Introducing the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition
The Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DJC) is comprised of people and organizations in Detroit who believe that communication is a fundamental human right. We are securing that right through activities that are grounded in the digital justice principles of: access, participation, common ownership, and healthy communities.
Allied Media Projects founded the DJC along with ten grassroots organizations and independent technologists in Detroit. The coalition emerged out of conversations that took place during the AMC2009 workshop, "A Healthy Digital Ecology: Creating a Community Vision for Federal Broadband Funding." Since August 2009 we have been building a shared vision for digital justice in Detroit, strategizing around collaborative applications for federal broadband funding, and preparing for community-wide educational events that will include everything from Internet policy workshops to hands-on technology stations.
Read the principles of digital justice that guide our work.
Listen to an audio collage about Detroit's visions for community media and technology:
Digital justice by allied_media
We invite you to participate in shaping Detroit's digital future. Please join us at our inaugural event:
"Discovering Technology"
Saturday December 12th - 2:00 - 6:00pm
5E Gallery 2125 Michigan Avenue at 14th street
Join the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition for an afternoon at the “DiscoTech.” Learn more about the impact and possibilities of technology within our communities. Take part in workshops designed to demystify and inform the community around issues such as Internet use and ownership, tools of the trade, and communication as a fundamental human right. This event is free and all ages are welcome.
In the Electronics workshop, we will build computers using salvaged parts and open source software. Participants will also build their own audio synthesizers and take them home.
Visit the Consultation Station and engage in open Q & A sessions about social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Set up an e-mail account, and learn more about the Internet as a tool for community building through sharing pictures and local history, as well as, simple on-line mapping applications.
The afternoon will feature ongoing screenings of “The Internet is Serious Business”, a short documentary produced by youth from New York City’s City-As-School with Center for Urban Pedagogy and People’s Production House. The film investigates how the Internet’s physical infrastructure works, who owns the Internet, and why it matters.
This event is brought to you by the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition comprised of local organizations who are committed empowering all people regardless of age, gender, culture, religion, citizenship, or wealth with free and universal access to digital media and the technology that leverages communication, knowledge growth, problem solving and creative production.
The Detroit Digital Justice Coalition is endorsed by Allied Media Projects, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Detroit Sierra Club, Hannan House Sound Studio, 5E Gallery, East Michigan Environmental Action Council, the 1440 Collective, the Hush House, the Open Technology Initiative, Real Media, and Urban Neighborhoods Initiative.
Contact Lottie Spady@ 313.505.3325 for more info.
