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Detroit Community Technology Project — one of AMP’s founding Sponsored Projects — has undergone much growth and change over the last several months. Leadership transitions include Katie Hearn taking on the director position for DCTP overall; Tawana Petty becoming the director of Data Justice Programming, and Janice Gates becoming the director of EII Programming.

Through this organizational change, DCTP continues to work at the forefront of digital media education and community technology building. Detroit Community Technology Project — one of AMP’s founding Sponsored Projects — has undergone much growth and change over the last several months.

Most recently, DCTP has been helping shape the public conversation around governmental use of mass surveillance and facial recognition technologies. It is an issue that is highly contested across the world, and more recently in Detroit. Over the last three years, the city of Detroit has rapidly expanded its controversial Project Green Light program, which installs real-time camera connections at private businesses, streaming back to police department headquarters; there are now over 550 Project Greenlight partners, including gas stations, schools, churches, health centers, and various other types of institutions.

The most popular criticism is that this is not “real-time crime fighting” but surveillance. Such sentiment only increased when the city recently attempted to pass a formal policy to integrate facial-recognition technology into the program – technology that has been tested to have high rates of inaccuracy, especially for darker-skinned people, women and children. Going beyond issues of privacy, these inaccuracies increase the chances of racial profiling and the potential for rights violations.

Facial recognition technology has already been banned in Somerville, Massachusetts; and San Francisco and Oakland, California. What place does it have in a majority black city like Detroit?

We are proud to share DCTP’s recently published critical summary of Project Greenlight, and its context in the wider conversation on surveillance and all people’s right to privacy and due process in an increasingly surveilled world. This report was one of the first to make the connection between Project Green Light and facial recognition technology.

Want to stay informed on the issue?

DCTP has been involved in data justice and safety work for several years, notably co-leading the Our Data Bodies project. For further reading, beyond the recent report, we recommend the Our Data Bodies Playbook for activities, tools, tip sheets, and reflection pieces, to help you understand and address the impact of data-based technologies.

For more on Project Greenlight and facial recognition technology, check out Joy Buolamwimi’s research at Gender Shades; and the Georgetown Law School reports Perpetual Line Up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America, and Garbage In, Garbage Out: Face Recognition on Flawed Data. Beyond Detroit, see Fight for the Future’s interactive map that shows where surveillance is happening all over the United States.

In Michigan, you can support bipartisan efforts to ban this technology. Senators Stephanie Chang and Peter Lucido have called for a statewide ban. State Representatives Isaac Robinson, Sherry Gay Dagnogo, and Jewell Jones have called for a five year moratorium on police use of facial recognition technology.

This weeks, Representatives Yvette Clarke, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib have introduced the No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act.

Contact your legislators through house.michigan.gov/ and senate.mi.gov/.

You can also sign the DCTP-drafted petition to support these bills, here.

To stay updated on DCTP’s work on this issue and much more, sign up for the project’s mailing list and follow on social media via detroitcommunitytech.org.

 
More than three years in the making, the Digital Defense Playbook: Community Power for Reclaiming Our Data introduces a set of tried-and-tested tools for diagnosing, dealing with, and healing the injustices of pervasive and punitive data collection and data-driven systems.

The Playbook contains in-depth guidelines for facilitating Our Data Bodies (ODB) workshops and group activities, plus tools, tip sheets, reflection pieces, and rich stories from our beloved community members. It focuses on educating communities on the impact of data-based technologies and inspiring visionary solutions that help us reclaim our data and develop trusted models of community health and safety.

Developed by the ODB team, the Playbook builds upon community gatherings, workshops, and one-on-one interviews with hundreds of Charlotteans, Detroiters, and Angelenos, who provide valuable lessons in challenging everyday surveillance. ODB hopes the Playbook will energize community involvement in tackling surveillance, profiling, and privacy problems rooted in social injustice.

The Our Data Bodies Digital Defense Playbook represents community resilience, the power of collecting and sharing our stories, and the possibilities of community self-defense.
- Tamika Lewis.

