With information scattered across the Internet in silos, and the discovery environment deteriorating, it's not easy to find actionable information about your community. We have a plan.
Big Search and Big Social have abandoned you in an information desert. Help is on the way.
The Community Information Desert …
It’s no secret that news deserts, defined by the Medill School of Journalism as counties with no local newsrooms, are expanding across the United States. "In 206 counties," Medill reports, "where more than 3.5 million people live, there is no local news outlet consistently producing original content."
As bad as it is that so many Americans are deprived of information they need to make informed decisions, what’s worse is that in most of the nation today, people are also deprived of basic information about the institutions that make up their town, city or county. These include not only local government agencies and elected officials, but also local business groups and nonprofit organizations—the individuals and organizations that make news happen, and the civic processes that determine how it happens.
Without a source of local knowledge, people are left with questions. What nonprofit organizations offer services in the area, and what are they up to? What is the county’s General Plan—and what is a General Plan, anyway? What does a city council member do? What is the job of the local school district’s Board of Trustees? What is the purpose of the local Planning Commission? How do Municipal Bonds work? What’s my part in all this?
There is no curriculum for this information. There are no comprehensive directories of local nonprofit organizations at work in the vast majority of communities. Information about elected bodies and government agencies is scattered across the web on disparate portals run by the various jurisdictions that operate in every county. There is no library of explainers about local civic processes.
Of course some of this information exists on the Internet, but it’s scattered across thousands of different sites. And of course, one can use search engines to find this information, but only if you know the right question to ask.
The fractured distribution of actionable information about every community across multiple silos is further complicated by major shifts in the online publishing environment. Since 2022, social media platforms have deprecated the sharing of links to news and information on the Internet. Worse, some have become virulent sources of misinformation and disinformation. The Internet has also become flooded with content created by so-called “generative AI,” further hindering discovery of trusted information and connection with resources and organizations with which to better engage in community life.
Lessons Learned from California Local
Since we started California Local, our efforts have been focused on collecting and publishing this information for the 10 counties in our current coverage area.
Our searchable database has listings for more than 1,700 nonprofit community groups, more than 1,400 public facilities. 220 government agencies, 184 elected bodies and more than 1,000 elected representatives. All of this information is regularized to make it easily comprehendable.
We’ve published hundreds of explainers about how different facets of civic and community life work, and collected a number of them into our book, How California Works.
Our data indicates that people are engaging with our directory and editorial content. It shows that people are clicking links to send emails to their elected representatives, visit their city’s website, and connect with local nonprofits.
We know people find this information useful because they’re finding it and using it.
The Community Engagement Project
California Local is partnering with our fiscal sponsor, the Bay City News Foundation, as well as other nonprofits, local newsrooms, public radio stations and public libraries in Northern California to develop a collaborative and trusted network of Community Information Hubs. Here, we will continue to collect, maintain and distribute reliable information. This information will be available on California Local’s County Pages, through partner web sites, and directly to individuals via a mobile app.
A Crisis and an Opportrunity
To recap: The current online publishing ecosystem has been compromised by bad actors and AI-generated hallucinations.
A new community information ecosystem needs to be developed so people are better informed about the active forces at work in their communities and ways they can best engage in civic and community life.
It’s important that the infrastructure created by this project be maintained by an independent nonprofit organization as a hedge against purchase and inevitable mission compromise.
It’s important that reliable and actionable community information be freely shared and published on as many “surfaces” in as many formats and languages, as possible.
In 2025, with the lessons learned at California Local and the insights contributed by our diverse partners, we are working to build this community information ecosystem. In January, we're submitting an application to the Press Forward Open Call on Infrastructure to help fund our project.
As we're previously written, the formula for the days ahead is Discover → Connect → Act.
We're excited to be working on the infrastructure to enable community discovery and connection. We can't wait to see what actions you take to make your community better.
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