As the remaining founders prepare for college there will be a delay in services. Please be patient if you are in need of diagnostics, repairs, or another service that we offer. We are currently working hard to assemble another group of students which will maintain and grow the Cambridge branch of Digital Independence. So as we prepare our futures, the future of Digital Independence, and find/ train new students bare with us if we take longer than usual to return phone calls, reply to emails, or schedule consultations.

With that in mind if you are a freshman or sophomore student in the Cambridge/ Boston region and are interested in working with Digital Independence please contact us a contact@mydigitalindependence.com.

Did we mention you (high school students) may be eligible for a stipend?

DIGITAL INDEPENDENCE, INC. PEPSI REFRESH PROJECT PRESS RELEASE

Project Refurb – Provide underresourced families free computers and
tech-solutions!

Contact Bandhan Zishanuzzaman/617 575 9262

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cambridge, MA/September 3rd, 2011

Digital Independence, a Cambridge based youth-led organization is running for $10,000 in the Pepsi Refresh Grant contest. The organization is working on a project titled “Project Refurb” with a goal to narrow the digital divide in the Greater Boston area. The organization accepts donated computers, refurbishes them and then
sends them back out to the community. Funding for this project is a necessity to ensure that the process can be sustained.

The Pepsi Refresh Project offers grants on a monthly basis to applicants hoping to impact their respective communities to make the world a better place. Digital Independence is a local non-profit with a mission to ensure that resources to technology and that free technology literacy courses are available to everyone.

Please vote for us by visiting http://refresheverything.com/projectrefurb. You can create a Pepsi account or login via your Facebook account. You can also vote for us
by texting 108405 to Pepsi (73774).

About Digital Independence-

Digital Independence is a youth led non-profit computer education and services organization started in 2009 by three students at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. With a mission to bring technological education to the community, Digital Independence launched Project Refurb to benefit those in our community without proper access to the technological education resources necessary to learn about the technology which drives society.

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Contact Digital Independence, Inc:
Bandhan Zishanuzzaman, Co-Founder and Co-Director
617 575 9262
bandhan@mydigitalindependence.com
http://mydigitalindependence.com
http://refresheverything.com/projectrefurb
http://facebook.com/DigitalIndependence | http://twitter.com/letfreedombeep

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)

Congratulations to Filmon Elias for being voted Intern of the Week July 18. Filmon has been working with Digital Independence for a few months now. Just a few reasons he was voted Intern of the Week: People actually happily accept fliers from Filmon because of his polite attitude, and because his hard work is contagious. Much like last week’s Intern of the Week Kevin Yang, Filmon has been flying through chapters in his Java course book. Having known Filmon for a while we know that his diligence will persist, and look forward to conducting services with him in the future.

Congratulations to our 2011 summer intern Kevin Yang on becoming Intern of the Week! His peers noted that Kevin was undoubtedly the most productive worker, taking on chapters of Java programming exercises in no time at all. With only a week of learning and having had no prior knowledge of programming, Kevin now has a good grasp of the fundamentals of Java including: variables, syntax, methods, recursion, and more. We have no doubt that by the end of his internship he will be coding his own apps for the Android platform. His appetite for learning is so veracious he even volunteers his time beyond what he is compensated for to further his studies. Once again, congratulations to Kevin Yang and keep checking to see who earns next weeks title.

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