Detroit Future Media alumni Patrick Geans and Mike Polk worked with DFM Program Coordinator Imad Hassan to produce a sharp video recap of the DiscoTech which was held February 26 at the the Mt. Elliott Makerspace in the Church of the Messiah on Detroit’s eastside.

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Jennifer Guerra produced an excellent radio segment on how Discotech uses technology to foster community. The segment was broadcast on Michigan Radio (91.7 FM Ann Arbor/Detroit). Listen here.
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Leticia Miranda, research associate at the Open Technology Initiative, documented how DiscoTechs give Detroiters the opportunity to “take part in shaping the future of technology”:

At the fairs, participants take part in interactive workshops and explore the impact and possibilities of technology within their communities. …The fair attracted roughly 150 local residents while about 30 volunteers ran workshops, served food, and answered questions

DiscoTechs are not only innovative in their goal to maximize and expand Detroiters’ technological skills, but also in their structure. The fairs are organized with separate “stations” in a large room led by volunteers with expertise in different technologies and their applications. At the most recent DiscoTech, participants learned how to make stencils, use social media, and disassemble a desktop hard drive. In a corner of the room, participants watched and discussed The Internet Is Serious Business, a documentary produced in 2008 by the People’s Production House and Center for Urban Pedagogy, about the technologies and policies that shape the Internet. At another table, two volunteers hosted a consultation station on privacy and answered questions about how to protect yourself online.

The DiscoTech offers a vision of the city where people of color are encouraged to engage in technology on their own terms. The inter-generational room of mostly Black Detroit residents painted a stark contrast to the sobering statistics around the digital divide. Rather than allow themselves to be seen as victims of federal communication policies that limit their digital participation — or as passive recipients of more recent digital inclusion policies which can be alienating or condescending — people of color at the DiscoTech actively armed themselves with the technical skills to ensure they won’t be left behind in the digital age. At one station, a 10-year-old girl taught an elder how to solder electronic components to a circuit board.

Read the full blog post at the Open Technology Initiative.
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Michigan Citizen columnist Shea Howell was inspired to write about “Digital Justice and our future” after participating at last month’s DiscoTech. Shea writes:

Last Sunday afternoon [Feb. 26], I watched the future take shape. I went to the third DiscoTech, put together by the Digital Justice Coalition. DiscoTech is short for Discovering Technology Fair. The fair includes more than a dozen hands-on stations where people can learn everything from how to set up an e-mail account to how to fix a computer. …[T]he fair attracted hundreds of people, mostly young, and all engaged.

The first thing I saw when I entered the bustling room was a group of young men working on windmills. Like everyone else, they were completely engrossed in their projects, testing out their design and construction of the blades.

Just past the windmills there was a table crowded with people. The table was heaped with blinking LED lights. Before long, it became clear the lights were being soldered to small battery discs, creating powered jewelry. The creators were mostly young women, learning about electricity, battery power and soldering irons. Over the course of the afternoon, most people managed to get a pin or two for shirts and caps.

In a far corner of the room, another group gathered to watch and discuss a short film called “The Internet is Serious Business.” The film gives people a good sense of what the Internet really is and the issues communities face in using it for positive change.

Read the full column in the Michigan Citizen.
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Nina Bianchi has a collection of photos and video from the DiscoTech here.

Photo credit: Brian Short / Michigan Radio

Listen to the full segment here.

Urban neighborhood libraries are on the decline.

Detroit, Flint, Dearborn and other cities have recently had to close some of their library branches in order to save money, which means access to free computers and computer training is becoming more limited.

But in Detroit, there’s a group working to close the digital divide.

Discothèque vs. Discotech

This story takes place at a “discotech.”

Not the kind of discotheque where you flaunt your best dance moves in platform shoes, but the kind of discotech where Google, Twitter and Facebook are center stage.

Here, discotech stands for DISCOvering TECHnology.

It’s a traveling technology workshop that looks a lot like a pop-up science fair, with laptops, poster boards, wires and circuits all around the room.

Diana Nucera, one of the Discotech organizers, says the event is about “showing the possibility of technology to make our personal connections stronger.”

Google apps, windmills and soldering…oh my!

Nucera’s group, the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition, has opened 13 public computing labs around the city to help fill the gap left by shuttered libraries, and they throw these discotechs a few times a year at the various labs – each one a little different than the last.

The most recent discotech was at the Mt. Elliott Makerspace, which is located in the basement of the Church of the Messiah on Detroit’s eastside.

There were stations that focused on Google apps, social media, and internet privacy.

