Hero Reports
By Kathy Ishizuka -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2008
Move over Batman and Spidey, Gotham has a new hero: average New Yorkers whose random acts of civic courage are being logged on a new Web site called Hero Reports. A collection tool designed to lend statistical weight to compassionate acts, Hero Reports was launched by MIT Media lab student Alyssa Wright with support from The Center for Future Civic Media. A twist on the post-9/11 “See Something, Say Something” campaign prompting citizens to report suspicious activity on the subway, the new initiative seeks to “redefine public vigilance in New York City” by creating value for everyday acts of heroism, according to the site.
This is not all warm and fuzzies, as the site contends, but a unique effort applying technology to both record compassion and understanding in our culture and perhaps foster it. With an end goal of creating “hero maps,” the project is set to expand nationally as another way—beside crime—to measure our neighborhoods.
Thus far, user-submitted entries include a busy commuter witnessed guiding a blind couple to the subway exit and the thoughtful return of a teacher’s suitcase, an act rewarded by a hand delivered batch of cookies.