From its inception, ODB had always intended to make a popular education tool on data, discrimination, and injustice. But it wasn't until Charlotte-based ODB member Tamika Lewis attended a 2017 conference that the format of the Playbook began to gel. Inspired by the words and wisdom of workshop participants and interviewees in Charlotte while doing ODB research, Tamika compiled quick tips about data, algorithmic systems, insecurity, and more. Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based ODB member Mariella Saba was one year deep into connecting conversations of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, Los Angeles Community Action Network, and Skid Row community and germinating the Power Not Paranoia community defense framework that is central to the Playbook's pedagogy. Later that year, Detroit-based Tawana Petty, London-based Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and Tamika took draft versions of the Playbook to another event, where they discovered how deeply ODB's work could resonate with engineers, educators, academics, and advocates who don't frequently intersect with social, racial, or economic justice work.

The Playbook has at its heart the key questions:

• How do we understand, talk about, and confront data collection and data-driven systems in our lives in ways that alleviate the emotional and physical toll of being profiled and targeted by the police, the welfare office, hospitals, commercial predators, and others?
• How can we use these conversations and engagements to build collective strength and move forward together?
• The Playbook provides practical analogies and everyday scenarios that people can connect to and shares insights and stories of the scores of people in ODB's orbit. It makes talking about data collection, the sharing of data between institutions, data processing or analysis, and data-driven systems accessible.

The Playbook can be ordered here. El Cuaderno también está disponible en español. To learn more about ODB, visit us online or contact us at info@odbproject.org.

 
The Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP) is hiring a part time Communications Manager to help us amplify the story of our work.

DCTP’s mission is to use and develop technology rooted in community needs that strengthens human connections to each other and the planet. Rooted in the Detroit Digital Justice Principles, we work to demystify technology and expand digital literacy in our communities. Read more about the work of DCTP on our website.

The Communications Manager will work closely with DCTP staff to refine our communications goals and develop a strategy and timeline for meeting those goals. In addition to external storytelling and promotional strategy, the Communications Manager will assist with program documentation through data collection and analysis.

For this position we are seeking candidates experienced in creative media, communications, and storytelling. We are open to candidates with backgrounds in non-profit communications, commercial media or public relations, journalism or other relevant experience.

This is a part time position with a salary of $23,000 and a generous benefits package. The new Communications Manager must live in or be willing to relocate to Detroit, Michigan. The ideal start date is January 15, 2019.

If you believe this is the position for you, then we encourage you to apply! Details about the specific responsibilities and qualifications of the job are listed below.

To apply, please send a cover letter, resume, two writing samples, and references to communitytech@alliedmedia.org by Monday, November 19, 2018.

Interviews will be held Monday November 26th and Tuesday November 27th from 9am - 4pm.

The Communications Manager will work with the DCTP team towards the following goals:

• Uphold and practice the Detroit Digital Justice and Equitable Internet Initiative working principles.
• Distribute tools and resources for community technology.
• Cultivate a strong organizational voice through which we can communicate our principles and vision for community technology across multiple platforms.
• Collect and use data to make the story of our work clear, accessible, and compelling.

• Manage DCTP social media accounts
• Produce, edit, and publish blog posts
• Create, collect, and analyze survey data as needed to enhance storytelling
• Manage requests and inquiries
• Work with staff to create communications goals and a timeline for implementation.
• Edit all public-facing written material for DCTP such as zines, curriculum, print and web content.
• Manage sending thank yous and updates to donors
• Works closely with DCTP’s UX developer to create materials needed for social media, newsletters, website, booklets, etc.
• Update and circulate press kits as needed.

Required:

• Excellent written communications skills and an enthusiasm for writing about technology.
• Confident verbal communication – an ability to speak on behalf of DCTP and develop an organizational voice.
• Ability to share the more technical aspects of our work in a way that is easily digestible to our funders, partners, media and constituents
• Ability to empathetically and effectively edit and proofread the work of others
• Well organized with the ability to meet deadlines
• Ability to work collaboratively and strategically
• Ability to evaluate, learn from successes and missteps, and adapt

Bonus:

• Experience with instructional or technical writing
• Experience as a participant in the Allied Media Conference and/or one of AMP’s Sponsored Projects

 
The Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) is a collaboration between Allied Media Projects (AMP) and the Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP) to ensure that more Detroit residents have the tools to leverage digital technologies for social and economic development.

EII has accomplished a great deal over the last two years. Check out our highlights from last year featured in our blog post: A Look Back at EII's Whirlwind of a Year.

The Equitable Internet Initiative project focuses on building new community-based high-speed internet networks, available at a low cost to residents who otherwise might not be able to afford Internet access.

