The Organic City is a collaborative digital storytelling project focused on the downtown Oakland, California. The project has three phases. During Phase 1, which took place during Fall 2005, the project developed a web forum where members of the public were invited to read and write stories about local places. During Phase 2, we conducted community outreach to promote the online community to the local physical community. During Phase 3, which took place through June 2006, the project developed a mobile story experience that can be accessed with handheld devices while walking around downtown Oakland.

The project explores relationships between story, place and community; as well as the ways in which new technologies can enhance our appreciation for these important components of human identity. While today’s media tends to isolate people from their local communities, it is important to find ways of using new media to reconnect neighbors and establish a sense of place.

The following goals guide this project:

- Encourage individuals to reflect on their lives and share their stories.

- Enable connections between individuals within a community.

- Improve people’s orientation within, and connection to, a physical landscape.

- Investigate the relationships between digital and physical communities.

- Investigate the capacity of new mediums in creating emotionally compelling story experiences including non-linear, dynamic and verydistributed storytelling.