‘Digital Detroit' Works to Bridge Digital Divide for Small and Micro Businesses

A coding academy in Gaza in the Occupied Territories trains young people computer skills and how to think like entrepreneurs, in a quest to offer alternative futures beyond endless conflict. With support from international funders and nonprofits, the academy is on its fourth cohort and graduates are receiving business from international clients. It's a way to develop paying jobs and industry in a place where it's very difficult to do business as usual.

Mutual aid at the grassroots level is about helping a neighbor in need, and this strategy has been spurred into action across the country in response to COVID-19. In Detroit, people rally across social media and technology to connect those in need with those looking to help. For those without social media, mutual aid forms are available online for residents to apply for help from community members in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and more. They provide services such as picking up groceries and medicine, childcare, or monetary donations.

The Everywhere Is Queer mobile app houses a directory of over 13,000 LGBTQ+-owned brick-and-mortar and online businesses, services and community groups around the world. The app features a map that highlights LGBTQ+-friendly businesses and safe spaces for members of the community and allies to frequent. The app also features a job board and access to therapists and has been downloaded over 80,0000 times since February.

Along with electricity, water, and phone, the Reedsburg Utility Commission provides internet access in rural Wisconsin. The fiber network was built almost two decades ago and provides affordable internet access at high speeds. The project started for internal needs and grew to accommodate the school and then eventually the whole region. Current municipal legislation inhibits the type of private-public partnerships that allowed Reedsburg Utility to once build what is now considered an essential service.

To expand wifi access during the coronavirus pandemic for those who work in the agricultural community and in migrant farmworker camps, the City of The Dalles partnered and collaborated with Google and other community businesses to purchase hot spots and Chromebooks for farmworkers to use. The hot spots don't work in all areas of the county, but in the orchards with cell service where they have been installed, they have been helping to provide access to telemedicine and educational services.

As word of the coronavirus outbreak spread, so did misinformation, so the World Health Organization began working with big tech companies to put a stop to it. Collaborating with the likes of Pinterest, Google, Twitter, and Facebook, W.H.O. has posted content that disputes the incorrect information across platforms and sites in order to make "falsehoods harder to find in searches or on news streams."

#Agtwitter provides a space for social connection among farmers. What started as a hashtag to disseminate advice about farming practices and farm equipment has grown into a digital space where people can connect and even vent about their personal challenges. In a region characterized by high suicide rates, Agtwitter helps lessen the often-isolating expanses of America’s mountain west.

Access to the internet is an important tool to addressing inequity at the scale of the community and the individual. Detriot’s Equitable Internet Initiative is a coalition of media, tech, and community-based organizations working to bridge the digital divide in underserved neighborhoods.

The Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) is transforming community organizers into “digital stewards” who are literally building out internet connection in their communities. In Detroit, where 40% of residents don’t have internet access, this service through the EII is invaluable. The program is also equipping youth of color with relevant technology skills and creating a stronger sense of place for the three Detroit neighborhoods it serves.

April Rinne, a sharing economy adviser in Portland, believes that new technology and the emergence of the sharing economy has massive potential to connect talent, resources, and ideas around the globe, particularly in the context of advancing international development initiatives. She works with clients around the world to "help the sharing economy realize its full potential" and challenge the assumptions surrounding poverty.