Speaking a year ago at the 50 Years of Public Computing at UI symposium (April 15, 2010), Professor Marc Snir noted that technologists at times have been uninterested in the outcomes of their inventions: “Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That’s not my department.” Of Community Informatics (CI), Snir noted: […]
Digital Excellence 2010
In late October, I went to Chicago to join folks from across the country for DexCon 2010, the First Chicago Neighborhood Digital Excellence Conference, a convening of activists and others interested in community technology in Chicago. The major organizers were Pierre Clark, Thom Clark and Michael Maranda. It was a full day at DePaul University […]
Cesar Chavez Digital/Mural Lab
Together with UCLA, the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), founded by Judy Baca in Los Angeles 28 years back, runs the only lab that creates community-based digitally-generated public art for murals, the Cesar Chavez Digital/Mural Lab. SPARC also works with folks to create banners, websites, performances, video and public monuments. “The Great Wall […]
Wireless Cities: Paths Away from Bad Times
An article in The New York Times yesterday (3/22/08), “Hopes for Wireless Cities Fade as Internet Providers Pull Out” focuses on Philadelphia’s efforts to set up a municipal Wi-Fi grid in order to provide free or cheap wireless access to all residents. EarthLink has decided that “municipal Wi-Fi assets were no longer consistent with the […]