Our goal is to increase Internet access through the distribution of shared Gigabit Internet connections starting in three underserved neighborhoods. We have already began to increase Internet adoption through our Digital Stewards training program, which prepares residents of those same neighborhoods with the skills necessary to bring their communities online. We have also began to increase pathways for youth into the opportunities of Detroit’s burgeoning Innovation District through intermediate and advanced digital literacy trainings.

Over the past 18 months, EII has connected 150 households and with your support, we can accomplish much more.

Over the coming year, we want to expand our network to connect 500 additional households in our current neighborhoods, EII needs to raise $200,000 by October 13th in order to make this happen. This funding will help us pay for equipment, the main Internet connection, and the work of our Digital Stewards in building the networks.

To learn more about the Equitable Internet Initiative, check out this video by Vice MotherBoard, read about our work, donate to our fundraiser, and share it online using the hashtag #GigabitDetroit.

The Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) is a collaboration between Allied Media Projects (AMP) and the Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP) to ensure that more Detroit residents have the tools to leverage digital technologies for social and economic development.

EII has accomplished a great deal over the last year, beginning with the successful development of a Digital Stewards Curriculum. We trained dozens of digital stewards in three Detroit neighborhoods on new wireless technologies, trained several Next Gen Youth App Trainers and dozens of youth through the Next Gen Apps youth program, organized a large EII DiscoTech & Celebration to highlight the work of all three neighborhoods, and released our Opening Data 2 zine.

All trainings were developed utilizing educational modalities from the Teaching Community Technology Handbook, released by DCTP at the end of 2016.

The EII Digital Stewards training prepared teams of community organizers, people with construction skills, and techies to design and deploy communications infrastructure with a commitment to the Equitable Internet Initiative working principles. The digital stewards learned community wireless, which allowed neighbors to form their own local network and share an Internet connection. The training brought together both technologists and community organizers, which is important, because EII believes that digital literacy programs thrive through intergenerational relationships within the classroom.

(photo from Model D)

The EII Digital Stewards Training Program was implemented by three community anchor organizations in their respective neighborhoods:

• Grace in Action (Vernor/Lawndale in Southwest Detroit)
• Church of the Messiah (Islandview in Southeast Detroit)
• WNUC Radio (North End)

If you live in Southwest Detroit, Southeast Detroit, or the North End, you can host a community wireless router in your home or get involved at upcoming community meetings. Email communitytech@alliedmedia.org to find out more.

The Next Gen Apps youth program was a free 4-week training program in app development for the gigabit environment offered to 20 young people in Detroit's Southwest, Islandview, and North End neighborhoods. The Next Gen Apps training provided middle and high school-aged students a popular education-based curriculum to learn digital literacy, coding, app development skills, and facilitated apprenticeships between graduates and local technologists.

(photo from Motherboard VICE - Lara Heintz)

In Southwest Detroit, youth designed an app to support community members suffering from air pollution in their community. According to digital steward trainer Meghan Sobocienski, the youth wanted to use technology to raise awareness about the impact of air pollution and shape the narrative by bringing a new level of credibility and data collection to the story. The youth interviewed environmental activists and politicians in order to learn about what was already being done and where technology could fill a void.

Next Gen App youth based out of Detroit’s WNUC radio station are using sensors to track pollution data coming from an incinerator in their North End neighborhood, with the goal of collaborating with neighborhood organizers and partners to publicize the realities of pollution in the North End.

In Detroit’s rapidly changing Islandview neighborhood, Next Gen Apps youth worked out of Church of Messiah’s BLVD Harambee program to gather data and mapped out indicators of neighborhood changes and community resources. Some of these indicators include rental properties, properties occupied by owners, black-owned businesses, new businesses slated to come into the neighborhood, and neighborhood anchor spaces. Data mapping will be used going forward to help residents create strategies to keep current neighbors in their neighborhoods, as well as to provide a platform for finding resources and engaging in their neighborhood.

(photo from Motherboard VICE)

“The kids are really smart and so are the mentors,” Sobocienski explains. “I think sometimes that people think it’s cool because it’s youth doing something youth don’t usually do, and it’s youth of color doing something the dominant culture doesn’t expect youth of color to be doing. But, in the end, the app is going to be good, it’s going to be quality. The youth should not be tokenized. They put in real work.”

