Virtual Street Corners

Virtual Street Corners is a Knight News Challenge winner and we are looking to hire some citizen reporters for a very unique opportunity as described below. Optimally we would like to hire someone from or very familiar with one of the neighborhoods listed. Pay for the project will be in the $1500 to $2300 range.

Beginning in June 2010, a storefront in Coolidge Corner, Brookline, and in Dudley Square, Roxbury will be transformed into large video screens, providing pedestrians of each neighborhood with a portal into one another's worlds. Running 24/7, life-size screen images and AV technology will enable real-time communication between residents of the two neighborhoods.

There will be both planned and spontaneous interactions. Three different citizen journalists from different parts of the neighborhood will be employed to deliver daily news reports about what is happening in each neighborhood. Dialogues between community organizations, educators, politicians, religious figures etc. will be coordinated.
Both storefronts are located next to a bus stop, and riders (or anyone
else) will be able to download podcasts or videocasts.

Though only 2.4 miles apart and connected by the Route 66 bus, people living in one of these two neighborhoods rarely visit the other. Using technology developed to bridge geographical distances, Virtual Street Corners instead traverses the social boundaries that separate two important cultural and transportation hubs with significant historical connections.

Deadline for applications is April 9th.

For more information, visit www.virtualcorners.net or contact John Ewing at johnewing@igc.org.