Sam Liebeskind

Message boards and internet communities have existed since the start of the internet, but they’re becoming increasingly sophisticated. They now have the ability to raise funds, share decision making, and legally incorporate themselves. These internet-first organizations have already proven to be extremely influential online and off, and this will... See more

I think that’s a common outcome in volunteer-based organizations—they rely so much on unpaid labor to exist that there’s really no other resource allocation strategy besides asking people who show up and succeed at things until they say no or stop succeeding.

Betri Reykjavik, or Better Reykjavik, is the City of Reykjavik’s online engagement platform used for the crowdsourcing of solutions to urban challenges developed and launched by the Icelandic Citizens Foundation in May 2010. The website gives everyone the opportunity to submit original ideas and solutions to municipal-level issues within the city.

If you're interested in revitalizing a community, understand that it can't be done from the outside. America is almost 250 years old, and she has never seen a revitalization program that worked from the outside-in. If you want to revitalize a community, it cannot be done without getting your hands dirty. You’ve got to engage the affected... See more