Boston Civic Media: Design, Technology, Social Impact

Check-in, get your free drink ticket, and make a name badge!

Welcome to Boston Civic Media! We'll be introducing the organization, setting some guidelines for the day, and kicking off the fun day together!

Please take notes in this document- http://bit.ly/1Y6K6me 

Councillor Ayanna Pressley will be talking about the current social justice issues that all civic media designers, researchers, technologists, and community members should pay attention to while doing this work. 

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Speakers will present on talks related to the four tracks of the day: civic art, media literacy, systems and advocacy, and inclusion and engagement. Speaker order includes:

-Paul Mihailidis
-Ryanne Olsen
-Ceasar McDowell
-Karin Goodfellow

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This is a time to make announcements such as internships, volunteer oppportunities, calls for proposals, and other community-wide news.

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During breaks and lunch, Boston's City Hall to Go Department will be hosting a Kitchen Table Talk focusing on how cities can better engage residents. These talks are a new community engagement initiative aimed at rethinking the community meeting. The best conversations happen around the kitchen table and with this in mind we created a portable kitchen (table, rug, chairs, etc) that can be setup anywhere; a parking space, a park, a conference, and more. We hope to attract people beyond your average "Engaged community meeting goer."  We hope to interact with anyone who happens to pass by and engage them in a quick conversation, get feedback, or allow people to sit and talk in more in-depth conversations. 

Breaks and mingling!

Curious about how to use the arts to tell your civic data story? Wondering how to use the arts to help learn how to work with data?  We will introduce DataBasic.io: a suite of free easy-to-use web tools for beginners that introduce how to work with data through arts-based activities.  Finding and telling data-driven stories can help you streamline operations, spread your message, and bring people together for creative activities.  You'll walk away with new skills for yourself, fun techniques for helping others learning to work with data, and inspirations for how to combine civic data and the arts.

Please take notes here: http://bit.ly/1TNHvbu 

Every time something is designed, there is an opportunity to include or exclude people. Inclusive design takes a human-centered approach, and recognizes that taking the breadth of user diversity—of capabilities, needs and aspirations—into account during design can result in products and programs that include a greater percentage of the population.

As we build products, programs and technology to engage citizens, the goal is to make these available to the broadest audience possible.  That audience includes people with disabilities, as well as people of different ethnic backgrounds, ages, genders, and levels of English proficiency.

Join us for a panel discussion on inclusive design where we will address the following questions:

• What principles do we consider in designing for inclusivity?
• How do inclusive design and universal design intersect?
• Does inclusive design mean something different for different types of organizations – museums, government entities, corporations, non-profits?
• What role can technology play in inclusive design, if any?

Invited panelists include:

• Ben Wilson, VP of Interactive Design at the Museum of Science (invited)
• Laura Greer-Cowan, Accessibility Program Manager at Microsoft
• Harlan Weber, GovNext at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Lauren Lockwood, City of Boston
• Mary Martin, Olin College

Moderator: Cathy Wissink, Director of Civic Engagement at Microsoft

Please take notes in here: http://bit.ly/22D8gVL 

Lightning Talks and Moderated Q&A:

• Salem Public School District Civic Media Project- Cindy Vincent 
• Multimedia Case Study on Online Privacy Education (WGBH and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society)- Bill Shribman
• Substance Abuse Education Program and Media Literacy (Curry College)- Jeff Lemberg
• Across Borders: Collaborative Radio Storytelling (Zumix)- Brittany Thomas
• Citizen Journalism and Cambridge Community Television- Frank Morris
• News Literacy: Research with the Democracy Fund- Felicia Sullivan and CIRCLE

