The Digital Expansion Initiative promotes meaningful Internet access for New Yorkers through research, education, and organizing.
Activities: Founded in 2007, DEI uses participant-led research, media production, public education, and community organizing to expand meaningful Internet access to all New Yorkers. DEI members are interviewing people in their community who have limited access to the Internet while working with high school students to investigate existing infrastructure and policies in New York City. In addition to defining the problem, the research doubles as base-building for a forthcoming community organizing campaign to erase the digital divides in our community
Partnerships: DEI partners with 5-7 social change organizations, 3 research institutions, and one high school
July 16, 2010- Friday morning began with a heated
debate
between Manny and Jenn: Was that YouTube video with the cell phones
popping
popcorn genuine or edited? Manny was convinced that it was real and he
wanted
to prove it. So we paused our very serious work, bought a bag of kernels, pulled out our phones, and we conducted a
little
experiment of our own. It took a few tries to synchronize the calls so
that the
phones would ring at the same time, but eventually we got it right.
Unfortunately, we were left
popcorn-less. Manny was devastated. And hungry. We're going to try this one next.
In an attempt to start off this blog post in a ‘professional’ manner, I decided to find the official definition of a workshop. According to Oxford Dictionary, a workshop is a small establishment where manufacturing or handicrafts are carried on. This, my readers, is exactly what I did not create, at least at first glance. To me, a workshop is a creative way to depict a point, usually to a larger audience. This may sound easy, but the year long creative process can prove otherwise.
Throughout the summer, DEF (Digital Expansion Fellowship) has worked rigorously to create four workshops. I was asked to create a “Build your Perfect Phone” workshop. Excited to start the project, I jumped right in, asking advice from the other fellows to really polish up the idea.
“Build Your Perfect Phone” workshop is a creative way to build your ideal phone. Participants of the workshop will be assigned a point value; these points directly correspond to income levels, ranging from upper-class to lower-class. With these points, the participants can purchase any phone with any plan that is in their point range. Afterwards, they will be forced into restrictions representing the restraints that company’s have over hardware, software, and plans.
The point of the workshop is to show the overwhelming power that cellphone companies have over the way people communication.The workshop explains the way cell phones companies interweaving control to hardware, software, and plans; restricting our ability to pick and choose the phones we want on the plans we want.
In creating this workshop, or any workshop for that matter, we need a solid idea of what we are trying to portray. Moreover, the workshop needs to be fun, imaginative, and interactive. We are trying to maintain the participants’ interests while demonstrating important concepts.
We hope to share the final version soon. Check back here soon for a preview of our cell phone literacy workshops.
More Articles...
Page 1 of 31
