Justin Auciello
I build and operate civic signal systems: trusted, two-way information networks that help people and institutions make sense of uncertain, contested, or fast-changing conditions.The core challenge is helping communities convert local knowledge into shared public orientation.This work grew from a broader curiosity about how systems function: how trust forms, how information moves, how people make sense of change, and how informal networks become something more durable. By 2009, I had begun articulating what would become this framework, recognizing the decline of legacy local media, the rise of citizen-powered information, and the need for systems that help communities orient and act.My foundation is planning. For 20 years, I have worked as a New Jersey licensed planner, converting complex land use and regulatory problems into defensible planning positions that clients, attorneys, boards, agencies, and courts can rely on.In 2011, I founded Jersey Shore Hurricane News, a community-powered network for local conditions, verification, and public orientation. During Sandy, the pandemic, and routine conditions, JSHN gathered reports, corrected rumors, routed needs, and helped residents, officials, and responders understand where action was needed.That work became the foundation for seven years of WHYY reporting on coastal resilience and public policy, and recognition from the White House as a Champion of Change.After Hurricane Maria, I carried the same approach into humanitarian information work in Puerto Rico. I designed and field-led Información Como Ayuda for three years, a two-way system launched in a degraded communications environment that reached more than one million people.I later served as Global Information Ecosystems Advisor at Internews, supporting assessments and program design across five continents.Together, this work represents more than 15 years of developing an operating model for civic information resilience.The work sits at the intersection of planning systems and information systems: the hearing room and the comment thread, the master plan and the rumor cycle, the redevelopment ordinance and the community information gap.In each setting, I assemble facts, detect patterns, test claims, build trust, and turn fragmented information into public orientation people can act on.I am now codifying the principles, methods, and design patterns behind civic signal systems so others can study, teach, fund, and build on them.