Sam Liebeskind

@samliebeskind

product partnerships at New_Public; previously community & growth @ Geneva

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The death of the obituary matters because local features can be an antidote to the trends of polarization and demonization. Cable news dehumanizes. Community news can rehumanize.

Steven Waldman • How high school sports coverage can save democracy - Poynter

Local News & Information

Infrastructure can be defined as "the stuff you don't notice until it breaks." The key property of infrastructure is that it can be easily and reliably used by anyone for their own purposes. It makes our lives easier and us more productive. It can be deployed and used by many for many purposes at about the same cost as one. The more people who use... See more

Just a moment...

Local Digital Social Networks

Taiwan Tried to Digitize Democracy. It Was a Huge Flop

Nick Aspinwall thedailybeast.com

Digital Democracy

News articles breathlessly heaped praise on the country’s democratic vibrancy, often citing its groundbreaking foray into digital democracy with vTaiwan. But in reality, the momentum of vTaiwan—and of the country’s digital participation revolution—had fizzled out years earlier. The platform hasn’t been used for any major decisions since 2018, as it was seen as difficult to use and people lost interest, vTaiwan co-creator and former Taiwanese legislator Jason Hsu told The Daily Beast. Since the government is not mandated to adopt recommendations coming from vTaiwan, “legislators don’t take it seriously.”

Positioning. Most marketers describe it interchangeably with a 'niche' or 'value prop,' which makes them look like they’ve never opened a marketing book. So what is it (and isn't) First things first: forget everything you thought you knew about positioning.... See more

Paul Syng x.com

Brand strategy and Strategy

The difference between schools and libraries

From John Taylor Gatto’s The Underground History of American Education (via Austin Kleon):

To begin with, libraries are usually comfortable, clean, and quiet. They are orderly places where you can actually read instead of just pretending to read.

For some reason libraries are never age-segregated, nor do