Please take notes in here: http://bit.ly/1WzsmAl

Please take notes in here: http://bit.ly/1PajpFI 

Civic Media and the Action Civics Classroom: This workshop will start with a brief overview of action civics – a rigorous extension of ͞service learning͟ that calls on students to understand and address the systemic root causes of community problems. The workshop will describe a key action civics framework – the Advocacy Hourglass – and share stories from Generation Citizen action civics classrooms that illustrate how the framework is being applied by young people in classrooms across Greater Boston and the country. In the Advocacy Hourglass, a broad set of Community Issues is narrowed down to a specific Focus Issue and then an even more specific systems-level Root Cause, which turns into a specific policy Goal. Students then identify a variety of Targets – the multiple people they need to engage to enact their Goal, and Tactics – the multitude of actions they need to take to influence their Targets. Participants will be invited to apply the framework themselves to a relevant community issue their organization or institution is addressing, and reflect on how the Advocacy Hourglass is a useful educational and organizing framework. Part 2 of the workshop will be a specific discussion of civic technology. Generation Citizen will share how civic technology has thus far been integrated into the action civics process, enabling students to better identify possible Community Issues, more rigorously research their issue’s Root Causes and Goals, and more efficiently conduct their Tactics. Participants will be invited to apply their expertise in civic technology to brainstorm additional opportunities for civic technology to accelerate action civics, helping to recommend opportunities that can then be applied in Generation Citizen classrooms. The session will conclude with a discussion of applications – beyond the classroom:

Can the combination of civic technology and the action civics framework accelerate the work of social impact organizations or movements?
What further research needs to be done?
What next steps can this group take to pursue these opportunities?

Please host and sign up for unconference sessions of break-out discussions and skillshares! At registration and during breaks there will be an opportunity to list topics and self-organize for meeting up. Use the hashtag #bostoncivicmedia to announce interesting topics and desires to connect on overlapping interests.

Take notes here: http://bit.ly/24mS2iF   

During breaks and lunch, Boston's City Hall to Go Department will be hosting a Kitchen Table Talk focusing on how cities can better engage residents. These talks are a new community engagement initiative aimed at rethinking the community meeting. The best conversations happen around the kitchen table and with this in mind we created a portable kitchen (table, rug, chairs, etc) that can be setup anywhere; a parking space, a park, a conference, and more. We hope to attract people beyond your average "Engaged community meeting goer."  We hope to interact with anyone who happens to pass by and engage them in a quick conversation, get feedback, or allow people to sit and talk in more in-depth conversations. 

Please take notes here: http://bit.ly/1TNHvbu

Civic Art Lighnting Talks and Moderated Q&A by:

• A People's Atlas of the Cold War: A Transmedia Public Art Project- Sarah Kanouse
• CampusNeighbor x Soundlogics Case Study- Gabriel Mugar
• The City Journalist Project Case Study (The Urbano Project)- Stella McGreggor and Lina Maria Giraldo
• Creative Communities: A South Korea Case Study- Wonyoung So
• Public Space Invitational (Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics)- Michael Evans
• Citizen Science and Art: A Thermal Fishing Bob Project- Lourdes Vera

 

When producing media (web, video, or print) for Internet distribution, or teaching students how to produce media, there is a tendency to delay handling accessibility issues until late in the production process. By then, there are few opportunities for meaningful implementation. This workshop will demonstrate how disabled users view media, share the value of adding accessibility early in the process, and teach simple ways for anyone who makes media to create more accessible productions.

Visual impairment, hearing loss, physical limitations, and learning disabilities will all be considered. An accessible first process will be described that includes advocating for accessibility, taking advantage of expert resources, defining responsibilities, engaging disabled users during the design stage, and choosing compliant technologies.

Workshop participants will use their laptops to visit sites that simulate disabilities and see how to create accessible media. Activities will include simulators for color blindness, dyslexia, distractibility, and screen readers. Contrast analysis, closed captioning, and Flesch Kincaid reading level analysis tools will be shown. Example applications will include accessible Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDF files, and HTML5 forms.

