Tag: Red Hook Initiative

How Brooklyn’s Largest Housing Project Is Getting Its Residents Online

Posted on by robbie

Like many public housing developments in New York City, the Red Hook Houses suffer from low broadband adoption rates and a lack of computer access.  But the Red Hook Initiative, a non-profit devoted to youth empowerment in Red Hook, Brooklyn, is rapidly changing that.

During Hurricane Sandy, Red Hook Wi-Fi, a free internet service hosted by the Red Hook Initiative, stayed online throughout the storm and in its immediate aftermath — providing a lifeline to stranded residents in the largely flooded coastal community. 

Building on the success of that service, Tony Schloss, director of community initiatives, started the Digital Stewards program in 2013.  Using a curriculum created by the Open Technology Institute and Allied Media Projects, the Digital Stewards are neighborhood 19- to 24-year-olds who are employed in using technology as an agent for community development.  This includes maintaining and expanding Red Hook Wi-Fi, which now consists of a mesh network that can re-route and stay active even if several nodes fail.

Of the eight Digital Stewards from the initial 2013 group, four are now employed in the tech world (one has entered the restaurant business and another is in school and working as a video consultant).  Rob, one of the four remaining in the tech industry, continues to work for the Red Hook Initiative as a Wi-Fi system administrator, teaching his newly-acquired skills to the 2014 Digital Stewards cohort.

Although Red Hook has been identified in recent years as an up-and-coming hip locale, about 70 percent of its population are public housing tenants whose lives are quite different from the area’s more affluent transplants.  Schloss and Rob see their work as addressing several issues, including breaching the digital divide and increasing diversity in technology.  But at the micro level, their work is facilitating greater interaction between newcomers and long-time residents in Red Hook — creating a true 21st century community in one of Brooklyn’s oldest neighborhoods.

Community-Owned Internet Access: How These Neighborhoods are Redesigning the Traditional Provider Model

Posted on by robbie

As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) edges towards a decision that could give Internet service providers permission to charge websites for bandwidth, some communities across the country are rallying together to create a different type of solution.
The high-profile debate between FCC members and broadcasters centers on a proposal allowing broadband companies like Comcast or Verizon to charge websites for special “fast lanes” in the final stage, or “last mile,” of service transmission. In other words, these mega-media conglomerates would be able to determine which sites loader faster or slower based on how much each content provider pays them.
Coupled with the timing of the Time Warner-Comcast merger, critics are concerned the FCC proposal would eliminate net neutrality — a set of rules that enables a free and open internet — altogether, as well as infringe on free press. Companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft have decried the proposal as “a grave threat to the Internet.”
MORE: Every Kid Needs an Internet Connection to Thrive in School. This District Has a Plan to Make It Happen
But the convoluted issue is even more complex for consumers, who can feel beholden to these Internet companies in order to remain plugged in. But that doesn’t have to be the case, as communities like Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, Kansas City, and St. Louis have illustrated.
Rather than joining the national protest, these three areas have separately launched community-supported broadband initiatives by educating themselves and creating local co-ops to sidestep the traditional Internet service providers, Slate reports. The model is based on community supported agriculture (CSA), or farm shares.
With CSAs, members of the community invest in advance to cover costs of an operation and receive shares of the farm’s profits throughout the crop season. As Slate points out, communities could adopt a similar blueprint in the case of broadband services and leverage purchasing-power to decide who is in control of delivering “last mile” service.
In Brooklyn, the youth nonprofit Red Hook Initiative has created a Digital Stewards program to operate and maintain a community wireless network. The group purchases its bandwidth from high speed Internet service company BKFiber, supporting a local business while training community members to sustain the project.
Kansas City’s Free Network Foundation launched a co-op that owns and operates a community wireless network through purchasing “middle-mile” bulk bandwidth. Meanwhile in St. Louis, WasabiNet has created a wireless mesh network comprised of interconnected wireless routers. Users have different levels of access depending on how much they pay.
Regardless of how the FCC decision pans out, the debate is a chance for communities to redefine the way we are connected by taking charge of their share of the Internet. As Slate smartly points out, Americans should seize this opportunity to create an online sense of their local community instead of relying on big broadband retailers to do the work for them.