help us figure out ways to “disconnect?” The argument I offered against […]

Categories: placeofmedia · boston · citygovernment · SecondLife · city · hub2 · civic_engagement · net-locality · Community_Informatics

For the last four weeks, we’ve been doing some general thinking about how cities, digital networks and virtual worlds might fit together. We’ve talked about the relationship between play and urban spatial practice, and we’ve pondered the general success of the spaces we daily occupy in the city of Boston. Everyone in my […]

Categories: boston · SecondLife · city · hub2 · civic_engagement

Knowledge Politics just released a pamphlet on the topic of “Localism and the Information Society.” This collection of brief essays is motivated by the desire to see better integration of ICTs into neighborhoods and cities. As stated in the introduction:

“new communication tools actually have the ability to strengthen traditional, local relationships. This premise […]

Categories: placeofmedia · citygovernment · city · civic_engagement · net-locality · Community_Informatics

The Hub2 initiative started this week in the form of an upper-division class at Emerson College. The community class is set to begin next Tuesday. At this point, we are enrolled to capacity, and are quite eager to get started. The Emerson class is conceived a little differently than the community class. […]

Categories: placeofmedia · boston · SecondLife · hub2 · civic_engagement

Everything is going full speed ahead. The Boston Redevelopment Authority has agreed to fund the first phase of the Hub2 program. They’re going to pay for student tuition, evaluation, TA support and design. It’s great news and we’re thrilled that they’ve taken a chance on this experimental program. Now that the […]

Categories: placeofmedia · boston · citygovernment · SecondLife · phones · hub2 · gene_koo · civic_engagement

As we consider our theoretical justification for using Second Life to facilitate civic engagement, we’ve come up with the notion of placeworlds. Below is a sketch of the concept:
Place is experienced space. It is what happens when geographic space takes on meaning of any sort – as an object of memory, or desire, […]

Categories: placeofmedia · boston · SecondLife · city · hub2 · civic_engagement