My paperwork went through today, so I can finally say it in public without fear of jinxing myself… I am proud and very excited to say that I’m officially joining the MIT Media Lab as a visiting scholar, through the Center for Civic Media. I’ve been coming here for the weekly lunches and research meetings for a while now, and have been a member of the center’s email list for quite some time, but today I got my ID card so I guess it’s official. I am really overcome with geeky joy every moment of every day that I’m here - it’s like I died and went to geek heaven. From big things like the ridiculously inspiring building that is the Media Lab, to little things like people making robots in the hallway, to all of the historic elements and artifacts you walk by as you roam the halls. Maybe it’s just me, but the whole place seems to be sprinkled with happy geek dust, and I just can’t get enough of it (I hope this feeling doesn’t wear off). More specifically, it’s a super exciting time at the Media Lab and at Center for Civic Media. It’s an honor to be working with Joi Ito, the new head of the Lab, andEthan Zuckerman, the new director of the center. I’ve been followers and fans of both for a long time. And there is an incredible group of people in and around the Center that I’m looking forward to getting to know. If you haven’t already seen it, go over and read Joi’s article in this Tuesday’s Times on the Internet as a “belief system”, “Open Innovation”, and what it all means for the future of learning. This is the kind of stuff that I can’t stop thinking about, and I could not be more thrilled to be among a community of people who are doing the same.
We just posted this morning on the Civic Commons blog that our founding Executive Director Andrew McLaughlin is now moving on to take a totally awesome job atTumblr, and that I’ll be moving into the ED role at CC as of today. It has been great working with Andrew since Civic Commons launched in May (and by “launched”, we mean, “launched with funding”, as we’ve been developing the idea for much longer than that). It’s been a real honor to work with him, and I’ve learned a lot about how to approach the vision, strategy and management of an organization with ambitions of high impact. Andrew has a ridiculous background, with extended stints at ICANN, Google, and the White House, and frankly, I’m proud that we were able to squeeze Civic Commons in there between the WH and now Tumblr :) But in all seriousness, I couldn’t be more excited for Andrew’s next move — Tumblr is one of my favorite web platforms. Not only did it singlehandedly ignite my personal ability to blog, it has also helped to demonstrate that
The first CityCamp, in January 2010 was a memorable event for a bunch of reasons. It simultaneously marked the birth of several civic technology initiatives -- the CityCamp unconference series itself, which has grown like gangbusters since then, Code for America, which has since just finished its first year and is growing like mad, and of course Civic Commons, which started as a partnership between Code for America and OpenPlans at that very CityCamp. Despite all the delicious awesomeness that went down that cold, rainy, snowy weekend, there's one thing that has stuck w/ me more than anything else. As folks who've been to unconferences know, the traditional opening activity is to pass the mic around the room and have each person introduce themselves and say exactly three words that describe them. At this CityCamp, I remember that my words were "making" "cities" "easiertouse" (so I was cheating a bit, obv - I'm kind of hit or miss w/ the three words). The line that has stuck with me still from this CityCamp was
My paperwork went through today, so I can finally say it in public without fear of jinxing myself… I am proud and very excited to say that I’m officially joining the MIT Media Lab as a visiting scholar, through the Center for Civic Media. I’ve been coming here for the weekly lunches and research meetings for a while now, and have been a member of the center’s email list for quite some time, but today I got my ID card so I guess it’s official. I am really overcome with geeky joy every moment of every day that I’m here - it’s like I died and went to geek heaven. From big things like the ridiculously inspiring building that is the Media Lab, to little things like people making robots in the hallway, to all of the historic elements and artifacts you walk by as you roam the halls. Maybe it’s just me, but the whole place seems to be sprinkled with happy geek dust, and I just can’t get enough of it (I hope this feeling doesn’t wear off). More specifically, it’s a super exciting time at the Media Lab and at Center for Civic Media. It’s an honor to be working with Joi Ito, the new head of the Lab, andEthan Zuckerman, the new director of the center. I’ve been followers and fans of both for a long time. And there is an incredible group of people in and around the Center that I’m looking forward to getting to know. If you haven’t already seen it, go over and read Joi’s article in this Tuesday’s Times on the Internet as a “belief system”, “Open Innovation”, and what it all means for the future of learning. This is the kind of stuff that I can’t stop thinking about, and I could not be more thrilled to be among a community of people who are doing the same.
We just posted this morning on the Civic Commons blog that our founding Executive Director Andrew McLaughlin is now moving on to take a totally awesome job atTumblr, and that I’ll be moving into the ED role at CC as of today. It has been great working with Andrew since Civic Commons launched in May (and by “launched”, we mean, “launched with funding”, as we’ve been developing the idea for much longer than that). It’s been a real honor to work with him, and I’ve learned a lot about how to approach the vision, strategy and management of an organization with ambitions of high impact. Andrew has a ridiculous background, with extended stints at ICANN, Google, and the White House, and frankly, I’m proud that we were able to squeeze Civic Commons in there between the WH and now Tumblr :) But in all seriousness, I couldn’t be more excited for Andrew’s next move — Tumblr is one of my favorite web platforms. Not only did it singlehandedly ignite my personal ability to blog, it has also helped to demonstrate that
The first CityCamp, in January 2010 was a memorable event for a bunch of reasons. It simultaneously marked the birth of several civic technology initiatives -- the CityCamp unconference series itself, which has grown like gangbusters since then, Code for America, which has since just finished its first year and is growing like mad, and of course Civic Commons, which started as a partnership between Code for America and OpenPlans at that very CityCamp. Despite all the delicious awesomeness that went down that cold, rainy, snowy weekend, there's one thing that has stuck w/ me more than anything else. As folks who've been to unconferences know, the traditional opening activity is to pass the mic around the room and have each person introduce themselves and say exactly three words that describe them. At this CityCamp, I remember that my words were "making" "cities" "easiertouse" (so I was cheating a bit, obv - I'm kind of hit or miss w/ the three words). The line that has stuck with me still from this CityCamp was
The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
Investing @ USV. Student of cities and the internet.
