What: Digital Independence Community Computer Drive

When: Friday July 29th, 2011, 10am to 4pm

Where: Joan Lorenz Park, The green in front of the Cambridge Main Library located on 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138

What’s happening: Donate your old computers and technologies. We’ll refurbish them and pass them along to families with low-income who may not have the resources for their own technologies. We’re also giving away two computers in a free raffle.

In his State of the Union address, President Barrack Obama stressed America’s leadership in technology and research as of the utmost importance in our great nation’s success. Yet looking around the community one can see many people who are less than well-versed in the field of high technology. That’s the playing field onto which three Cambridge Rindge and Latin students stepped during the winter of 2009. Noting the nationwide community’s lack of technical proficiency, Arjun Agarwala, Bandhan Zishanuzzaman, and Tom Barrasso started Digital Independence to alleviate the endemic lack of understanding. One and half years later, Digital Independence now has office space both in the Cambridge Innovation Center and the Main Branch of the Cambridge Public Library, and employs a team of nine interns funded by the city of Cambridge.

While Mr. Obama may have been speaking to those members of the national community already highly invested in technology, Digital Independence sees the greatest investment in the future of America in the children who will one day grow up to run its government and industries. Yet many of these children, the ones who will need to lead America one day, who will need to be the most technology savvy individuals in the world if America is to truly succeed, lack the basic technology on which to learn. In response to this problem, and to a general lack of access to technology by many Americans, Digital Independence started “Project Refurb” during the summer of 2010. Taking donated computers, refurbishing them, and donating them back into the community, “Project Refurb” aims to bring technology to those who wouldn’t normally have such access. To support this program, Digital Independence is holding a computer drive on July 29th from 10am-4pm so that enough computer donations may be secured to successfully meet the needs of our community. This drive aims to bring in enough donations to help build a computer lab for the Boston Public Schools, as well as to be able to donate refurbished computers to several less fortunate families in the Greater Boston Area.

(Written by Henry Eccles, Project Refurb Supervisor)

Digital Independence, Inc. is sponsoring Project Refurb:

The purpose?
Project Refurb will provide families with low income, or new-immigrant status whom have not been exposed to computer technology their own refurbished computers at no cost.

Why refurbished?
The computers we will build are going to be just like the ones you can get in stores. Obviously they may not meet the same technical specifications, but realize that this project is only a gateway into the technological realm.

How does this project work?
Digital Independence will host this project with many other partner organizations. The goal is to have connections with larger organizations who will donate their computer(s) waste to us when say perhaps they receive computer upgrades throughout the organization. Digital Independence will take the donation(s), refurbish them, and then pass it along to another community partner organization . The community partner organization can be schools, or other organizations that are in contact with families with low income, or new-immigrant status. Donations will also be given directly to families or individuals.

How much will this project cost?
As you may already know, Digital Independence, Inc. is a non-profit organization and hence, money is necessary for sustainability. Any donations towards Project Refurb will help Digital Independence continue to provide service to our community, whether in the form of volunteer support, cash, or computer hardware.

How can I help?
Project Refurb is not as simple as it sounds. To build refurbished computers, we are going to need used computer parts! And lots of them! If you have an old computer lying around, even if it doesn’t work, shoot us an email or call us and we can schedule a meeting. All donations will help us out tremendously in making this project a success. Better yet, if you are part of a larger organization, any word that you can pass throughout your organization will be greatly appreciated.

We are hoping that Project Refurb will be a success, and your help is greatly appreciated!

PS. Keep your eyes open for an upcoming blog post. We plan on having a public computer refurbishing drive event soon!
Illustration by Mino Thongsavatdy

Dear Community,

So much has been going on around us: new technology is invented on a daily basis.

This influx of technology is scary: how do we use this technology? When can I find time to learn how to use it? What happened to the good old days where all I had to do was flick a switch?

Those days are gone. Our life is beginning to depend upon technology; we need technology to help us move further in life. It is what makes our lives easier and simpler to manage, sustain and live.

