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Tracy Viselli
Back to Barnraising: Why Hyperlocal Is The Future for Online Civic Engagement and Philanthropy
Since we witnessed online organizing at its most winning during the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign, there have been a slew of online civic engagement ventures of national or even international scope--TwitterVoteReport and InaugurationReport, Ushahidi, Ashoka Changemakers, Ideas for America, Citizen Effect--the list goes on an on. And while many of these projects have been very successful, what they've made apparent is that what is often most difficult to do, is to help those living closest to us--in our town, on our street, on our block. The next generation of online civic engagement tools and platforms must address this most basic need--neighbors helping neighbors.
You can already see national platforms emerging that empower citizens to help their neighbors--NeighborGoods and SeeClickFix are great examples. Like place blogs, hyperlocal civic engagement projects like Front Porch Forum and Localocracy are taking civic engagement back to the future if you will,providing online tools and platforms for neighbors to help neighbors in their own communities. where they can witness the impact Neighbors are beginning to use these tools to identify themselves, reconnect, and generate collective action that transforms their communities. This future reflects a shift from projects that are large in scale and often disconnected from where we live and who we know. The age of local community barn raising is back, with a little help from the social web.
About Tracy Viselli:
racy is an interactive media strategist who built a successful online community centered around politics and downtown redevelopment in Reno, Nevada. Tracy has worked on several projects focused on increasing civic engagement through technology, including the award-winning TwitterVoteReport <http://blog.twittervotereport.com/> , and is the co-founder of TweetProgress <http://tweetprogress.us/> and the Nevada Interactive Media Summit <http://nevadainteractivemedia.org/> .
She recently moved to Alexandria, Virginia to be the Community Manager for ACTion Alexandria, a new online civic engagement initiative launched by ACT for Alexandria. ACTion Alexandria will work closely with local non-profits, city organizations, and citizens to identify and prioritize community needs and challenges and empower citizens to take collective action to resolve them. Similar to community barn raising efforts of the past, ACTion Alexandria operates under the premise that the citizens of Alexandria are the raw material for collective action and change and that meaningful community action takes many hands.
Tracy regularly provides social media training and frequently speaks about social media, particularly the micro-blogging platform Twitter, and has been quoted on CNN.com, The Hill, National Journal, techPresident, Ragan News, PBS Media Shift, London Times, and the Las Vegas Review.