Please take notes in here: http://bit.ly/22D8gVL

This session will focus on how fun, game based interventions can create powerful student-centered, maker-based learning experiences that harness simple web based modes of communication to teach about expression, agency and voice. The interactive workshop will feature the digital literacy game initiative, Emerging Citizens, a web based platform consisting of three multiplayer game experiences wherein students create and critique civic media. Each Emerging Citizens game incorporates content that encourages students to engage with culturally and politically relevant topics that affect their daily lives while focusing on a specific 21st digital modality (Hashtags, Memes, and Hyperlinking).

Through playing and reflective dialog on each Emerging Citizens game, our session will focus on how game-based interventions fit within the larger context of media literacy discourse, specifically focusing on the risks and rewards of giving students the power to drive conversation through creation. The session will share how game based methodologies in the classroom can engage students’ expression, creation, and sharing of civic media that contributes positively to daily life.

Come learn the process for building the Emerging Citizens platform, and the learning guides that accompany each game. Participate to discuss the digital literacies taught specifically hashtags, memes, and hyperlinking, and how Emerging Citizens is implemented in classrooms, community groups, and after school programs.   

Please take notes in here: http://bit.ly/1WzsmAl

Join our mailing list here: http://emergingcitizens.org 

Please take notes here: http://bit.ly/1PajpFI 

Lightning talks on systems and advoacy followed by a moderated Q&A:

• Livestream Technology for Civic Life (MIT Center for Civic Media)- Gordon Mangum
• The Respect in Reporting Campaign (PressPass TV)- Cara Berg Powers
• The Cambridge Broadband Task Force: When Bad Process Happens to Good People- Saul Tannenbaum
• Data, Design, & Agriculture: Reconstructing Legislation for Engagement (Fathom Information Design)- Alex Geller 
• Play to Change: Using City-Based Social Games to Engage Youth and Civic Leaders in Advocacy and Public Deliberation- Christina Wilson (The Engagement Lab @ Emerson College)
• Open Sourcing and Documentation in Citizen Science and Beyond (Public Lab)- Jeff Warren

Please host and sign up for unconference sessions of break-out discussions and skillshares! At registration and during breaks there will be an opportunity to list topics and self-organize for meeting up. Use the hashtag #bostoncivicmedia to announce interesting topics and desires to connect on overlapping interests.

Take notes here: http://bit.ly/24mS2iF   

Please take notes here: http://bit.ly/1TNHvbu

Join a hands-on workshop to walk through a design-thinking process grounded in a local art context! Practice collaborative design-thinking skills to address a challenge faced by the local youth radio group Zumix.

Facilitator Info
(Co) C r e a t e is a student-led design initiative and a project of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching’s (HILT) Grants program that facilitates immersive workshops across Harvard’s graduate and professional schools. We also provide training in rapid prototyping, ideation & concept development, and designing for social impact. Our team has professional experience in facilitation and consulting on topics related to human-centered design, ‘creative confidence’ capacity building, and design-led business model innovation.

Carly James is a design consultant at ThinkPlace Kenya and Master's student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. A cultural anthropologist by training, Carly recognizes that understanding human behaviors, motivations, drivers, and latent needs must be at the heart of every design process. She is a full-fledged believer in the idea that those for whom we are designing should be those with whom we design. In fall 2015, Carly and her friend and colleague, Tyler Samstag, student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, co-founded Co. C r e a t e to bring creative problem-solving skills to the Harvard community in hands-on and innovative ways. 

This panel features different service-learning professionals from Boston-area universities in the hopes of elucidating some of the processes and philosophies behind how institutions form, support, and sustain ongoing, mutually beneficial partnerships with the community. In this work, two main questions are at the heart of service-learning course and program design: 1) What should the students be learning? and 2) What does the community need? However, given different institutional structures, goals, and resources, these questions may be approached in a variety of ways- and the aim of this panel is to remove some of the mystery behind these sometimes complex dynamics. Panelists and audience members will collaboratively explore how, if this work were a continuum with the university on one side and the community on the other, partnerships can be fostered in the middle. 