The Next Gen Apps Youth graduated at the end of the year and were recognized at an EII DiscoTech (Discovering Technology) and Celebration before hundreds of participants. The celebration organized by EII Coordinator, Janice Gates showcased each of the three neighborhoods represented in the Digital Stewards Program. Community members were able to visit stations that showcased the innovation and ingenuity of the digital stewards and the next gen youth.

Since the implementation of our EII Digital Stewards program and Data Justice Campaign, people all across the globe have been inspired by our story. We have had the opportunity to share our story on many platforms, large and small. Major news outlets as well as bloggers have connected to the humanity in our story. Some of their write-ups are referenced below:

In addition to EII Digital Steward trainings, Next Gen Youth App trainings, and creating opportunities to involve community members, EII collaborated with the Our Data Bodies Project (ODB), the research arm of our data justice work, on the release of the “Opening Data 2” zine.

The Opening Data 2 zine shares what we discovered through projects, activities and workshops that result from our research. It offers ways we can engage others in thinking about data in our communities and fosters critical thinking on how open data and data collection systems influence lives.

This year, we are implementing trainings on data security for our digital stewards trainers. These trainings will be guided by a collectively-created EII principle on data safety and security, which the digital stewards will create throughout the trainings.

As you can see, we have been very busy as stewards of community technology and we have a lot more coming down the pike. Your support with our efforts goes a long way.

Follow the conversation using #GigabitDetroit on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and look for opportunities to support EII in one of the three neighborhoods. You can also sign-up for our newsletter for future updates, and donations are always appreciated.

The Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) is seeking 60 middle and high school aged youth for the Next Gen Apps Youth Program. EII is a collaboration between the Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP), Allied Media Projects (AMP), Grace in Action Collectives, WNUC Community Radio, and the Church of the Messiah's Boulevard Harambe Program. EII is working to ensure that Detroit residents have the ability to leverage digital technologies for social and economic development.

Next Gen Apps are applications created to live on servers connected to neighborhood community wireless networks. These apps can be accessed by neighbors connected within the community wireless network through an intranet, or local server. We see these applications as an opportunity to foster collaboration, existing relationships, and neighborhood resiliency. The applications can be tools for neighborhoods without internet connections.

The Next Gen Apps Youth Program is a free 4-week training program in app development for the gigabit environment being offered to 20 young people in Detroit's Southwest, Islandview, and North End neighborhoods. The Next Gen Apps training provides digital literacy, coding, and app development skills to middle and high school-aged students, then facilitates apprenticeships between graduates and local technologists.

The program consists of two phases:

4 weeks | 20 students | September 25 - October 25, 2017

The Next Gen Apps program is a FREE training in application development for the gigabit internet environment with young people in Detroit's Southwest, Islandview, and North End neighborhoods. The initial 4-week training will teach app development concepts and basic coding skills such as CSS, HTML, Javascript, and Node.js.

Phase two (6 weeks) will provide an opportunity for six phase one graduates from each neighborhood to go on and build applications that help solve problems, foster collaboration, and fuel creativity within their neighborhoods. Youth who participate in this second phase will earn a laptop so they can continue to use their newfound skills, along with marketable skills which will set them on a path to obtaining or creating jobs in the growing tech industry.

Working with professional technologists, youth will prototype applications for their neighborhoods that leverage the power of the Gigabit environment and encourage collaboration, problem solving, and creativity among neighbors.

• Students will connect their passion for technology and coding with community needs using coding language to create collective, innovative solutions.

• Students will learn fundamental web development logic and concepts to be implemented in the design of a functioning web app.

• Students will be exposed to and practice using CSS, HTML, Javascript, and Node.js coding languages.

• Students will learn to navigate computers and utilize programs and shortcuts to speed up development time.

• Students will explore and increase awareness of available career options in the tech field.

• Students will understand how the skills they have gained can be expanded through exploration and self-guided learning.

The deadline to apply is September 15, 2017 by midnight. Please make sure to identify which neighborhood you would like to work in (Southwest, Islandview, or the North End). We ask that you apply to the neighborhoods you are familiar with and show that familiarity when applying.

Grace in Action (Southwest) - 1725 Lawndale Street, Detroit, Michigan 48209

Trainings at Grace in Action will take place Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 4:15 - 6:30pm. Before applying, please make sure you are able to attend these weekly classes. Contact meghan@graceinactiondetroit.org with questions or for more information. Youth can also apply by clicking this link.