The Slow Hunch by Nick Grossman
Investing @ USV. Student of cities and the internet.
social web platforms can be mobilized for incredible civic purposes
. I’m a firm believer that the future of the Civic Web is as much about
. And it’s clear that Tumblr has the ability to lead the way here. As for what’s next here at Civic Commons: we’ve accomplished a lot in our first seven months — from working with many government entities to
. Perhaps more importantly, we’ve learned a lot about what’s hard and where we think our real opportunity is, and are refocusing our efforts to best reflect that. More on that in the coming days and weeks. So, to Andrew: thank you, and here’s to an amazing new frontier. To our team, partners and collaborators at Civic Commons, let’s get busy taking it to the next level.
Phil Ashlock
's opening 3 words. Phil said "Open" "Interoperable" "Cities". Kind of a mouthful, and perhaps a bit abstract if you don't sit around every day thinking about what "open" and "interoperable" mean in the context of cities, like we do. Phil's line stuck with me so much because the more I think about this (and now here we are, two years later), the metaphor of the "city as internet" just keeps getting stronger and stronger for me. We've focused on various aspects of this over the years -- collaborative culture, open source development, etc. But the more I think about what really interests me, and what's a really powerful idea, it's this one. Open means extensible -- free to change and grow and adapt, without asking permission. Interoperable means that small pieces know how to work with one another. Taken together, you get one of the core ideas that has made the Internet such a place of innovation. When you can build on the web (or on your city) at will, and you can connect to all the other things that have been built, you can pretty much do anything. In the Civic Technology land, we spend a lot of time building civic apps. Startups, cities, and independent developers are making all kinds of great stuff. BUT -- and I think this is the big idea -- what if we were to focus less on
building more civic apps
and more on
making all apps more civic?
For a concrete example: we've done a lot of work in the 311 space -- coordinating an
are building apps that directly support this activity. This is super great, and is without a doubt a huge step towards making cities more accessible. But imagine that instead of (or in a addition to it) using a dedicated 311 app, you could report an issue to a city from
whatever app you're using
? Take a photo with Instagram of a pothole, and send it to your city right from there. That's what we mean by interoperability. When cities are open and interoperable, you should be able talk to your city from any device and nearly any app, just the way you can send a tweet from any device and lots of apps. That's powerful, and that's where I'm interested in seeing things go.
social web platforms can be mobilized for incredible civic purposes
. I’m a firm believer that the future of the Civic Web is as much about
. And it’s clear that Tumblr has the ability to lead the way here. As for what’s next here at Civic Commons: we’ve accomplished a lot in our first seven months — from working with many government entities to
. Perhaps more importantly, we’ve learned a lot about what’s hard and where we think our real opportunity is, and are refocusing our efforts to best reflect that. More on that in the coming days and weeks. So, to Andrew: thank you, and here’s to an amazing new frontier. To our team, partners and collaborators at Civic Commons, let’s get busy taking it to the next level.
Phil Ashlock
's opening 3 words. Phil said "Open" "Interoperable" "Cities". Kind of a mouthful, and perhaps a bit abstract if you don't sit around every day thinking about what "open" and "interoperable" mean in the context of cities, like we do. Phil's line stuck with me so much because the more I think about this (and now here we are, two years later), the metaphor of the "city as internet" just keeps getting stronger and stronger for me. We've focused on various aspects of this over the years -- collaborative culture, open source development, etc. But the more I think about what really interests me, and what's a really powerful idea, it's this one. Open means extensible -- free to change and grow and adapt, without asking permission. Interoperable means that small pieces know how to work with one another. Taken together, you get one of the core ideas that has made the Internet such a place of innovation. When you can build on the web (or on your city) at will, and you can connect to all the other things that have been built, you can pretty much do anything. In the Civic Technology land, we spend a lot of time building civic apps. Startups, cities, and independent developers are making all kinds of great stuff. BUT -- and I think this is the big idea -- what if we were to focus less on
building more civic apps
and more on
making all apps more civic?
For a concrete example: we've done a lot of work in the 311 space -- coordinating an
are building apps that directly support this activity. This is super great, and is without a doubt a huge step towards making cities more accessible. But imagine that instead of (or in a addition to it) using a dedicated 311 app, you could report an issue to a city from
whatever app you're using
? Take a photo with Instagram of a pothole, and send it to your city right from there. That's what we mean by interoperability. When cities are open and interoperable, you should be able talk to your city from any device and nearly any app, just the way you can send a tweet from any device and lots of apps. That's powerful, and that's where I'm interested in seeing things go.
