Civic.Net: A Year End Report & Preview of Coming Attractions
Rebuilding Community, Rebooting Democracy, and Redeveloping our Aging Neighborhoods in the New Year
Civic.Net: A Year End Report & Preview of Coming Attractions
Miles Fidelman, Chief Engineer, Civic.Net
Acton Massachusetts, December 2024
To my Family, Friends, Neighbors, Classmates, and Colleagues.
And particularly, to my Fellow Citizens, Engineers, Entrepreneurs, Mappers, Makers, Deadheads, and Outlaws who own Condominiums in Arlington, Lexington, Brookline, Acton, Concord, Cambridge, Lincoln, Newton, West Tisbury, and Aquinnah - communities participating in the Massachusetts Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program.
I write to wish everyone Happy Holidays, to reflect on 70 years of life, 50 years of networking the planet, 25 years of marriage, the launch of a new generation of community networks & civic forums, to Invite You to Join A Campaign to Rebuild our Communities, Reboot Democracy, and Redevelop our Aging Neighborhoods.
On the eve of our 250th Birthday as a Nation, Let We the People again Assemble in Town Meeting, Seek New Visions, and Launch New Ventures, that we may Be All That We Can Be, Live Long & Prosper in Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination, Be Excellent to Each Other, and Party On for Another 250 Years of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
I write today, from Nagog Woods in Acton Massachusetts - the oldest condominium complex in the Commonwealth, in the Town that sent the first Minutemen to fight the British in Concord & fire the Shot Heard Round the World - where we still govern ourselves through Town Meeting, and where I serve as a Board Member and Treasurer of our Condominium Association, and a Member of our Long-Range Capital Planning Committing. Where I spend all too much time contemplating how to avoid being the next in a series of aging neighborhoods to suffer catastrophic infrastructure failures.
This year brought my 70th Birthday, my 25th Wedding Anniversary, the launch of This Old Neighborhood, a Town Hall Meeting asking How Do We Redevelop Our Aging Neighborhoods & How Do We PAY For It? ... followed three days later by the 250th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress that declared itself the government & launched America on the road to independence. A month later, We the People elected a Reality TV Host to Lead us in continued Division, Drama, and Mayhem. And a week after that, residents of Cambridge's Riverview Condominiums were forced to evacuate, after engineers discovered structural deficiencies that had lain dormant for 60 years - giving new urgency to our efforts to Redevelop Suburban Neighborhoods from the grassroots up.
I've spent my career networking the planet - building military networks, enterprise networks, infrastructure networks, media networks, and Networks of Minds. I arrived at MIT just before Ray Tomlinson sent the first ARPANET email message & Alan Kay proclaimed, the best way to predict the future is to invent it. Upon graduation, I launched a small time-sharing company to bring email to small businesses; later spending 7 years at BBN - builders of the ARPANET and much of the early Internet - Staying Up Late with Wizards, Networking the Planet.
In 1992, the Internet opened to the public, Dave Clark, then the Internet Architect, told the world how we did it, proclaiming: We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code. The public called for Electronic Democracy & Electronic Town Meetings, and I launched The Center for Civic Networking to deliver it. We launched the Cambridge Civic Network & supported the Cambridge Civic Forum - an exercise in community-driven planning for the City's future. We went on to support e-democracy efforts in other communities, to bring high-speed Internet access to public libraries, and build the Public WebMarket as an economic development platform for rural microenterprises. In 1996, the Telecommunications Act created both dangers and opportunities for communities; and we launched the Municipal Telecommunications Strategies Program to help cities & towns manage their rights-of-way, plan telecommunications infrastructure, and launch municipal broadband networks - launching an online publication & library as Civic.Net 2.0.
In 2024, after moving to Nagog Woods, and confronting the challenges of our aging buildings, grounds, and facilities, I launched This Old Neighborhood to build a crowdsourcing program for comprehensive neighborhood redevelopment- launching the next phase of Civic.Net.