NewCC (North End) - 7700 2nd Ave Ste. 500, Detroit, MI 48202

Trainings at WNUC radio will take place 4:15 - 6:30 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays. Before applying, please make sure you are able to attend these weekly classes. Contact revjoan1949@gmail.com with questions or for more information. Youth can also apply by clicking this link.

BLVD Harambee (Island View/East Side) - 231 E. Grand Blvd, Detroit, MI 48207

Learn more about the goals of the Next Gen Apps Youth Training Program by visiting the Detroit Community Technology Project’s (DCTP) website!

The Equitable Internet Initiative (EII)  is hiring app development trainers for the Next Gen Apps Youth Program. EII is a collaboration between the Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP), Allied Media Projects (AMP), Grace in Action Collectives, WNUC Community Radio, and the Church of the Messiah's Boulevard Harambe Program. EII is working to ensure that Detroit residents have the ability to leverage digital technologies for social and economic development.

The Next Gen Apps Youth Program is a free 4 week training program in app development for the gigabit environment being offered to 20 young people in Detroit's Southwest, Islandview, and North End neighborhoods. The Next Gen Apps training provides digital literacy, coding, and app development skills to middle and high school aged students, then facilitates apprenticeships between graduates and local technologists.

The program consists of two phases:

Phase one (4 weeks) will teach app development concepts and basic coding skills such as CSS, HTML, GitHub, and JavaScript, and server-side concepts.

Phase two (6 weeks) will provide an opportunity for six graduates from each neighborhood of phase one to go on and build applications that help solve problems, foster collaboration, and fuel creativity within their neighborhoods. As part of this phase, youth will receive mentorship and coaching from local technologists and will earn a laptop upon completion of the program.

Learn more about the Next Gen App Development Training here.

Next Gen Apps Youth Trainers will be placed at one of the three EII anchor organizations. They will co-teach both phases of the program with another trainer, using EII curriculum.  EII will provide an intensive training in community technology pedagogy and Next Gen Apps curriculum prior to the start of the program.

This is a contract position for $25 per hour with the expectation of 15 hours ( including prep and training)  of work per week over the course of 16 weeks, starting August 29, 2017 and running until December 17, 2017. The total stipend will be $6,000.00.

Mandatory training dates:

• Community Technology Pedagogy training:  8/29, 8/30, 8/31 from 10am-3pm

• Next Gen Apps Curriculum training:  9/6, 9/7, 9/8 from 10-3pm

• Support with recruitment of youth from the surrounding neighborhood of the anchor organization where you are placed, and of local technologists to serve in the role of app development mentors.  

• Teach Next Gen Apps Training Phase One. Phase One will have a maximum of 20 students at each site and will include 24 training hours over four weeks.

• Manage an application and selection process for six youth apprentices who will participate in Phase Two.

• Teach Next Gen Apps Training Phase Two. Phase Two will have a maximum of six students at each site and will include 60 mentoring hours over six weeks, plus additional one-on-one coaching time.

• Support the production of an end-of-program celebration and workshop where youth apprentices teach their neighbors how to use the apps they built.  

• Support general program administration, including:

  • curriculum and instructor evaluations.

  • communications with students and apprentices as needed.

  • development of instructional materials as needed.

  • storytelling using the #gigabitdetroit hashtag.

Required:

• Two or more years experience as a technology educator

• A strong desire to work with youth in Detroit neighborhoods

• Excellent organizing and management skills

• Ability to work collaboratively, as well as independently

• Ability to lead and facilitate the development of web applications from conception to completion

• Fluency with CSS, HTML, GitHub, and JavaScript, and server-side concepts

Preferred:

• Familiarity with Detroit’s neighborhoods and the community organizing landscape

• Familiarity with Detroit's Southwest, Islandview, and North End neighborhoods

• Being from one of these neighborhoods is a plus

• Background or training in positive youth development

• Familiarity with popular education theories and practices

• Experience with community-based programming is a plus

• Experience with teaching diverse audiences is a plus

• Experience teaching in traditional or nontraditional educational settings

• Experience designing web applications

Send your cover letter, resume, and three references to communitytech@alliedmedia.org no later than midnight, August 11th. Please make sure to identify which neighborhood you would like to work in (Southwest, Islandview, or the North End). We ask that you apply to the neighborhoods you are familiar with and show that familiarity in your resume or cover letter somehow.

Learn more about the goals of the Next Gen Apps Youth Training Program by visiting the Detroit Community Technology Project’s (DCTP) website!