There was also a big emphasis on do-it-yourself projects: visitors could learn about alternative energy by creating a small windmill; a precocious 10 year old named Raven Holsten taught folks how to solder; a create-your-own mini synthesizer station to teach people about basic electronics.

Each station is run by a volunteer, so it costs next to nothing to put on the event.

The DDJC hopes to eventually create a How-To guide, so any computer lab from Ste Saint Marie to Southfield could put one on.

Social media as neighborhood watch device

56-year old Sheree Walton dropped by Discotech to figure out how to set up a twitter account so she could “tweet things that would help keep children safe.”

For more than 20 years, Walton has lived on Detroit’s east side, one of the most violent parts of the city. She says often, she and her neighbors feel “abandoned” by the city.

“We need to be a part of the solution because no one else is paying attention to us, so we’ll do it ourselves,” explains Walton. Asked if she thinks social media will help, Walton says “I hope so, I hope so. I think that if you can get a group together, who knows where it can go.”

Walton calls herself and her neighbors “quiet foot soldiers” – they’re working hard to keep their little corner of the city clean and safe.

Now they’re quiet foot soldiers armed with a twitter handle and a keyboard.

Support for arts and cultural reporting on Michigan Radio comes in part from a grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.

By: Shea Howell
Photo credit: Nina Bianchi

Last Sunday afternoon [Feb. 26], I watched the future take shape. I went to the third DiscoTech, put together by the Digital Justice Coalition. DiscoTech is short for Discovering Technology Fair. The fair includes more than a dozen hands-on stations where people can learn everything from how to set up an e-mail account to how to fix a computer. Held at the Makerspace at the Church of the Messiah, 231 E. Grand Blvd., the fair attracted hundreds of people, mostly young, and all engaged.

The first thing I saw when I entered the bustling room was a group of young men working on windmills. Like everyone else, they were completely engrossed in their projects, testing out their design and construction of the blades.

Just past the windmills there was a table crowded with people. The table was heaped with blinking LED lights. Before long, it became clear the lights were being soldered to small battery discs, creating powered jewelry. The creators were mostly young women, learning about electricity, battery power and soldering irons. Over the course of the afternoon, most people managed to get a pin or two for shirts and caps.

In a far corner of the room, another group gathered to watch and discuss a short film called “The Internet is Serious Business.” The film gives people a good sense of what the Internet really is and the issues communities face in using it for positive change. You can check it out at www.vimeo.com/13830730.

The Digital Justice Coalition will work with you if you want to arrange a screening and discussion.

The center of the room was dominated by three bicycles brought by the East Side Riders. They use materials reclaimed from old couches to refashion bikes, using battery power to run lights and sound, custom-designed by and for the rider. On any given weekend as many as 400 folks ride the streets, offering a new vision of travel in the motor city.

I spent a while at the Twitter station, learning how to set up an account. In the course of the mechanics of the process, Lottie Spady, associate director of Eastern Michigan Environmental Action Council, introduced questions about privacy, responsibility and values, saying: “We don’t really have answers, yet. So much of this is new. Our thinking and our principles are behind where the technology is right now.”

Next to me was an older woman learning about Gmail (Google’s e-mail service). Everywhere you looked, people were in small clusters, talking, looking, doing, imagining.

As impressive as I found each station, the overall buzz was what really amazed me. There were hundreds of people moving through the space, but no one was “in charge.” No one was telling people where to go or what to do. Although I heard lots of laughter, I never heard a raised voice or a directive. Other than the use of a microphone for the raffle, the whole experience flowed from an internal, organic logic.

Diana Nucera of Allied Media explained the organization of space in her article “Tactics on Setting up Amazing Learning Spaces.” She wrote, “Learning spaces should be constructed in a thoughtful and intentional way that promotes collaboration and creativity.”

The Digital Justice Coalition says it “prioritizes the participation of people who have been traditionally excluded from and attacked by media and technology. It advances our ability to tell our own stories, as individuals and communities” because they believe “communication is a fundamental human right.” Their first principle says, “We are securing that right for the digital age by promoting access, participation, common ownership and healthy communities.”

Through their efforts, Detroit is creating a new grassroots web of imaginative, collaborative and more just possibilities for our future.

The Detroit Digital Justice Coalition is happy to announce the following two events for February! We’ve been collaborating with organizations like ArtServe, Emergence Media and the international openFrameworks community to organize a blended Discotech / openFrameworks workshop and open conversation / lecture event. You can download a full color PDF poster here, an image for social media here or a letter-sized, black and white flyer here to distribute in your community.

