Launching LandofOpportunity

LandofOpportunity has officially launched its Beta Interactive Platform for the public. The platform is an experimental web project exploring post-crisis community (re)building in America, that merges compelling multimedia storytelling with curated data, research, and calls to action in one collaborative interactive space. 

The Center has been following the progress of the LandofOpportunity project through a series of blog posts and a soon to be released field report about the expansion of a film project into interactive space. The interactive platform is one element of the larger campaign that started with the “Land of Opportunity” feature-length documentary

Rooted in post-Katrina New Orleans, the project explores the fundamental question: What kinds of communities do we want to (re)build in the 21st century?  Along with partners in sister cities such as post-Sandy New York City, the larger campaign aims to create and curate a host of stories that highlight a diversity of voices and approaches. Ultimately the team, led by filmmaker Luisa Dantas, hopes to foster engagement and inspire action around the core issues in post-crisis community (re)building.

About the Platform

Currently in Beta, the new platform features an interactive video player and timeline that allow users to explore and compare layered narratives about the people and processes that are shaping our increasingly vulnerable landscapes. Partners can create and curate their own multi-layer stories and strategically deploy them to increase engagement and effect change locally and nationally.  Groups and individuals can collaborate with partners working in different communities, thus creating a foundation for communication and knowledge-sharing across places, issues, and sectors.

The LandofOpportunity Trailer

LandofOpportunity Interactive: Trailer from Land of Opportunity on Vimeo.

Notes from the Creators

A note about Beta: This platform is a work-in-progress at the cutting-edge of current technology. It currently works best on laptops or tablets with the latest version of popular browsers (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 9 and above), and with a high speed internet connection. Moving forward, we hope to get the resources to make this experience more accessible as the technology evolves. If you encounter bugs or glitches, we appreciate your patience and feedback.

More stories, themes, and features are on the way! LandofOpportunity is organized around provocative categories that reflect the dynamic tensions that are shaping our communities in cities and towns across the country: Devastation/Rebuilding, Displacement/Home, Exclusion/Engagement. Over time, we’ll add more categories to the platform, with partners in different places engaging with new dichotomies. Through December of 2013 we’ll be actively rolling out new multimedia content and features (including an interactive timeline on Hurricane Katrina and Sandy).