How do innovations in code affect what you can do as journalists, new media experts, community organizers?
by Christina Xu of MIT's Center for Future Civic Media (http://civic.mit.edu)
22. Platforms
• Services that allow you to easily add
content in an organized way
• Basic Examples: Craigslist, Facebook,
Twitter, Wordpress, Flickr, Google Maps
• APIs (Application Programming Interface):
allow you to share data & infrastructure
24. Platforms
• Each platform enables a very specific type
of conversation and gives it an arena to live
in online.
• Give people a place to pool their
knowledge or stories; amplify their voices
• Potential problems: privacy, data ownership,
limited scope
33. Coding for Reuse
• Other people have similar problems!
• Contribute whatever you build back for
other builders
• Document which APIs you linked
together and how
• If your code is original, open-source it.
• The “free” in Free/Libre/Open Source
(FLOSS) is not “as in beer” but “as in
speech”
35. Other Trends
• Hardware hacking getting cheaper and
easier
• Mapping: location-aware data & platforms
• Mobile: better penetration than internet in
most parts of the world, as well as in poor
urban areas in the US
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/ if you’re really curious. But really, don’t sweat this stuff! Find a developer, or get creative with what you have the capability to do.
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/how-to-leverage-an-api-for-conferencing1.htm
The first few paragraphs of this gives a more detailed explanation of what an API is and how you can use it.
This is http://www.housingmaps.org/ , a Craigslist and Facebook mashup.
http://www.heroreports.org
Help us bring this to your city! (Especially if your city is Detroit!)
The pilot for the Homeless Neighbors project can be found at: http://www.sparechangenews.net/peaches
http://www.landmanreportcard.com/
This project is available for use now! If you are living in an area affected by extractive industries, please spread it around (and contact us!)
