about what's up


What's Up is a sophisticated telephone-based news system specifically designed to help youth organize community events and find out what is happening in the places where they live.


By calling the What's Up system toll-free line, young people can send and receive voicemail messages, publish announcements and check local events in the community calendar. With What’s Up youth can also create voicemail groups and communicate more easily with friends, relatives and organizations they are members of.


In addition to the phone part, What's Up has a web component (the current website!) that allows young people to access all the information in the system -- including voicemail messages -- from any computer on the Internet. What’s Up members may even upload audio announcements to the website and have them broadcasted to everyone on the phone.


The What's Up system is being developed by researchers from the MIT Media Lab. This fall we will be testing the system in conjunction with Movement City in Lawrence, MA.


We sincerely believe What's Up will make it easier for young Lawrencians to tell others about the exciting things that they do and meet lots of interesting people who share their interests. The best thing is that the What's Up system is being developed in collaboration with young people themselves. Come join the What’s Up network and let us know if you have any ideas or suggestions to improve our service, ok? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.


The What's Up Central team
website: http://www.whatsuplawrence.org/
email: whatsup@media.mit.edu
toll-free line: 1 (866) 460.6602 extension 1

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