Demanding Reparative Action in the Digital Equity Conversation with Katie Hearn

With everything moving online, what does it take to make communication accessible for all? This season of Public Hearing is tackling all things Digital Equity - from small towns to national organizations - to better understand the obstacles and pathways to closing the digital divide.

In this podcast-exclusive bonus episode, Josh continues their conversation with Katie Hearn, Director of The Detroit Community Technology Project (@detcommtech) about the Equitable Internet Initiative and addressing cycles of harm. Miss the first episode? Listen to Communication is a Fundamental Human Right first!

Public Hearing is a podcast from Action! by Design where we explore the unique challenges and opportunities facing Massachusetts' Gateway Cities as they work to create more equitable, liberated, and sustainable communities. Listen to all of our episodes at https://publichearing.buzzsprout.com/ and follow us on Twitter @PublicHearingMA to keep up to date on all things Public Hearing!

Prefer the radio? Tune in Wednesdays at 6pm on WICN 90.5FM, Worcester's only NPR affiliate station. Not in the Worcester area? No worries, you can listen live at WICN.org

Transcript

Joshua Croke (00:04):

Hey folks, thanks for tuning in. If you listened to our episode with Katie Hearn, uh, this is a bonus conversation that we had because we ran out of time, but I really wanted to learn more about the Equitable Internet Initiative that they are involved in. And I hope you enjoy this bonus segment of Public Hearing. Follow the show at publichearing.co and if you wanna support the show, we recently launched a Ko-fi profile where you can donate some money so we can support the production of Public Hearing, which is a community centered and community based show. So every dollar counts. $5 a month. It's like buying us our coffee, fuels our team, would really appreciate it. Uh, you can learn more at publichearing.com. Alright, now jumping back into our conversation with Katie Hearn, the director of the Detroit Community Technology Project.

Joshua Croke (00:59):

All right, so <laugh>, um, I don't want to take too much more of your time. I want to be respectful of that. Um, but please, like, maybe it's, it's kind of jumping back into this with a little bit, um, a more deeper like explanation about the Equitable Internet Initiative and some of the, the work that's the principles are really fueling. Um, but yeah, I could talk to you for much longer.

Katie Hearn (01:24):

<laugh>. Yeah, I know this has been fun. Um, no, that sounds good. Yeah, because, you know, EII, as we call it, we're all acronyms all the time. Our apologies. Um, it's really a kind of a, a critical juncture in its programming in that we're now approximately seven years in, I believe, uh, since the pilot year. And we've seen, uh, just incredible results. So much completely unexpected, some definitely expected, but I know at the heart of it, right, is the goal to redistribute not only just gigabit speeds, right, but a reliable and consistently, deeply affordable internet connection, right? So, understanding that we do have data, um, that is really clearly indicative of how digital redlining has played out here in the city. Um, we also have a lot of compounding issues around infrastructure, failing in terms of our power grid, our roads, um, unmaintained trees, roads, et cetera.

Katie Hearn (02:35):

So, um, EII is really an attempt at not only redistributing that internet connection, but really forging new relationships and creating opportunities essentially to correct the market for ourselves. Uh, because we're very clear. Um, and, and some of the big players are also really clear. They might not tell you, but, um, we're, we know that the market will never correct. There will always be essentially a need for us to build and grow in the cracks because, uh, simply put, we're not profitable communities. Uh, if you're really chasing, you know, your bottom line. Um, so e i I has really been an opportunity for us to scale the digital stewardship model. Um, I kind of mentioned early on that we started with mesh, which is, you know, more of a, uh, it's definitely completely shared, right? It's, it's a little bit, um, harder to maintain, harder to distribute fast speeds.

Katie Hearn (03:38):

Um, but elevating this to, um, gigabit speeds, more advanced equipment is allowing us to, at some cases, in, in some cases, um, avoid an outage when Comcast might be down. Uh, so beyond that, EII has also from the beginning had a stated focus, uh, on environmental justice and understanding that because EII networks are really rooted in communities and built upon relationships, there's a resiliency that's inherent in terms of the social fabric. So how do we complement that with tech? So we have a resiliency strategy that we've been rolling out over the last few years, and this consists of, uh, battery backup locations, uh, where, you know, we at least have one main node that will remain powered, uh, for I think two days, uh, given an outage. We have solar charging stations, um, at multiple sites across EII neighborhoods.