Please take notes in here: http://bit.ly/22D8gVL  

Attendees of this workshop will learn to use the Boston Area Research Initiative’s (BARI) Boston Data Portal, an online platform where visitors of all experience levels can browse, map, analyze, and download a variety of data describing the people, places, and neighborhoods of Boston. The Data Portal consists of two main components: the Data Library, a repository where data can be downloaded along with documentation of their contents and origins; and BostonMap, where the same data can be visualized through interactive maps. The workshop is intended to demonstrate the data and tools provided by the Boston Data Library so they can use them to learn more about their own community, promote informed advocacy focused on Boston neighborhoods, and support the specific goals of their community.
Attendees will be able to:

• See Neighborhoods through “Big” Data: The Data Portal provides metrics developed through BARI research that translate administrative data from the City of Boston into interpretable measures of neighborhood conditions, including physical disorder (i.e., “broken windows”), violent crime, custodianship, and investment and growth. These measures are joined by more traditional data, like Census indicators.
• Walk Neighborhoods with StreetView: BostonMap allows you to combine data with the ability to “walk” through the physical context of a space, powered by Google’s StreetView. Share Your Own Customized Map: Participants will visualize various types of spati information, particular to their own interests, using BostonMap. The ability to save and easily distribute your own maps will be highlighted.
• Participate in the Conversation about Boston Data: The Boston Data Portal is an ongoing project and we will discuss of how organizations and community members alike might it, enabling us to further improve the tool and identify new data of interest.

Please take notes in here: http://bit.ly/1WzsmAl

Please take notes here: http://bit.ly/1PajpFI 

Join a series of lightning talks related to systems and advocacy- with a focus on goverment, followed by a moderated Q&A. 

• Boston's Identity: Let's Fly a New Boston Flag- Eric Ferraiuolo
• Every City is a Smart City: Civic Data Audit Across International “Smart” Cities- Tyler Crick and Dr. Beth Coleman, City as Platform Lab, University of Waterloo
• Boston.Gov- Lauren Lockwood (City Boston)
• State to Local: Developing Specific Citizen Engagement for Municipalities- Samantha Hammer (Mass IT)
• U.S. Digital Service: An Online VA Healthcare Case Study- Anne Kainic (U.S Digital Service)

Please host and sign up for unconference sessions of break-out discussions and skillshares! At registration and during breaks there will be an opportunity to list topics and self-organize for meeting up. Use the hashtag #bostoncivicmedia to announce interesting topics and desires to connect on overlapping interests.

Take notes here: http://bit.ly/24mS2iF  

During breaks and lunch, Boston's City Hall to Go Department will be hosting a Kitchen Table Talk focusing on how cities can better engage residents. These talks are a new community engagement initiative aimed at rethinking the community meeting. The best conversations happen around the kitchen table and with this in mind we created a portable kitchen (table, rug, chairs, etc) that can be setup anywhere; a parking space, a park, a conference, and more. We hope to attract people beyond your average "Engaged community meeting goer."  We hope to interact with anyone who happens to pass by and engage them in a quick conversation, get feedback, or allow people to sit and talk in more in-depth conversations. 

Please take notes here: http://bit.ly/1Y6K6me

Come celebrate the launch of the newly published book on Civic Media. Order your copy here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/civic-media. 

Across neighborhoods, cities, and countries throughout the world, people are finding new ways to share ideas, express opinions, and collaborate to build new forms of engagement local, national and global constituents. The opportunities that this new landscape presents are abundant. From open data and public discourse, to civic innovation and socio-political movements, civic technologies are fundamentally reshaping what it means to be a citizen today. Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice features 19 essays and 25 case studies from scholars and practitioners thinking about the role of media in civic life today. This panel will feature discussion from contributors to the book.

Stay after the full day of learning and chatting to mingle with each other! All attendees will recieve on drink ticket and can enjoy the cash bar afterwards.