Communication is a fundamental human right.
The Digital Stewards program envisions a future where all people have equal access to the skills, tools, and infrastructure they need to exercise that right. Towards that end, we are growing community-rooted technologists who will facilitate the design and implementation of communication technologies in their neighborhoods. These Digital Stewards are committed to using technology to strengthen human connections to each other and the planet and to foster healthy communities.
The Digital Stewards 2014 training program focused on wireless mesh technology. Wireless mesh networks are local “Intranets” that allow neighbors to share Internet connections and develop applications to support community information-sharing. Through this program, we trained a cohort of Detroit activists to assess their communities’ technology needs, design a wireless mesh network that could meet those needs, and finally, install the network. The stewards who have completed the program are now committed to growing and maintaining their neighborhood networks into the future, and providing support to each other across networks.
Equipment needed for our networks
The funds raised from this campaign will be exclusively spent on equipment needed for our networks.
Our goal is raise $5,000 to purchase new routers, to be distributed across the 7 existing neighborhood networks, increasing the number of nodes in their networks from between 2 and 10, depending on the needs.
We will also purchase servers that will be able to provide hosting space for local applications on the networks.
The expansion of these networks will help provide low cost Internet connection to more community members, while the construction and maintenance of the network facilitates relationships of mutual aid between neighbors.
We are additionally pursuing funding from other sources for the development of community information-sharing applications to be hosted on the local server in each mesh network. These applications will share neighborhood oral histories and art, and could be used to address issues such as neighborhood safety and monitoring environmental pollution.
Part of the global mesh movement
The work of the Detroit Digital Stewards is inspired by examples of communities across the globe who are using wireless mesh technology to assert their human right to communicate: from Intranets in remote areas of Tunisia that host French and Arabic versions of Wikipedia, to networks that provide cell phone service for autonomous indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, to networks that youth in Red Hook Brooklyn have used to document instances of police harassment in their neighborhood.
The work of the Detroit Digital Stewards was documented in Detroit's Model D and noted in articles in the New York Times and Le Monde about the global mesh wireless movement.
In Detroit, our goal is to integrate technology into the healthy, equitable, and visionary self-governance of Detroit neighborhoods. We have seen how relationships of trust and collaboration can grow between neighbors through the maintenance of a shared resource, whether that’s a mesh network or a community garden. The Detroit Digital Stewards have already begun this work, by facilitating conversations among their neighbors about sharing Internet connections.
With the funds raised through this campaign they will be able to extend the reach of the networks bring even more neighbors into connection with one-another. Beyond fundraising, there are more ways to get involved in supporting our Detroit community wireless networks. Get in touch at info@alliedmedia.org
Thank you to Alex O’Dell for producing our campaign video.
The various perks of this campaign are all named after different types of mesh routers that we use. The perks packages include items from
Allied Media Projects, the organizational sponsor of Detroit Digital Stewards.