I love the combination of traditions like the August fireworks that prompt presidents to pay us summer visits and the modern, relaxed atmosphere that attracts young families.
As a seasonal Oak Bluffs resident, I love the combination of traditions like the August fireworks that prompt presidents to pay us summer visits and the modern, relaxed atmosphere that attracts young families happy to be moments away from the Flying Horses. It’s in this spirit of blending the traditional and the modern that I urge the town of Oak Bluffs to think about new ways to use the Internet, social media and digital technology to ensure that seasonal residents, annual visitors, and day trippers all know what our town has to offer and have an opportunity to contribute to its culture and growth.
Cities across the United States and the world are using technology to solve urban problems, promote economic development and improve the quality of life for residents and visitors. A recent Knight Foundation report describes “civic tech” as encompassing a variety of converging fields — social networking, community organizing, public data access and transparency, peer-to-peer sharing of goods and services, and crowd funding for commercial or community projects. People in Oak Bluffs have been living in the sharing economy since long before bike sharing stations and car sharing spaces became popular in Boston or Washington, D.C. Residents rent their houses, visitors rent bicycles and Jeeps and share cab rides in large vans. In a place that already has this collaborative spirit, using technology to further collaboration should be easy to embrace.
The town of Oak Bluffs needs to open itself up to the world digitally. The town should be using a combination of its website and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to tell its story, including its history, things to do, and vision for the future. Significant portions of the Oak Bluffs story can be told through short video clips. With all the talented artists and filmmakers who live in or visit Oak Bluffs and with a distinctive voice as narrator and a famous face in the crowd, a viral video is waiting to happen.
Digital technology can also play a significant role in building support for Oak Bluffs businesses and major civic events. Last summer, BET co-sponsored the Oak Bluffs fireworks. Beyond attracting additional corporate support, a frequently updated website and active social media presence will make it easier for the town to attract individual investors or entrepreneurs seeking funding for their projects through a crowd sourcing platform such as Kickstarter. Visitors to Oak Bluffs, many of whom are creative and highly connected, are coming from around the world. We need to use the internet to tap into their creativity, and in some cases their wealth, so that the next chapters for Seasons and The Strand and Island theatres will be exciting, successful and reflective of Oak Bluffs.
Digital civic engagement initiatives should exist in partnership with off-line community and consensus-building efforts. In addition to using the town’s website and social media platforms to ask residents and visitors for their vision for the future, Oak Bluffs should, for example, partner with a university, corporation or nonprofit on a touch screen display that will allow people who walk past Seasons to stop and see potential visions for the space and offer their input. The data from this feedback should subsequently be shared publicly. Developing civic technology initiatives that aid the town in acquiring information it needs or solving a specific problem will allow Oak Bluffs to have a more fruitful relationship with its most valuable resource — its residents and visitors. No one really wants to attend a government meeting while on vacation, so let the constituents come to you.
Jeffrey H. Tignor is a communications lawyer and fellow at Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy.
Comments
Jeff was Special Counsel in
Skip OBJeff was Special Counsel in the Broadband Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission--and an expert on the subject. He and his family have long roots in Oak Bluffs where he, his wife and son have a home. This is a remarkably great idea for our remarkably great Town. Thanks
Jeffrey - Thank you for your
Ewell Hopkins Oak BluffsJeffrey - Thank you for your comments. As a candidate for the Oak Bluffs Planning board (Election day April 10th), I agree the information age has much to offer the town of Oak Bluffs and the island of Martha's Vineyard.
I am attaching a link to my campaign FaceBook page where you can read more of my platform positions. https://www.facebook.com/OBplanning
For those not on FaceBook I have included a "cut & paste" from my March 8th post which speaks to your thoughts...
Clip from Campaign platform:
As a member of the Oak Bluffs Planning Board I will ensure a planning process where information access & housing trends impacting our town can be constructively considered:
1.)Open Data Creates Civic App-ortunities -
The explosion in open data has caused a revolution in municipal management that the public and private sectors are just beginning to understand and leverage. As town government improves their ability to utilize vast amounts of digital data to improve operations shouldn't quality of life and interaction with constituents also be a goal. On the other hand are so-called “civic hackers”* seeking to increase transparency and accountability, or simply make better places.
* One who collaborates with others to create, build, and invent open source solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to their neighborhood, city, state, or country.
2.)You Can’t Go Home Again: Housing Adapts to Demographic Change -
Houses are growing, while apartments are shrinking. As the housing industry sputters back to life after the Great Recession, profound shifts in our demographics and economic footings are leading to significant changes in the types of housing being built. The impending “silver tsunami”, the rise of “singletons”, and emergence of the Millennial Generation from their parents’ basements, are among the demographic trends which should be spurring the growth of apartments and multi-generational housing.
Footnote: Trends 1 & 2 paraphrased from the Planetizen website.
I'm pretty sure that most
Bob OBI'm pretty sure that most people are aware that the internet exists, and Oak Bluffs is not exactly a hidden presence on said internet. I sense that there is something more at play here. To whom would that distinctive voice and famous face belong? This sounds like yet
another attempt to have individuals that have no economic stake in the place have a voice in its governance. Why would we encourage further re-writing of our history, and cede further control over the marketing of our own brand to persons unknown who neither live nor
own property or businesses here? Why would the owners of the property that formerly housed Seasons welcome the input of passers-by regarding its future use? No, thank you. Let's let the branding and the marketing of the place remain squarely where it belongs - in the hands of those that actually have an ownership stake in it. When I go on vacation to someplace else, it never occurs to me to suggest or demand that my "vision for the future" of that place be heard. If Mr. Tignor would like to make the Hall's an attractive offer for one of their properties referenced in his piece, then it would be interesting indeed to see him purchase it and open a public forum on the internet that would dictate the future course of development of his property. That would, of course, be his choice to make after he purchased said property. There is no need to let the constituents come to us, Mr. Tignor. They are already here.
A superb commentary! Both
Shelley Christiansen Oak BluffsA superb commentary! Both inspired and concrete. Thank you, Jeffrey.
As founding Executive
Jane Chittick Washington DC and EdgartownAs founding Executive Director of the Preservation Trust, I and others worked hard and tirelessly to spearhead the campaign to purchase the Flying Horses back in 1986 under a very tight timeline. But, the hardest part was first convincing the majority of my Board of Trustees that 1) the Carousel was worth it from a historical perspective and 2) that we should be investing in Oak Bluffs' preservation (so different from the Edgartown properties). The members who "got it" were largely the year-rounders and we prevailed. Obviously, that is past history and today everyone knows the Carousel's value in our country as a National Historic Landmark and locally as the island's carousel now operating continuously for 130 years. But I agree with Mr. Tignor: there needs to be an organized effort to conduct a viable digital branding/marketing campaign showing Oak Bluffs as a historic gem: one of the few remaining late-1800's seaside resort towns that are an intrinsic part of our country's history. The Town would be smart to hire a competent and well respected national firm to invest in a professional campaign that can then be sustained by local efforts. The thing is to do it right. And that means hired professional expertise.
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