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Ellen Hume from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Future Civic Media, along with Renee Hobbs, a professor with the Media Education Lab, are among the participants. So far, attendees include journalism professors, students, researchers, and news professionals in radio, online, and print.

By Florence Gallez
October 3, 2008

While the debate over who America will vote into the Oval Office is in full swing, so too is the discussion about how the voting will happen. The November elections will feature unprecedented levels and varieties of electronic voting.

The proliferation of blogs and Web sites dedicated to goodness is still modest, but notable, given the stupefying misanthropy on the Internet.

"I do think it's a big trend," says Alyssa Wright, who launched heroreports.org in June. Wright, 30, was working on her master's degree at the Center for Future Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when she dreamed up the Web site where New Yorkers could post anecdotes about acts of generosity or thoughtfulness.

"These sites may be in response to a certain amount of sadness about the way Americans are positioned in the world. The cruelty we've been a part of," Wright says. "It's a backlash, I think. We need the balance. So these sites focus on our sense of humanity and compassion."

Move over Batman and Spidey, Gotham has a new hero: average New Yorkers whose random acts of civic courage are being logged on a new Web site called Hero Reports.

An interview with MIT Media Lab researcher Karen Brennan.

Benjamin Mako Hill from the MIT Center for Future Civic Media presented on the ways that errors in everyday technology can present opportunities for encouraging the right kind of thinking. He used ATM crashes as an example of how typically invisible thinking becomes visible to users, stimulating immediate public discussion.

David Chandler, MIT News Office

Traditional voting systems only allow people to make a single choice -- a limitation many voters find frustrating, particularly when there is a crowded field of candidates as there was early in the current presidential nominating cycle.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

December 6, 2007

MIT's new Center for Future Civic Media (C4FCM) has announced that Ellen Hume will join the center as research director, effective Jan. 28.

* Dharmishta Rood (Contact)
* Published: Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The future of civic media, which is community-oriented interactions, depends on its uses today.

This community could be as small as two friends or as large as global organization. To participate in these groups is civic engagement. Exploring this is exactly what is going on at the Center for Future Civic Media at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

OJR: The main winner, the Center for Future Civic Media, was awarded $5 million. Their goal seems to be broader than any of the others, so what will be the tangible result of their project?

Kebbel: The MIT Media Lab will come together with the studies of sociology, psychology, political and cultural science to develop new processes [for gathering community news] and [assess] what mediums and technologies they can bring to solve those problems.

Read the full interview at the Knight Digital Media Center -->