August 8, 2023
9 a.m. - 5 p.m. (in-person)
9 a.m. - 1 p.m. (live-streamed)
University Memorial Center room 235
University of Colorado Boulder
What if we valued local technology the way we value local food and local businesses?
This event explores opportunities and challenges for building healthy tech ecosystems that are focused on the needs of local communities—with a focus on projects active across Colorado's Front Range. What kinds of social media could bring people together rather than driving them apart? What kinds of gig platforms could put workers and small businesses above global monopolies? How can regional journalists develop tools truly suited to their needs? The event will make space to introduce projects already cultivating local tech ecologies in Colorado and beyond, and we will discuss strategies for more intentionally developing those ecologies in the future.
Speakers include:
- Aaron Brockett (mayor, City of Boulder)
- Becks Boone, Jamie Anderson (Rootable)
- Caroline Savery (Bloom Network)
- Erika Iacono (Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center)
- Ethan Zuckerman (UMass Amherst)
- Josh Ritzer (Nigh)
- LeeLee James (Slay the Runway)
- libi striegl (Media Archaeology Lab)
- Mike Perhats (Nosh)
Lunch will be served, along with snacks and a reception at the end. This is a free event, but please consider making a donation to MEDLab to support our work.
Colorado Engaged Elections
Fellowship
From our friends at Hearken and the Colorado journalism community:
The Engaged Elections fellowship program will support up to 12 Colorado newsrooms in developing a winning strategy to surface and respond to their public’s critical information needs related to elections. Each participating newsroom will also receive a $1,000 stipend to support their engagement strategy. Training will be guided by Jennifer Brandel, CEO of Hearken, and presented in partnership with COLab thanks to support from Gates Family Foundation.
Learn more here.
Podcast: How Did Open Social Media Platforms Originate?
Our radio show, Looks Like New, airs across Colorado's Front Range on the fourth Thursday of every month on KGNU radio. Here's what we heard about in June:
In the aftermath of a chaotic Twitter takeover, many people have moved away from centralized social media platforms to a new set of social platforms that are open-source, decentralized, and user-centered—like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Nostr. But civic-minded social platforms are nothing new.
This episode presents some of Open Social Media’s origin stories from three speakers who have been involved in the development, culture, and communities of their platforms: Christine Lemmer-Webber (co-editor, ActivityPub), Evan Henshaw-Plath (founder, Nos), and Golda Velez (early participant, Bluesky). We will explore how queer experiences and activist movements, for instance, have played a vital role in shaping the design and direction of emerging platforms.
