<incom> rfc: techological initiatives for social empowerment

[Geert Lovink]

> From: "Leo Burd" <leoburd at media.mit.edu>
> Date: 12 July 2007 4:09:06 PM
> To: <bytesforall_readers at yahoogroups.com>
> Cc: "Leo Burd" <leoburd at media.mit.edu>
> Subject: [bytesforall_readers] Techological initiatives for social 
> empowerment
> Reply-To: bytesforall_readers at yahoogroups.com
>
> Dear all,
>
>  I have just finished my PhD at the MIT Media Lab focusing on the 
> design of
>  technological initiatives for social empowerment, with special focus 
> on
>  youth participation and local civic engagement. This work critiques
>  telecenters and other traditional approaches to technology-supported 
> social
>  development and proposes a framework for the design and analysis of
>  initiatives that are more inclusive and democratic. On the technical 
> side,
>  I ended up implementing an open-source, neighborhood news system that
>  combines the power of the telephone and the web to help young people 
> become
>  more actively engaged with their local communities.
>
>  If possible, I would love to receive feedback from the Bytes for All
>  community about the ideas developed as part of that work and about 
> how to
>  take them into new directions.
>
>  The thesis document and the video of the defense can be found at
> http://www.media.mit.edu/~leob/thesis/
>
>  Thanks in advance,
>
>  Leo Burd
> leoburd at media.mit.edu