Home

Preview Image

Tad Hirsch @ BB2007

by Dean Jansen
 posted February 9th.
Tad Hirsch is a researcher and PhD candidate in the Smart Cities Group at MIT’s Media Lab. He promises to bring a unique mix of political awareness, hi-tech inventiveness, and academically focused thought to the second panel, which will address possibilities for participatory democracy.

deviceTad generally approaches problems with a very pragmatic and technical mindset; this is exemplified by his work. For example, one project, named Tripwire, addressed the noise pollution created by the San Jose Airport in a very unique fashion.

Installed During the summer of 2006, devices disguised as coconuts were hung surreptitiously (in mimosa trees?!) in public places surrounding the airport. Each coconut concealed a noise sensor, a cell-phone, some circuitry and batteries. Whenever a low flying or especially noisy jet set off a tripwire device, it would place an automated call to the airport complaint line. A variety of entertaining pre-recorded complaint messages were included on the device. All noise pollution events were recorded and archived for later inspection.

Tad’s more politically motivated projects include: a cell phone text messaging bulletin board system called TXTmob, a series of downloadable maps (for PDA’s) marking urban surveillance camera locations in major cities, and an online war protest/gambling site called Marchtowar.com. Tad also helped organize Speakeasy, a community-based telephone network that puts recent immigrants in touch with volunteers who can give advice, interpretation services, and agency referrals.

We’re excited to have Tad on board for Beyond Broadcast 2007!


One Response to this post
  1. Drew Clark @ BB: Participatory Democracy — Beyond Broadcast 2007: from Participatory Culture to Participatory Democracy Archive Said:

    […] Drew Clark brings his experience as a seasoned journalist covering communications technology and policy to the 2007 Beyond Broadcast panel on Participatory Democracy. He will be moderating the panel featuring Jennifer Harris of the Center for Digital Democracy, Chuck DeFeo of TownHall.com, and Tad Hirsch of the MIT Media Lab. […]

Feed: RSS

Leave a Reply

Other Recent Posts

This blog is now old news

Created on March 17th.

Not remapping, just mapping…

Created on March 3rd.

Who will be at Beyond Broadcast 2008?

Created on February 22nd.

Beyond Broadcast 2008: Remapping Public Media

Created on February 7th.

Working Groups

Created on February 24th.

Henry Jenkins, Keynote

Created on February 24th.

Welcome

Created on February 24th.

Beyond Broadcast 2007 Videos

Created on February 22nd.

Kenny Miller @ BB: Participatory Culture

Created on February 21st.

Jennifer Harris @ BB: Participatory Democracy

Created on February 21st.