Visiting Professor Eric Gordon discusses a recent project in Boston, in collaboration with the Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, called Beta Blocks, that uses meaningful inefficiency as a structuring logic for sourcing, questioning and making decisions about public realm technologies.
Video, Jing Wang: “Walking Around Obstacles: Nonconfrontational Activists in Gray China”
Is there digital activism in China? What is it like to be an activist running a grassroots NGO in a land of censors?
Sense and the City: Representations of Air Quality Data in the “Smart City”
Examining representations of air quality data intended for governmental to grassroots audiences, and how these representations may prove to be problematic in attempts to reconcile their myriad forms and meanings across contexts and constituencies.
Global Internet Development Viewed Through the Net Vitality Lens
Unlike other comparative studies that rank countries quantitatively based on a simplistic assessment of broadband speeds, Stuart Brotman’s Net Vitality Index measures countries qualitatively to determine how well they are performing in a global competitive environment.
Open Government Data Intermediaries: Mediating Data to Drive Changes in the Built Environment
Less attention has been focused on a configuration of actors that facilitate the use of data by aggregating open government data and enhancing it.
Civic Crowdfunding: Participatory Communities, Entrepreneurs and the Political Economy of Place
The potential benefits and challenges of using crowdfunding as a means of executing community-oriented projects in the built environment.
NGO 2.0: An Interview with Jing Wang
“We found that teaching them how to use the tools is probably less important than teaching them how to position themselves, how to brand themselves.”
