Community Based DigiMapping

Challenges Entered:

The shift from a corporate paradigm to an assessment approach that is proactive and grassroots requires a layering of information that builds over time. As a live and open research platform, the community based DigiMapping system would be â€˜liveâ€™, open integrate information from a host of sources. Data from existing needs surveys would function as a layer of information. Ethnographic data would function as another layer- ethnographic information such as interviews with residents would offer a holistic picture of neighborhoods for comprehensive community profiles. Spatial data from a Geographic Information System (GIS) would be integrated, providing information that relationally identifies technology access centers and hubs within a neighborhood. Other layers such as building zones, number of clinics, census data, broadband cable routes, would be organized and accessible through our proposed mapping system. Once the mapping system is developed and accessible, the information would be open and available to community members via web portals in neighborhood hubs such as libraries, community centers and schools. As neighborhoods change, layers of information would continue to build and shift in the DigiMapping system.

What else have you done in this area of work?

As a 30 year-old media resource and advocacy center for media workers, non-profit organization, and social justice activists, Media Alliance has been active in all areas of media change. Included in this work is our goal to help bridge the digital divide in the Bay Area and beyond. We recently coordinated Oaklandâ€™s first Digital Inclusion Summit in February â€“ an event that gathered educators, technology and industry professionals, policymakers, direct service providers, CBOs and other community stakeholders to address the communication technology access concerns in their communities, and to develop solutions from the ground up. To read more, visit our Media Alliance website: www.media-alliance.org and our summit blog: www.digii.wordpress.com.

Project Details

Project url:

http://www.media-alliance.org, www.digii.wordpress.com

Project video:

Supporting organization:

Media Alliance

Project Assessment

Financial support:

Project has financial support

Project goals:

As part of our digital Inclusion work, we are developing a holistic approach to media change. We realize the importance of creating a digital infrastructure that is accountable to and sustained by the community it aims to serve and support. The development of a community based DigiMapping system enables community members to identify and track their local technology assets over time would be helpful in creating a infrastructure that comprehensively addresses the access needs and concerns of historically marginalized communities and groups on their own terms.A mapping system that focuses on neighborhood technology assets offers a strengths-based approach to developing priorities, and would address the limitations of needs-based development. For example, county-wide needs surveys that are designed to extrapolate results down to the neighborhood level neglect specific neighborhood trends. In addition, county-wide surveys are often landline/telephone based, and exclude important segments of the population such as those without phones or permanent homes. Factors such as language, calling hours, and sample diversity are variables that weigh heavily on the quality of survey data, and yet are easily dismissed once decisions are made. By focusing exclusively on what is deficient in a community, needs-based approaches fail to incorporate the positive characteristics of a neighborhood into the survey. This gap has social implications that are beyond methodological. Our goal is to create a new method which better reflect neighborhood needs, desires, assets, and capacities which would translate into more effective and sustainable improvements for communities.The information available through our proposed DigMapping system would be helpful for funders, policymakers, researchers, and organizers engaged in sustainable development, technology infrastructure, and community building strategies.

Identified Obstacles:

We need programmers and IT specialists who would be able to design the actual mapping tool. For our work in Oakland, Media Alliance is already in touch with different groups and organizations who have access to information that we are currently using as part of broadband access work, but we are also open to other information sources and suggestions. We realize the need for digital mapping tools that are both comprehensive and engaging, and are hoping that like-minded groups and individuals will also be a part of our visioning process.