Hi, I’m Laurenellen. In the summer of 2014, I started thinking and writing about the concept of “build with, not for” in civic technology. Inspired by Paulo Friere and the community technology movement, relational organizing masterminds like Grace Lee Boggs and Saul Alinsky, and heavily influenced by my experience as an organizer with the DC Funk Parade and my years of work at the Sunlight Foundation as the National Policy Manager, I became convinced that we need to invest more in the “civic” in civic tech — prioritizing community leadership and stewardship in the lifecycle of public interest technology.
For the last 4 years, the (soon to be revived) website BuildWith . org was home to research and writing (my own and others) exploring the theory and practice behind this idea. In early 2018, our site hit some Kafkaesque snags. But in a way, the timing couldn’t be better.
Right now (January 2018), we’re working on the next phase in the evolution of the BuildWith project. Although we’re not quite ready to share what’s to come, we wanted to make sure folks had access to the archives of this beloved site while we do our bureaucratic and leveling up magic in the background.
So. Welcome to the new old BuildWith hub. Outside of this page, and the intro section of the Research page, all site content is posted as it was at original publication. As we make updates and begin to announce BuildWith’s future later this year, we’ll keep you in the loop.
Thank you for being here.
Build With, Not For 