We recognize that not everyone is able to keep up with rapid advancements in technology but we also realize that if people begin to fall behind with modern technology, how will we progress in life to make even more advanced technology?

We’re here to solve the problem. This summer Digital Independence will offer discounted computer consultation sessions. For one hour a day, one day a week, over a period of 5 weeks- Digital Independence will offer affordable basic computer training. An application for this program can be downloaded by clicking here. This program is open to anyone who wants to catch up on modern technology.

We ask, regardless of your age, gender or race, that you do not fear technology and will help us progress our society.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
Again, the application can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Thanks,
Digital Independence :)

Face it, the web is evolving just as fast as computers these days. Just like that processor in your two year old computer is outdated, so are the days of HTML4 and Adobe Flash. We are progressing into a web of open standards, and HTML5, CSS3, and new Javascript APIs are pioneering the way. This class is designed to explain to even the most basic web users what exactly HTML5 will do and how it will impact your web experience.

This upcoming Monday, November 29^th, 2010 Digital Independence will be holding a class on the basics HTML5 at the Cambridge Public Library. Join us, starting at 5:30pm as we take a look into the future of the open web.

Just four weeks ago, two members of the Digital Independence team (Arjun Agarwala and Bandhan Zishanuzzaman) took a trip down to University of Miami for Ashoka’s third annual Youth Venture Summit. To be honest, we did not know what to expect from this summit. One of us weren’t even sure if we were going to go, and found out that we were, a week before the summit. However, we were extremely pleased throughout the trip.

Over a period of four days and three nights (July 15th-July 18th, 2010), we met and bonded with people from around the nation, and around the globe. We were all change makers from all over the place including Korea, Germany, China, and so much more! It was an amazing experience for both of us; we didn’t sleep earlier than 3:00am (except Arjun who can’t live without sleep) on any of the nights, not to mention pulling an all-nighter on the last night (which Arjun successfully completed).

We represented Digital Independence at this summit, and Arjun went as an Ambassador and presenter, and Bandhan went as a presenter. At the summit, we gave a presentation talking about how Technology changes peoples’ lives, we attended numerous workshops learning about how to expand ventures/businesses, how to keep it sustainable, fundraising, networking, forming a nonprofit 501c3, and many other things related to business such as learning about necessary legal up-keeping.

We also had a scavenger hunt at the University of Miami on the 2nd night, at around 8 pm. We scaveged around the enormous University, to find items; Arjun’s proud to say his group won the hunt!

At the summit, Youth Venture and MTV organized a Red Carpet party for all the change makers who attended the summit, and we met a couple of celebrities which was pretty cool. We met the Vice President of MTV, and many other people. Additionally, we made many networks from people around the globe. Going on, we made lifelong friends and met some of the most inspirational teens in the world. We also met this one group from Oakland, CA, who started a venture to keep kids off the streets, and what they did was create their own studio and started recording music, and they were funded $400,000 by the Black Eyed Peas, which we thought was amazing. We also met this other group called Hives for Lives, and they produced their own honey, and sold it at Whole Foods Inc. nationwide, and generated more than $170,000 to cure cancer, and meeting teens like these people who started their own ventures, becoming big change makers in the world and seeing how big they’ve got, truly inspired us to try to get as big as these people!

We did a lot of things at the Youth Venture Summit in Miami, and it was a lifetime experience. Although we only spoke about a few things we did at this summit, we could keep going on about the summit and everything we did and everyone we met. We are already looking forward for next year’s summit! All the people we met at this summit were truly the most inspirational people we’ve ever met, and we respect everyone that attended the summit! We also want to thank Sarah Lester for organizing our trip and recommending us to go and all the employees of Ashoka who made this summit possible! We are all change makers and we all can make a difference in the world! Dream It. Do It! Ashoka’s Youth Venture Summit 2010!

We didn’t get a chance to mention all the awesome ventures we got in touch with, but here’s a shout out to a few of them:

Dons Net Cafe

Original Scraper Bikes

GreenShields Project

KAST: Kids Are Scientists Too

InvenTech Enterprises, LLC

Bookstandup

The US Youth Chamber of Commerce