INITIATE
SATURDAY, 2/25, 5-9:30 PM
LOCATION: MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit)
4454 WOODWARD AVE.
FREE
Initiate will explore creative uses of primarily open source technology and open source approaches to creating art and social change. Join us for short presentations and open dialogue featuring local, national and international artists, technologists and community organizers.
RSVP via Facebook here.

DISCOTECH
SUNDAY, 2/26, 1:30 – 4:30 PM
LOCATION: MT ELLIOT MAKERSPACE AT THE CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, 231 EAST GRAND BLVD.
Discotech (Discovering Technology) is a multimedia mobile neighborhood workshop fair. Participants will learn more about the impact and possibilities of technology within our communities and take part in interactive, multimedia workshops. This will include a workshop introduction to openFrameworks, a cross-platform C++ library for creative coding. It will be a chance to experiment with building new systems for interaction that move away from the screen and into physical space.
RSVP via Facebook here.

ABOUT
Technology can be used to transform communities, empower people and create innovative works of art. This week long event series will explore how open source technology can be used to do that work within Detroit. This program features members of openFrameworks which is hosting their annual worldwide developers conference in Detroit. openFrameworks is an open source C++ toolkit designed to assist the creative process by providing a simple and intuitive framework for experimentation.

Featuring openFrameworks in partnership with Emergence Media, rootoftwo, Artserve Michigan, Allied Media Projects, Work Department, MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit) and the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition.

For more info email info (at) emergencemedia.org

Dr. Delores Leonard speaks to community members at the opening of the Kemeny Rec Centers Reading Corner Community Computer Lab on November 2 in Southwest Detroit

DETROIT – One of the guiding principles of the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DDJC) is: “Digital justice integrates media and technology into education in order to transform teaching and learning, to value multiple learning styles and to expand the process of learning beyond the classroom and across the lifespan.”

The two most recent computer labs to open within the DDJC network are fostering intergenerational knowledge exchange that puts this principle into practice.

The Kemeny Reading Corner’s Computer Center in Detroit’s 48217 neighborhood and the Hannan House Community Computer Center in the Woodward Corridor both celebrated grand openings within the last month. A primary function of both centers will be bringing seniors and youth together around technology and communication.

The Hannan House computer lab’s primary goal is to help seniors learn how to utilize the enhanced communication technologies that computer access allows. It is staffed by trained volunteer mentors and student interns, who are available to help their fellow seniors become more comfortable with use of the computers.

“Some things you can answer straight away and some things may take a little more time than that,” said Hannan CCC Mentor Lydia Gambrell. “I find that it’s not about giving them the answers that I have, it’s about sitting down and listening to them. Sometimes when I sit down and talk to them, I find that they need other resources as well. So, it’s a matter of me connecting them to the right resources in order to meet their needs.”

Bridging the Generational Divide

“That’s my whole objective,” said fellow Mentor Christine Buck. “We’ve had some training programs on basic things you need to know. Seniors want to learn the basics so they can communicate with other family members. All of the younger generation are on the computers, so they want to be able to communicate with them.”

From working with seniors and their guests at Hannan House, the mentors and interns have become familiar with a range of computer needs. Those needs include everything from job searches, business opportunities, artwork, research, writing or enjoying their favorite entertainment shows from the past. But whether at Hannan or Kemeny, a common need for seniors seems to be using the technology to keep in touch with younger family members. Where the younger generation has taken to social media as a fundamental way of communicating with each other, seniors often feel left out and are coming to understand its value in keeping in touch with their children and grandchildren.

“A lot of times I think they are intimidated by that technology,” said Sandra Padilla, a Hannan CCC intern by way of Marygrove College. “Some of the things that we give them they could easily find online if they googled it, but they have to know that technology. They have to know the right words to search up, so it’s a matter of them learning what they can do with this technology. To some of them, it is really new.”

The Kemeny Reading Corner Computer Lab, is taking a more direct approach to bridging the digital divide among generations. Dr. Delores Leonard, who established the Reading Corner inside of Kemeny last summer in order to give area youth greater access to books and other reading material, has been leading that charge. By establishing a computer lab in the same space, Leonard envisions bringing the generations closer together around learning from one another.

“There is such a generational gap and I want to do better with that,” said Leonard “Hopefully by introducing the seniors to the computers, the children will ultimately be able to help the seniors.

“Right now, we don’t have a library in our neighborhood. Our children have to take three buses to get to the nearest public library. That was an impetus for getting these books here and getting them free to our children. We want the children to appreciate what they have and what they don’t have. We want them to be able to appreciate their community.”

Expanding the educational opportunities through the use of computer technology is another primary goal for community members old and young. Where traditional institutions like the school system or media may fall short, community computer labs such as these can help fill the void.

