We are thinking about offering another webinar on the topic of service-learning in online courses. As I begin to plan, I would be interested to know what specific questions you have and what types of information you would find most useful. Feel free to respond by commenting at the bottom of this post.
I am always looking for great examples of readily available, free technologies are being used for public benefit. This sounds like a great potential civic engagement project for campuses in snowy places like Minnesota.
Developed by Code for America, Adopt-a-Hydrant helps people to claim responsibility for shoveling out a fire hydrant after it snows. The Adopt a Hydrant software is free for any city to adopt. Learn More.
Want to know how to make sure that yours is an informed decision? Would you like to check the accuracy of a campaign ad? This post on the Knight Blog gives an overview of election-related tools for voters including: SuperPac App, Politifact and TurboVote.
Reblogged from businessinsider.com
Author: Jay Yarow, Date: April 30, 2012
How big is mobile? Really big. This slide from analyst Chetan Sharma shows that mobile is the most pervasive technology ever invented. As you can see, mobile has deeper penetration than electricity and safe drinking water.
An interesting new article at consumerreports.org asks the question: Who sees the data you share on the biggest social network?
“. . . Facebook and other social networks collect enormous amounts of highly sensitive information—and distribute it more quickly and widely than traditional consumer data-gathering firms ever could. That’s great when it helps you find old classmates or see ads for things you actually want to buy. But how much information is really being collected about you? How is it being used? And could it fall into the wrong hands?”
Read the full article, Facebook & Your Privacy at Consumer Reports.
When I talk to people about the Center for Digital Civic Engagement, and the idea that the use of social media and information technology can be important in civic engagement efforts, I often have a hard time getting past their desire to simply view the technologies as “tools.” As the letter became the email and then the text message, something else was happening. In both public and private life, ideas and creativity took place in open and connected spaces. Brainstorming, trial & error, re-imagining, and LEARNING all became social.
Just as social media transformed people from consumers of Internet content, into producers of Internet content – civic engagement transforms us from spectators of democracy into creators of democracy. Want to create public policy? You’ll have to use a similar model of Brainstorming, trial & error, re-imagining, and learning.
David White and colleagues at University of Oxford, have developed an interesting framework for thinking about these changes. I have found their work on “digital visitors” and “digital residents” to be very useful in understanding this profound cultural shift. White explains the theory in the video below.
Just about 
everybody has an audio recorder in their pocket these days. If you are involved in projects related to citizen journalism, oral history, advocacy, or key informant evaluation interviews, you might want to check out this post by Melissa Ulbricht, on MobileActive’s, Mobile Media Toolkit site. It contains links to a number of case studies and training guides that will help you use audio in a compelling and effective way.
I will be presenting a webinar highlighting useful Web and mobile technologies that you should consider incorporating in your civic engagement projects. Get more information at the link below.
Webinar: Using Free Technologies to Support Effective… – Eventbrite.
