Justin Auciello
In 2009, I wrote that the burgeoning local journalism crisis was not just a business problem, but a breakdown of civic infrastructure, and that communities themselves would need to help hold the information system together. That idea has shaped my work ever since.My work focuses on designing and operating civic signal systems: two-way public information systems that strengthen trust, situational awareness, and institutional responsiveness during crises, complex public events, and everyday life.For 15 years, I have built and led these systems in environments where clarity, trust, and timing are critical. In 2011, I founded Jersey Shore Hurricane News, a community-powered information network that now reaches more than 300,000 people across New Jersey. During Superstorm Sandy, when formal channels were strained, the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management used verified public reports from the network for real-time situational awareness and storm surge rescue coordination. Since then, the system has helped communities navigate hurricanes, blizzards, wildfires, the pandemic, and long recoveries.That work led to seven years of reporting with NPR affiliate WHYY and recognition as a White House Champion of Change. After Hurricane Maria, I extended the same approach into humanitarian response in Puerto Rico, where I designed and field-led Información como Ayuda, a two-way humanitarian information system built under collapse conditions that reached more than one million people. I later brought this work internationally through Internews, leading information ecosystem work across fragile and disaster-affected contexts on five continents.What makes this path unusual is that it did not unfold as a transition from one field to another. I developed this work in parallel with a planning practice. As a licensed New Jersey planner, I continue advising public- and private-sector clients on land use, zoning, redevelopment, and related regulatory matters, including litigation support and expert testimony.That continuity shaped how I saw the problem from the start. Planning gave me a lens grounded in systems, infrastructure, implementation, stress conditions, and performance. That is why I understand information not simply as content, but as infrastructure.Today, I’m formalizing this work into a replicable model for newsrooms, civic institutions, and other public-serving organizations: two-way information infrastructure that helps communities turn distributed observation into shared situational awareness, stronger trust, and more responsive institutions.