Late last week, Twitter started buzzing with people texting their “number neighbor.” If you’re not familiar, your “number neighbor” (or #textdoorneighbor) is the person with a phone number one digit up or down from yours. If my phone number is 555–555–1212, my “number neighbors” would be 555–555–1211 and 555–555–1213. Text…

This is a lightly-edited version of my keynote presentation for the “Beyond Smart” Symposium at Georgia Institute of Technology, April 25–26, 2019. Before I get started, I think it’s important to acknowledge the strides the idea of “smart cities” has made. It has brought together participants across disciplines and domains…

Tech companies aspire to fail. Facebook implores its employees to “fail harder” and to “move fast and break things.” Plucky startups brag about being a “serial entrepreneur,” using failure stories to persuade investors of their potential. In part, they are mirroring messages from executives, who are keen to reinforce the…

Stories are all around us. We are told that “everyone has a story,” and people are encouraged to use social media to “tell their story.” Stories appear in the news and are spread through word-of-mouth. In these ways, they can travel across institutional and cultural barriers. When community stories are…

“Civic Tech,” once a niche term, is now a topic of speculation and investment worldwide. Non-profit organizations, governments, and grassroots groups are using the term to describe their work. In light of this continued interest, Hana Schank and Sara Hudson recently revived a definitional debate on Civic Tech with their…

I am a post-doctoral researcher who helps run a research group. Each week we devote a half-hour of our group meetings to discussing important topics to young academics. Last fall I wanted to assign an article on how to submit a journal article — a format intrinsically connected with professional…

Self-publishing a book is an unusual decision in academia. Academics are expected to write books for publishers that have a high reputation in their respective fields. Self-publishing has the academic cred slightly above scribbling on cocktail napkins. I’ve been pretty successful at publishing articles in top publications for my field…

Last month I presented on Innovation Teams at UC Berkeley’s Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society (CSTMS). Someone asked if I had thought of assembling a reading list for people on Innovation Teams or curious about them. I said no, but it sounded like a fantastic idea! Over lunch…

In 2012 I became interested in the idea of “civic technology” and the people who created it. “Open data” figures prominently in their thinking about reforming government and improving community strength. For example, open data proponents believed that open data would bring about transparency, civic participation, and government-citizen collaboration (mirroring…