We leave a data trail with almost every interaction we have. Whether through credit card purchases, filling out a job application or using a rideshare app, our personal information is often saved or shared without our knowledge. Because this data trail can be overwhelming, many of us feel lost within or controlled by our data rather than the other way around.

The Detroit Community Technology Project wants to share some tools and resources from organizations and entities who have been thinking about data and digital security, to support our online and offline community members in taking control of their digital information. Data security refers to the different protective privacy measures that individual users and organizations can apply to their various technologies in order to prevent unauthorized databases, websites and computers from accessing personal information.

The toolkits and resources we share below offer a variety of ways to make our interactions with data systems more secure.

Data Detox is a downloadable toolkit with an 8-day “Data Detox” program that provides some practical tips on everything from how to deal with your online data profile to the choices we make when we download apps to our smartphones. Each day has a different focus, such as social media, online shopping, and mobile apps, and guides you through a step-by-step “detox” plan.

Equality Labs is “the first South Asian women/gender non-conforming/trans technology startup working at the intersection of story, art, and security.” Equality Labs provides a series of curricula and one sheets such as, “Digital Self-Defense in the Time of Trump.”

The one sheets cover securing your iPhone, securing your Android, securing your identity, securing your network access, security your communications, and securing your computer. Download them here.

Privacy Paradox provides a series of podcasts on smartphone tracking, algorithms, digital privacy, online impact on your psyche, and your individual terms of service. This is a series of short podcasts with very helpful information, quizzes and downloads to help you “take back your digital identity and maybe even your soul.” The Privacy Paradox even has a podcast that encourages 15 minutes of total disconnect.

Mozilla’s Disconnect is an add-on for the Firefox web browser. Disconnect is an “open-source, pay-what-you-want software” that loads the pages you go to up to 44% faster and saves up to 39% bandwidth. It also stops tracking by thousands of third-party sites, and visualizes and blocks the otherwise invisible websites that track your search and browsing history.

Please note that Disconnect is only compatible with the Firefox web browser.

DCTP will be taking a deep dive into some of these digital and data security tools at our next Data DiscoTech on May 20th at the Detroit Public Library - Wilder Branch (7140 E. 7 Mile Rd, Detroit) from 1pm - 3pm! Be sure to sign-up for our newsletter for additional details in the coming weeks.

The Detroit Community Technology Project is excited to welcome its newest digital stewards into the Equitable Internet Initiative Digital Stewards Training Program.

Twenty-eight new EII digital stewards attended an orientation on February 23, 2017. Photo By: Erik Howard

The Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) accelerates outreach, training and wireless broadband Internet sharing on the neighborhood level in Detroit. The EII Digital Stewards Training Program is being implemented by three community anchor organizations in their respective neighborhoods:

• Grace in Action (Vernor/Lawndale in Southwest Detroit)
• Church of the Messiah (Islandview in Southeast Detroit)
• WNUC Radio (North End)

Twenty-eight new EII digital stewards attended an orientation on February 23, 2017 and are now participating in a 16-week training with the anchor organizations listed above.

The EII Digital Stewards Training Program prepares teams of community organizers, people with construction skills, and techies to design and deploy communications infrastructure with a commitment to the Equitable Internet Initiative working principles. The digital stewards learn community wireless, which allows neighbors to form their own local network and share an Internet connection. The skills learned will also transfer to anyone that is looking to startup or work for a wireless internet service provider. Graduates of the digital stewards training will be eligible to apply for employment in the build-out of and adoption of wireless networks in their neighborhoods.

The training brings together both technologists and community organizers, which is important, because EII believes that digital literacy programs thrive through intergenerational relationships within the classroom.

Digital Stewards Orientation on February 23, 2017. Photo By: Erik Howard

DCTP has already trained over 30 Detroit neighborhood leaders to build their own community wireless networks. In this iteration of the program with the Equitable Internet Initiative, digital stewards will learn new wireless technologies that increase speed, reliability and monitoring capabilities along with neighborhood resilience planning, and participatory community organizing.

Our curriculum facilitates ordinary people in rediscovering and validating their own capacity for becoming producers, creators, educators, and leaders, rather than relying on “experts” to pass on knowledge. Within the digital stewards model, collaborative media & hands-on technology education gives people the opportunity to engage, on their own terms, in a learning process where they use all available resources, including each other, to transform themselves as well as empower their own communities.