Katie Hearn (04:40):

These are usb charging devices, um, solar powered, connected to our internet or a local network where even if the internet is down, our devices can still communicate. So, um, at the kind of onset of the pandemic, we had people lining up in January to charge their phones during a power outage, shoot a, uh, a winter storm. We had people that were downloading homework from the school district because they couldn't understand what the heck was happening when, I mean, it was pure chaos, right? So allowing community members to really dictate and determine what goes into that fabric, what is unique to them, what do they need in the way of mutual aid? So communication is a fundamental human right, and as the climate continues to deteriorate, whether we're talking politically, environmentally, it is increasingly important that we're able to really keep that social fabric alive and connected. So that's one thing about EII, I don't think we actually talk about enough, um, but something that's, that's always really exciting for us.

Joshua Croke (05:48):

Well, and, and the, the attention to, and the importance of centering, like building resiliency in these systems and these networks, I think is so critical. And as like a futurist and, and a sci-fi nerd, you know, I think maybe, and not to sound alarmist to listeners, but as we are approaching the relationship that we are building with AI and these systems, and also the, you know, political and actual like global climate that we're talking about, and the potential for disruption and how we move about our day-to-day and communicating call like a mechanism for disrupting effective mobilization of community is disrupting communication. Yes. And so building localized resilient systems is like absolutely incredible. So thank you for the work that you're doing. Um, I am excited to continue to engage more deeply in, in learning and bringing and modeling some of this in, in our own communities here. One thing that, and then we can wrap up, um, that you said, I think in our, the first time we met when we were chatting about the, this show was that digital equity isn't enough. What we need is reparative action. Yes. So I'd love you to speak to that, um, before we close out.

Katie Hearn (07:10):

Wow, thank you so much for raising that. Um, I know some people out there, they've heard me before, they, they're may be sick of hearing this, but you know, we recognize the importance, right, of elevating the conversation from the digital vi- digital divide to digital equity. We appreciate that. Um, but the reason that we anchor ourselves in the notion of essentially attaining digital justice, very clear, right? That this digital divide, all of its tentacles is not an accident. Unfortunately, this isn't some happenstance. This was a problem that was created because, well, this is a problem that was created. I'll leave it at that <laugh>. And, you know, as we're thinking about how we solve, how we achieve long-term solutions and how we center those principles, it really is a call to arms to think creatively and to be bold in terms of understanding how we push this conversation further.

Katie Hearn (08:12):

Equity isn't enough because it doesn't account for the harm, it doesn't account for the generations of people that have been deeply impacted by essentially a purposeful disinvestment in communities, whether we're talking along racial lines, economic, you name it. So digital justice is really the opportunity for us to understand for ourselves what that community benefit is, how we're solving for the real issues at the heart of people's everyday experience, and not kind of cutting corners for something that's new and shiny, or on paper sounds really nice. So if there is a call to action in any of this word ramble, it is to be bold and see for yourself, what does it mean to push towards justice? What does it mean to account for and address the cycles of harm so that we don't create a new flavor of it?

Joshua Croke (09:09):

Well, Katie, thank you so much for your leadership, your stewardship and your care for community and the work that you're doing, um, is, is incredibly impactful. I've learned a lot. I know our listeners will take away a lot from these, from this conversation. So thank you for, for your time. For our listeners, uh, you've been listening to a bonus conversation with Katie Hearn, director of the Detroit Community Technology Project for our series on digital equity. Uh, again, we will add all the links and things that Katie has mentioned in the show notes, um, so folks can follow along and get involved. And thank you listeners for listening to Public Hearing. Um, we air on Wednesdays at 6:00 PM on WICN 90.5 FM and can be heard wherever you listen to podcasts. We are really seeking to amplify stories of community efforts working towards equity, justice, and joy across our Massachusetts Gateway Cities and the nation. Um, this has been a great bonus conversation. So Katie, again, thank you so much for, for being here.

Katie Hearn (10:13):

Thank you for having me. And thank you for your work as well.