Next year brings the Inauguration of a Reality TV President, on Martin Luther King's Birthday, my 50th MIT Class Reunion, and the 250th Anniversary of the Shot Heard Round the World, when Acton's Minutemen were the first to cross the Old North Bridge & confront British Redcoats.
It is a fitting time to launch Civic.Net 3.0, with a Campaign to Rebuild Community, Reboot Democracy, and Redevelop our Neighborhoods for a New Millenium.
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Collaboration is our superpower as a species - when we think & work together, we wield godlike powers to shape reality and the course of events around us. We have leveled continents & built civilization. We have been to the Moon. We have wired the world and networked our minds - six of our eight billions carry, in our pockets, the power to be anywhere & everywhere, all at once, and make our presence felt. We have become the Borg. We're living in the Matrix. We’re building Westworld with 3D Printers. Disney has progressed from building theme parks, to building virtual worlds and subdivisions… Now It’s OUR turn!
It's time to use our powers to do more than share cat pictures, watch porn, and hurl political polemics. It's time again to Gather in Town Meetings, to Imagine What We Can Be in this New Millennium, to Plan New Ventures, to Dare Mighty Deeds, to Be All That We Can Be. To Be Excellent to Each Other and Party On!
In 2025, we will launch A New Generation of Community Networks & Civic Forums - building on the legacy of Berkeley Community Memory & Early Bulletin Boards, the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), FreeNets, and the email lists that still tie together the Internet Engineering Task Force as it keeps the global Internet alive, well, and growing to meet our changing needs. We draw on 50 years of experience in planning, developing, and managing global military campaigns, global enterprises & supply chains, continent-spanning infrastructure grids, and mobilizing voluntary response to natural disasters.
In Massachusetts, where 10 communities have embarked on a Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program - under which new developments, and major renovation projects must be fossil-fuel free - we have launched a study to document early efforts. In 2025 we will apply lessons we learn to launching a crowdsourcing program to help aging neighborhoods reimagine & redevelop their buildings, grounds, infrastructure, and facilities; and we will pursue legislative, regulatory, and other policy reforms so that local & State government may better support neighborhood-driven efforts. Starting in the Spring, we plan a series of workshops, leading up to a design competition, and a conference to bring communities, vendors, and resources together that they may turn designs into neighborhood redevelopment projects.
We invite you to Follow, Join, and Support our efforts:
We seek Community Organizers to host local workshops & town meetings: Subscribe to Civic.Net to follow The Making of a Political Evolution & Economic Revolution. We invite your review & comment, and request your financial support - Founding Subscribers receive pre-registration for Civic.Net 2025 & pre-conference workshops. We request your review & comments, and seek panel chairs, presenters and exhibitors. We particularly seek partnerships with local organizations that publish newsletters & organize community gatherings - please contact me personally to discuss cross syndication of our blogs, podcasts, newsletters, etc.
We seek your Participation in our study of redevelopment efforts under the Municipal Fossil Fuel Free Building Demonstration Program - we seek Organizers & Participants for Study Teams in the communities of Arlington, Lexington, Brookline, Acton, Concord, Cambridge, Lincoln, Newton, West Tisbury, and Aquinnah. Please subscribe to ThisOldNeighborhood.Net to follow along, Founding Subscribers will receive copies of all reports produced by the effort, and pre-registration for Civic.Net 2025 & pre-conference workshops. Organizers, please contact me directly.
We seek participation by Entrepreneurs & Makers to lead design teams to crowdsource redevelopment projects in their communities. We seek participation and sponsorship by architectural, engineering, construction, and technology vendors with capabilities that might apply to neighborhood-scale redevelopment programs - contact me to discuss opportunities to show off what you can offer, and support our efforts to create a market & ecosystem for comprehensive neighborhood-scale redevelopment.
I look forward to meeting with many of you personally & virtually as we move forward. And meanwhile, let me wish everyone a Happy ChristmaHannuFestiKwanzaNalia & Best Wishes for a Merry New Year.
Miles