This time around, the digital stewards training is more decentralized - rooted in the neighborhood anchor organizations - because of DCTP’s new Teaching Community Technology Handbook, released in November 2016. The 100+ page handbook takes the trainees through the history of popular education while offering a step-by-step guide to developing community rooted technology workshops and curricula.

Digital Stewards Trainer Ocie is hopeful that through the program, work that is already happening in his neighborhood can be expanded upon as well as provide greater financial opportunities. “I would like to see the digital stewards be able to set-up or integrate the technology into the efforts that are already underway to redevelop and reinvigorate Island View. To some degree they are not well connected, so I would like to see the stewards figure that out in a way that uses the technology as well as helps them to make money.”

Nyasia, Digital Stewards Trainer in Southwest Detroit, is excited to build upon the community organizing aspect of the training. “There are some people in the neighborhood that know technology, but didn’t know how to use it or activate particular parts of it for community benefit.”

If you live in Southwest Detroit, Southeast Detroit, or the North End, you can host a community wireless router in your home or get involved at our upcoming community meetings. Email communitytech@alliedmedia.org to find out more.

Follow the conversation using #gigabitDetroit on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and look for opportunities to join a neighborhood advisory board in one of the three neighborhoods.

Sign-up for DCTP’s newsletter for updates on how to get involved with the EII Digital Stewards Training Program.

Since the City of Detroit launched the Open Data Portal and GO DATA policy initiative in 2015, the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DDJC) and Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP) have been exploring how to advance equitable practices for collecting, disseminating and using open data. By equitable practices, we mean accountable, ethical uses of public information for social good that actively resists the criminalization and surveillance of low income communities, people of color and other targeted communities.

In order to understand what equitable open data practices could look like in the City of Detroit, we asked a broad spectrum of Detroit residents to consider the potential benefits and harms of various data sets currently available on the City's Open Data Portal, a website that offers access to data and information concerning City government operations and service delivery. From there, we assessed what actions can be taken by the City to maximize benefits and minimize harms, and investigated open data policies and tools in place in other cities that model our vision for data justice.

The guidelines we offer below are the outcome of our research and outline how the City of Detroit’s Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) and other stewards of public information, in Detroit and beyond, can adopt and implement equitable open data practices.

We hope the guidelines will:

• Prompt critical conversations and questions
• Guide feature enhancements to Detroit’s data portal
• Inform policy provisions to improve how institutions collect, disseminate and use open data

We anticipate that our guidelines, and the research that has shaped them, will continue to grow and evolve as we continue organizing around equitable open data. We welcome feedback and your ideas at communitytech@alliedmedia.org.

Monique Tate teaching about the Open Data Portal at a Data DiscoTech

Our recommended Guidelines for Equitable Open Data in Detroit include the following:

1. Protect the people represented by the numbers
2. Do not retain personal information tied to accessing City services
3. Publish data about all City services, even for privatized “public” services
4. Prioritize the release of new datasets based on community interest
5. Increase transparency around how data sets are defined and processed
6. Engage residents offline about open data
7. Give the public a head’s up about plans for new data set releases and portal improvements so that we can be prepared to engage

You can read a detailed presentation of the Guidelines in the full Data Justice Report available on GitHub. The report includes key takeaways from our research, an overview of our research strategies, and access to resources for adapting our strategies.

The report explores the following questions:

• What should Detroit residents be aware of when it comes to open data?
• What are the perceived benefits and harms of open data to residents?
• How can we inform all residents and educate our communities about open data?
• What can we learn from other cities? What types of open data policies, portals and practices do they have in place?
• What does participatory and democratic governance of open data look like, and how can we help to facilitate it here in Detroit?

Read the Report

This past year, DCTP launched a local data justice campaign as part of a two-year participatory national research project, “Our Data Bodies,” supported by the New America Foundation. Similar to the Guidelines for Equitable Open Data, our research with Our Data Bodies poses the question: How do we minimize the potential harms of our interactions with data and technology?

In 2017 we will gather takeaways from our own research in Detroit, and our community partners’ research in Charlotte, NC and Los Angeles, CA, to produce a popular education guide about the challenges and opportunities associated with open data in low to moderate income communities. We will also host ongoing Data DiscoTechs and focus groups in Detroit to examine the interactions between data and community issues such as water shutoffs and housing. Learn more about this work on our website and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for information about upcoming Data DiscoTechs!