“People don’t want to be left out and just know the news from what they see on television compared to the news you can get on the internet,” said Kemeny Director Robert Donaldson. “It’s an entirely different thing. You only get sound bites on television, but through the internet you can sometimes get the whole entire story.

“What we are trying to accomplish more than anything is to bring to the public’s attention the free access to the computers and we’d like to introduce them to a lot of the things that they can do on the computer that they don’t have access to or may not have tried.”

Preserving History

The preservation of history is another way both computers centers envision bringing the generations together. Hannan has a project to do so through a series of oral history interviews with its Gardening Angels Program, in conjunction with the Greener School’s Senior Engagement Program of the East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC).

“The next step after all of that is trying to incorporate our media and get the seniors to start telling their life stories,” Padilla said.

“It may be something where they create their own website so they can pass on their stories with the next generation. Anytime you listen to someone else’s story, you learn just as much about yourself as the other person. We haven’t gotten into that phase yet because it’s been all logistics so far, but I’m excited about moving on into that phase.”

Meanwhile at Kemeny the plan is to have youth and seniors come together to preserve their histories using photos from family albums.

“In teaching, you take people from the known to the unknown,” said Leonard, a retired educator. “I’m starting with the known, talking about family and the kinds of things we want to give to our families and our children.

“Eventually I’ll have to get them to the other equipment like the scanner by getting them to preserve their family history. A lot of community members here are in their 80’s and some of them are not accepting of new ideas but some will. Those who will may be able to help the others by bringing their pictures in and scanning them.”

This all fits into the DDJC’s goal democratizing media and technology to strengthen the fabric of local communities in the city.

Hannan House CCC Mentor Christine Buck works with a member during the opening in September

DETROIT – The Hannan Center for Senior Learning’s Community Computer Center (CCC) is one of 13 labs created by the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DDJC) with support from the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

“We wanted to start by mainly serving some of the patrons of the center who come for other purposes” said Rachel Jacobson of Hannan House. “For example, members of the Hannaan Center for Senior Learning who might be in a writing class, a poetry class or a spoken word class can use the lab to help disseminate the creative works of the seniors here at Hanaan house.”

Hannan’s CCC is a membership-based public computer center. Membership is free, but patrons need to apply at the front reception desk. Though the CCC is open to all, it specifically promotes computer literacy for adults and older adults. Adults 40 and over are encouraged to become members while guest memberships are also available for adults ages 18-39 when accompanied by a member.

The CCC is staffed by senior volunteers or “mentors” in addition to Hanan House interns. CCC mentors and interns were trained by Operation ABLE, American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation.

The CCC is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. During each day, there is at least one mentor available to help members and guests for two-hour shifts.

The Hannan CCC is equipped with a total of nine personal computers running off the Windows Operating Systems and loaded with the Microsoft Office 2010 Suite of software. One computer will be equipped with the JAWS software and a reading lens for patrons who are visually impaired.

Operation ABLE, the AARP, NPSERV and the Hannan Foundation collaborate together to over see the daily operations of the CCC.

For questions about using Hannan’s CCC call Nancy O’Malley at 313 832-0922.

Kemeny Rec Center Supervisor Robert Donaldson (left) and Dr. Delores Leonard present materials to community members at the November 2 opening of the Kemeny Reading Center Computer Lab

DETROIT – The Kemeny Recreational Center’s Reading Corner officially opened their new computer center with a special gathering on November 2 in Southwest Detroit. Approximately two dozen community members, Kemeny staff and local organizers were in attendance as a total of eight new personal computers with full internet capability were officially brought online and introduced to community members.

“I thought it went well,” said Dr. Delores Leonard, a retired educator and community advocate in Southwest Detroit who provided the primary impetus for the computer center and the Reading Corner to be established inside the Kemeny Center. “My major goal was to get seniors involved. If we can get the seniors involved, hopefully they will cross over and work with the children. The children are so knowledgeable about the computers, so I am very pleased.”

Kemeny Center Supervisor Robert Donaldson gave the welcome followed by an opening address from Leonard. Other speakers at the event were Rhonda Anderson of the Detroit Sierra Club’s Environmental Justice Office, Jenny Lee and Anderson Walworth – both of Allied Media Projects. Anderson spoke on the relationship between environmental justice and digital justice. Lee spoke on the principles of digital justice and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which is funding a series of DDJC computer labs through the Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program.

“(The computer center) gives the community an opportunity to engage with what’s really going on now because the technology is changing every year,” said Donaldson. “It gives a lot of accessibility to a lot of people who are virtually shut in this Southwest corner of Detroit.

“Hopefully, everybody in this southwest community will be able to come and give some input into what they would like to see in this new structure. It has a tremendous upside.”

Currently the Reading Corner and new computer center share a common meeting space with other activities in the rec center. That should soon change when a long sought new facility is erected soon as a new home of the Kemeny Rec Center. Organizers anticipate the new building should make an even more suitable home for the community computer center.

“The new center will definitely be bigger and better,” Donaldson said. “We’ll have a lot more room. For example, you can see in this meeting room that we use is multi-purpose. I believe the participation can be much more impactful when we don’t have to use this it for multiple purposes. We can use it for much more than leisure and recreation but we can get into education.

“By all means, the computers come into play with the library and the computer lab. We just don’t want it to be just a little satellite library. If they build this building big enough, it can definitely be like a Detroit Public Library right in the new building.

It will give a whole lot more exposure to this southwestern corner. We are not just talking about southwest Detroit, we are also talking about the communities that are adjacent to us like Ecorse, River Rouge, Melvindale, Lincoln Park and South Gate.

The Kemeny Reading Corner is a member of the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition along with 12 other organizations in Detroit who are all committed to the principle that communication is a fundamental human right. The DDJC came together around a core group of digital justice principles: Access, Participation, Common Ownership and Healthy Communities.

Those organizations are the East Michigan Environmental Action Council (EMEAC), Allied Media Projects (AMP), Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, People United as One, Bridging Communities Inc., Detroit Summer, Detroit Sierra Club Environmental Justice Office, Open Technology Initiative, Mt. Elliot Makerspace, 48217 Health and Community Organization, Hannan House Center for Senior Living, the Ruth Ellis Center and 5E Gallery.

Dr. Leonard will be offering basic computer classes for senior learners at the lab. The classes will include how to use email, how to create email attachments and use the internet. Sign up sheets for community members over the age of 55 can be found at the front desk. Or for more information call 313 623-0956.

The message called on people to protest Governor Snyder’s planned cuts in benefits to 41,000 poor Michiganders. Soon after, a federal judge issued an injunction temporarily halting the cuts.

At the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, 2011, Joshua Breitbart of The New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative and Nina Bianchi of The Work Department and Detroit Project Archive designed and organized Name That Tech Collaborative Design Challenge. With the help of a handful of terrific volunteers, we had a successful first run of the workshop and saw some incredibly illuminating illustrations of a wide range of technologies, ranging from Twitter to Encryption to Inclined Plane / Lever. We’re posting our documentation here as well as all of the resources we created so that you can host this workshop yourself in your community, anywhere!

Name that Tech: Collaborative Design Challenge Workshop

Purpose: If we want to teach a new technology, we need to use words and images that people can readily understand. This workshop helps us learn how to do that by restricting us to basic shapes and some of the most common words in the English language.

Goal: Explain a specific technology to someone using common words and shapes.

Materials: Scissors, glue sticks, paper; set of words; set of shapes. (You can also use magazines or newspapers for raw images and text.) You can download the graphics, word elements and instructions here:

Basic Geometry: print on 11 x 17” paper, print one PDF set of shapes per 5
Basic Words: print on 8.5 x 11” paper, print one PDF set of words per 15 people
Instructions and Template: print on 8.5 x 11” paper and hand out to all participants, this also doubles as the paper that participants will use for their design

Note on accessibility: It is important to have a table available for anyone to work who may not be able to use the floor as a work space.

Steps:
1) Think of a technology that you are familiar with. It can be old or new, real or imagined.
2) Find the shapes and words you want to use and cut them out.
3) Arrange the shapes and words on the page in a way that explains the technology: how it works or how you use it. Imagine that the person you are explaining it to doesn’t know anything about the technology.
Note: You may use any number and combination of words and shapes; you can cut,
fold and past; but you can only use what has been provided.
4) Glue the pieces in place. Make sure they are all glued.
5) Write your name and contact information, along with the technology you are explaining, on the back of the sheet of paper.
6) Using the binder clips, hang the flyer up to display and dry on any of the hooks on the window.

More documentation of the workshop results and photos can be viewed here:
Workshop Process Documentation: Preston Rhea, Open Technology Initiative
Workshop Complete Results: Nina Bianchi, The Work Department
Workshop Process Documentation: SFA Media

Email Nina Bianchi at nina [at] theworkdept.com if you’d like to share your documentation, we’d love to share your stories! Tweet about it using #collabdesign to post to the Allied Media Conference TALK site.
Photo and Illustration credits above, from top to bottom: