How CTNY's Portable Network Kit is Powering Community Connections - Episode 614 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast

Monique Tate (00:07):
We not only work on building the physical network, but also the personal network, the human network of people that can help and support one another.

Christopher Mitchell (00:16):
Welcome to another episode of the Community Broadband Bits podcast. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in St. Paul Minnesota. And today I am speaking with [00:00:30] two folks with CTNY, and you'll know what that is in just a second. Let me introduce first, Monique Tate, who is co-director of CTNY.

Monique Tate (00:39):
Hello, very nice to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Christopher Mitchell (00:42):
Welcome to the show. And then we also have Raul Enriquez, who is a co-founder and co-director of CTNY. Welcome.

Raul Enriquez (00:50):
Hello. Thank you very much for having us.

Christopher Mitchell (00:52):
Now you have a sense of their voices. It will be pretty easy to tell these guests apart. I am excited we met [00:01:00] in person, Monique in Baltimore. I know that you spent a lot of time in Detroit as well. Let me start with you, Monique, and you can give the quick version and then Raul can tell us what you forgot about the founding. But what is CTNY?

Monique Tate (01:17):
CTNY is Community Tech New York community is the key of the definition for us because community is at the center for creating digital [00:01:30] equity solutions. And that's our belief, that's our focus and that's what we strive to always keep at the top of our minds whenever we are doing work towards digital justice and digital equity.

Christopher Mitchell (01:43):
Alright, Raul, do you want to jump in?

Raul Enriquez (01:44):
Yes. I think what the main thing that we have to really focus on here is that we like to engage with grassroots community organizations and actual community members, folks that have no experience or [00:02:00] even idea about how they can get engaged with technology. And that's really what we do is break it all down and work with them. And we like to use a term for how we approach it. It's called in Spanish, that means with affection. So a lot of folks are really scared of technology and so if you affectionately approach the training process with them and break down these ideas, let them fail, let 'em know it's okay. They tend to come around and get really excited about it because they can learn [00:02:30] pretty quickly.

Christopher Mitchell (02:31):
Yeah, I think if we were to explain what the opposite of CTNY is, it might be a group that just threw technology at people and then moved along, right?

Raul Enriquez (02:40):
Yes. Yes.

Christopher Mitchell (02:42):
Okay. And then I should just say that I've done some work and I think Greta was involved in CTNY for a long time, right?

Raul Enriquez (02:51):
Greta and I started CTNY. Yes. And she left in I believe November of 2022.

Christopher Mitchell (02:56):
Yeah. I don't think I could do this show without mentioning Greta because [00:03:00] of the work she's done out of respect for that and the work she's continuing to do now with cities in a different capacity. We're going to talk mostly today about one aspect of CTNY's work, which is something called the PNK, the Portable Network Kit. I was just all of a sudden we're like, am I going to remember what this is? Good

Raul Enriquez (03:24):
Points already.

Christopher Mitchell (03:25):
So we're going to be talking a bit about this approach they use, which is [00:03:30] an actual suitcase of things that we'll explain as well as the training you go into how communities benefit and some of the scenarios in which this would be useful. I feel like this overlaps with some of the work that I've done and we've talked about on this show with the Tribal Broadband Bootcamps. I think we both share a passion for helping people to become more educated and take a stronger role in terms of making sure that they are controlling [00:04:00] the technology and comfortable with it as opposed to just using it. So let's start with maybe the founding. Who wants to tell me where the idea of the PNK came from?

Raul Enriquez (04:09):
Back in 2016 in New York City, we were basically reconfigured as resilient communities under the umbrella of New America. In that project, we were scoped with building five mesh networks in New York City in various boroughs. And in that [00:04:30] description of the project, there was this idea of a Portable Network Kit that was pretty much just designed or defined as a backpack full of pre-configured antennas, spare router cables and a crimper and extra tools and bits like that. And that's kind of what the idea behind it was. And over time as we started training the communities, the stewards, digital stewards in our programs, I noticed [00:05:00] that they were kind of getting a little frustrated because it was mostly all talk. People were just talking at them about what was mesh networking, what was a router, what was this, what was that? And they definitely needed to have some kind of hands-on experience with the equipment.

(05:16):
And so I decided to take home all the gear and figure out a way to configure it and then document it so it was easy for them to kind of put it all together to understand the relationship between the [00:05:30] router and the antenna and the server and all the cabling and how everything works, the power standards required. And so it became this thing that we originally just used for training. And then it turned out that with the RISE project, we needed to have a certain amount of small businesses sign up for rooftop access that put equipment on. Again, that's a long boring story, but it ended up being difficult to get businesses to sign up. And so the Portable Network Kit became [00:06:00] a easy way to configure the gear or have it already pre-configured by the stewards, then put on top of a business or give it to a business to be available to be part of the network.

(06:11):
And so after we finished the project, Greta and I decided to reinvent ourselves and have it be based purely on the Portable Network Kit as the approach to building these small networks. So in essence, what it is like a seed network that people can build that don't have any experience with networking whatsoever [00:06:30] in a matter of four days, even less actually. But we like to stretch it out so people have time to comprehend and assimilate the information. They can build their own little seed network that's basically a high powered Wi-Fi welcome network. And if you have a fiber connection or an ethernet connection to broadband, you can plug it in and give your community Internet access. And what it does is it shows folks the various aspects of wireless networking and it allows them to really [00:07:00] kind of dig into, oh, I really like the router part, or I really like the wireless part, or I really like making cables, installing the antennas.

(07:07):
So everybody has a role in the process and then they get put hands on it and they get to actually build on themselves. And then from there they know that they can deploy thena or this PNK in place and provide it by five. And then over time they then know what the next step is for their community because they know, oh, we need more antennas, we need a bigger router, we need a better server, we need applications, we need [00:07:30] fiber, whatever it's going to be. They have the agency then to decide on their own what the next step is going to be for their community, for their network. And that's what we like about it is we can easily go in or have them come to us, they get trained and they leave or we leave them with a functioning network. And that's key about it. And also how to organize around it. I'll let Monique get into that.

Monique Tate (07:51):
Yeah, that's exactly the piece I was going to touch on because another element that's centric to what we follow and what we believe in, [00:08:00] and that is building Internet networks and building up on digital education is really what allows communities to have power, not only just have power, but know how to use that power to leverage opportunities, whether it's for political justice, economic justice, food justice. Those are all of the elements that fall to the center of communities and we need to be able to fight for those things. I know that B dollars and all of that are talking about rural connection, and I'm not discounting that they need [00:08:30] connection too because I don't like when I'm down south and I can't connect either. So that's a necessity, but there are still limitations to urban access as well, and we have to continue to fight towards that, especially now that ACP is gone and all of that work, all of those efforts that we were making to help people to sign up, get digitally involved and get connected.

(08:54):
And here you've got this connection at a reasonable price you can afford for you and your families. And we were able [00:09:00] to convince people about how important it is. And now just like that, it's gone from their grasp, but they need it. They need to be able to continue to work, not I live in an urban environment. We need to be able to continue to use our digital power and our voice so that we can be represented. I mean, we see how much the impact of information and information is expounding at levels we can't [00:09:30] even imagine or understand. And especially as we introduce all of these other mediums like AI and how easily it can replicate, these things are existing without any governance. So we can hear the recent meme from that person who was talking about the potential candidate for presidency. They created something that made it sound like it was them speaking without having to be required to indicate that this is a replication, this is a digitization, [00:10:00] this is not this person.

(10:01):
Because there are many people who, because of their lack of knowledge in how extensive AI is, they believe what they see, they believe what they hear. So us providing deep seated information like this to people who we're really oftentimes convincing, please get on the Internet, you need it. No, I don't need that. And some people may not believe and understand that there are significant portions of the population and especially in communities of color who say that [00:10:30] I don't need to be on that Internet. I don't need to do no digital banking, all of that, but without being engaged in it, we are continuously being left behind the hospital systems like the Cleveland Clinic. Regrettably, my husband who's now passed away was in there for a considerable period of time and they literally were telling us about the robots who existed on the ground floor and in the basement that they were testing so that they would understand not to run into people and all, but their goal was the fact [00:11:00] that they were going to have digital medicine take over more than half of what they did at the hospital.

(11:07):
So they were already planning towards it. The pandemic pushed them to accelerate that because we didn't have a choice. And so by us not being engaged in technology, how it impacts and affects our lives, we are totally being left behind and missing out on significant opportunities even in healthcare, much less in having employment [00:11:30] opportunities. So us providing this kind of information, and that's why our focus is at grassroots organizations in communities where we're walking streets and talking to people. We're not reading statistics. We are the statistics. We're talking to people to encourage them that we want to continue to perpetuate our voice and be represented as producers, not just consumers, but producers. That's another significant piece about assisting with information and training digital stewards how to build community networks [00:12:00] because the community networks that we build, we are committed to making them belong to the community.

(12:06):
And we always have offered symmetric levels of speed, upload speed and download speed. So yes, the government has changed the or FCC, excuse me, changed the definition of what broadband is, and now you're talking about needing at least a hundred megabits of download speed, but we want upload speed to be equally as important, [00:12:30] not give us 1, 3 10 megabits of upload because what people can produce is just as important if not more important. So their voices, our voices can be heard. We need to be able to load up information just as quickly as we can download information. Right.

Christopher Mitchell (12:46):
And I feel like being able to appreciate what the importance of upload is one thing, but allowing people to decide for themselves how to balance the upload and download is [00:13:00] still another thing. And you aim at doing both, not just having them appreciate the importance of what might be the only option that they have, but being able to decide for themselves how to run it. Now let me ask about the PNK specifically, because my understanding is, and I've been wrong before, it's happened once or twice, but the PNK could stand by itself even if there was no upstream connection. And so you could have a local network where [00:13:30] people could talk to each other, but as you were saying, you can also create a wireless network that you hook into the Internet and people could have access to all of the Internet.

Raul Enriquez (13:39):
Yes. And the local aspect of the network is key for our work in emergency preparedness and resiliency work because a lot of the networks that are up now, when the Internet comes out, it doesn't work anymore. It's basically useless until they get a connection back, especially with CBRS networks. So we [00:14:00] like to stick it very, very local and make sure that it operates offline and the server on it has your basic communication apps, chat room, shared doc WordPress to create posts, file sharing, and of course the instance of unified controller to control the network. And so it's really key that the PNK works offline or online,

Monique Tate (14:23):
The Internet connection so that we can bring in that worldwide. But the intranet connection [00:14:30] is equally important because not only does it serve the purpose if externally something happened in the Internet went down as in the disasters that we all have suffered through in one way or another, fire flood, whoever knows what's coming next, but those are happening in every environment. Hurricane, tornado where communication systems go down, and this whole community network building thing is something that manifested and showed itself [00:15:00] powerful when Hurricane Sandy hit New York, and that's when we were building community networks. So in the Red Hook community, it was the only communication tool left standing that even FEMA had to jump into and use in order to communicate with the community. But that intranet piece is also important. When I say we have some of those people who really don't want to be connected to the Internet, they still are able in community networks to be on the intranet.

(15:27):
They can say, well, I still can communicate with those [00:15:30] in my community who I want to be involved with, so I'll know when the urban garden is getting ready to put out the produce that we can just come and get for free. Or I'll know when the artist group is going to put on a performance and one of the parks in the neighborhood or something like that. So the intranet piece is highly important and it kind of aligns with talking about the uses of the PNK and that network piece is [00:16:00] a significant piece, but one of the pieces that Raul is just super brilliant at, and that is using it as a teaching tool we both teach, but I always learn from him and will never stop giving him credit, not only for the creation of PNK, but he teaches in such a brilliant way.

(16:16):
And Chris, I've been under your teaching, you do it similarly where you make sure that people understand, you break it down in a way so that it's easy to process and understand because we have to demystify technology, as Raul said, people are still afraid [00:16:30] of it. Like, oh, they're talking bits and bites and algorithms and we break it down and use kitchen scenarios and use cooking scenarios and cleaning scenarios, things that people can relate to and make it easier to understand. Also that hands-on the tactile skills, people being able to touch it and see it. I remember in your class where you pass the fiber line and I love that so much because we are always showing a picture of the fiber line, which by the way, I still want my piece of fiber that you're going to send [00:17:00] us because it makes it so real.

(17:04):
You see it in a picture, you see it underground, and then you more easily understand about how the transatlantic lines are coming through and oh, the whole island went out because a shark bit through the fiber optic cable and it's going to take three months to repair that thing. When you're touching it and holding it, then you get it and you're like, oh yeah. And then you're thinking like a teeny little piece of fiber. This is passing data at lightning speed. So it [00:17:30] makes it real. And this is why the community connection that we all strive to make works.

Christopher Mitchell (17:37):
One of the things that I hope people are grasping is that the portal network kit is I think sort of the minimum viable product. And that coupled with the training allows them at a very low cost to be able to expand the network and recognizing whether it's ethernet cord or whether it's additional wireless pieces of gear, [00:18:00] they'll know how to broaden it out. But I feel like for me, it was brought home. You mentioned the example of Sandy, hurricane Sandy, Monique, and I remember reading about and talking with people with some of the fires that were happening in California where people weren't sure which direction they should leave in if they should leave or not. The electricity was down, the cellular communications were down. And so some locations in Marin County, I believe in San Rafael, [00:18:30] they now have a plan for areas in which they would set up networking equipment effectively, and people could go and join the network with their wireless device to get basic updates and things like that. And you're distributing that and making sure people are able to do it. I'm curious if there's other examples you might want to just use of how people are using the PNK aside from an emergency situation.

Raul Enriquez (18:55):
Definitely training, getting folks familiar with networking, wireless [00:19:00] stuff, servers, cabling, and just hands-on tool use. Other folks have used it for archiving, creating a local archive for the community that's private and personal to them because it stays local and then they can decide whether or not they want to upload it. But what's key about that is people can get onto the server and upload various either videos or recipes, sewing patterns, photographs, whatnot of the community activities that have [00:19:30] been around. And then they know they own it offline. So if they had uploaded it to some online service and that service goes out of business, they lose their data. And so if you have it on a local server, you can pack up that suitcase and run and keep it. And that's really what's nice about, it's that the fact that it's portable, and again, the portability of it all makes it great for the emergencies because you can bust it out, set it up, or have it already set up, and then when something bad happens, you can grab it, pack it up and run with it. And so [00:20:00] that's really nice. And of course, just the fact that it's a seed network for a community to learn how to understand all aspects of it, that seems to be what we're focusing on now besides the resilience stuff, is just getting folks to understand how a network, what are the challenges of the network, how to get access to rooftops, why you need access to rooftops, where's the power going to come from, all that kind of stuff.

Monique Tate (20:24):
I want to tap in Raul on what you were talking about about the archive. Archive might not seem like it's important, [00:20:30] but think time capsule and being able to literally not just see maybe a kettle that a great grandma or a grandma used or a quilt that a great grandma made, but to see that great grandma talking about that quilt and holding it up as she's sewing some pieces to it. And for other things that have existed. Because the other thing that's changing continuously are our communities, what they look like, how they're designed. They're either being built up or they're being built out or they're changing and [00:21:00] transitioning. And what used to be this community here is now something all totally different and new. But to be able to, the ownership piece where I will mention I think is extremely important, being able to own it, move it, keep it, retain it and be in charge of it, but also to just literally have some true living examples.

(21:16):
So the community that uses it as an archival piece, they are in the back hills in the south, and that's extremely important to them, this legacy that they're continuing to perpetuate and pass along. [00:21:30] And I believe others will do similarly with it in that use. That's the Appalachian area. And we also have some people who are in the New Orleans area who are continuously being challenged by flood and storms. So they use it as a resiliency tool and model. And one of the things we really love is we love when people do more with it than we ever anticipated, and the student can turn around and become the teacher. So we've got [00:22:00] solar being attached to it. Raul, you want to talk more either on either one of those two?

Raul Enriquez (22:04):
Well, typically in the past we've always just used, again, off the shelf kind of devices like Goal Zero battery packs and solar panels because again, people are easy to understand and they're accessible. But over time, the stewards that we trained up in at the point CDC in the Bronx, they have now basically designed their own server that has their [00:22:30] custom applications on it that they want. And then they've also designed a really beautiful solar kit to provide power strictly to a PNK and to all their nodes on their network. And it's great because I got to go back there with some of the stewards here from Puente in Brooklyn, and they gave us a training over three days on how to do all the math, explained all the parameters that have to be addressed and understood. And then the next day we basically wired it all up and put [00:23:00] it together and it completely powered Portable Network Kit that we kind of presented to them as this is the gear inside the kit.

(23:07):
And so now we have that agency to decide how we want to power our networks, and we will then be passing misinformation on others down the line. And Monique mentioned a group in New Orleans, BCIA, the Bcia Liberation Radio crowd. They call it their network swap net, and they have a fleet of solar trailers [00:23:30] and they will be retrofitting these solar trailers with PNKs so they can again roll out the power and turn on the network and have it go live in a quick. So it's quite nice and they're really, really into it. And what they've done with the PNK that when they built one last year is they put all of their radio show archives on the PNK instantly. First they archives on it, were all their old radio shows. So yeah, it can be a really active, nice archive for people. Again, mix [00:24:00] time machine, which I like the idea of the time machine this absolutely.

Monique Tate (24:04):
And when we talked about the courses that we recently were able to provide for people, for groups, we're still in the process of doing that training, but we were able to tap into and give groups free training because we've always been doing this, but often people could not afford to. And it's not like we were trying to make a lot of money when we were coming. It was just literally [00:24:30] how much it costs when you put it all together for us to go to someone else and train them with the Portable Network Kit building. But by having the benefit and award from a very lovely grant from the Internet society, we were able to bring groups in and train them, and we're doing their trainings up through late fall. So with that, we are expanding to other parts of the country where people are working on community networks or at least they're working on digital justice.

(24:59):
When I [00:25:00] met you in Baltimore and I talked about the lottery that we were having, we had the fortune of two of the Baltimore groups that were in that workshop. They were recipients, they were selected through the lottery process, and they are coming in for a training. And were happy that it's two groups because then they've got a network of connection here in Baltimore where they build the kit and they happen to be one in East Baltimore and one in West Baltimore. So they're also in two different areas to be able to offer this because [00:25:30] we train with a train the trainer concept. We don't want to just, and that's what you alluded to earlier or stated rather, that we don't want to just leave you and not allow you to be able to have further continued education in this. We want to encourage you to connect because that's what a network is.

(25:48):
We not only work on building the physical network, but also the personal network, the human network of people that can help and support one another. So with this training, we're training individuals [00:26:00] in California and we've got friends in Philly. They're not in our training, but this is something that we will go through and continue because as community networks grow, this need for knowledge and power will need to also grow. We are connecting on discord, so we also remain connected. We refer to anybody who goes through our training as digital stewards because they have skills that are higher. And I know digital navigators is a popular word and I love it, but digital stewards, [00:26:30] they have skills that exceed that level. They know how to build networks within community, not only physical, but human.

Christopher Mitchell (26:38):
Well, and this is what I wanted to discuss before we run out of time. So we'll spend the rest of the show, I think talking about the training because it's one of those things that you go and you do it. And if you're not going back home and doing it regularly, then you could start to forget it. So I'm curious, first of all, how you go through the training to make sure they can really, a person [00:27:00] that comes in with little experience could leave feeling confident about this. But then second, I think you also provide materials and we will talk about that before we wrap up to refresh people over time as well. So I was going to throw it to Monique first to describe the training in this case. And then Raul, you can clean up after,

Monique Tate (27:16):
Well, Raul runs most of it, so I'm going to defer to him. But the part that I will add to it about the training is about the recruitment part. One of the things we didn't talk about initially, and this dates us back all the way to 2012 [00:27:30] when I became an initial digital steward in Detroit. And I have dual residents, Detroit and Baltimore. I'm in both places and still working in digital justice in both places, but we work under a principled process, and those are our digital justice principles, and thank you to many out there who have adopted the digital justice principles because that's a part of the network, but they rely on four pillars, and that's access and participation and healthy communities and common ownership. [00:28:00] Ownership is important. So with that, we have been working with groups who demonstrate that that's why we go grassroots.

(28:09):
So that's the work with grassroots organizations to teach them these skills so that they can take 'em back to the community. The recruitment is important because when you're working with residents and we're not giving any tests or saying, oh, you don't qualify to get this job or do this, no, we want people who are anchored in their communities because the training helps them to discover [00:28:30] genius that they sometimes never even knew that they have. And they are already vested and anchored because once they bring the Internet to the community, it's serving them too. And they want to be like, we got to do whatever we got to do to keep this going. And it's not contingent upon an ACP program that can be snatched from us because the government doesn't want to sign a pen to be able to continue something like that. So in terms of the details of what happens in the training, I turn it over to my partner,

Raul Enriquez (28:57):
Well, briefly, very quickly. [00:29:00] Again, it's a four day training. First day is just onboarding everybody into the practice of community technology and the principles behind it all. And then we start building cables. They know they're going to need a bunch of cables to put kit together, so everybody crims cables, and there's usually about 10 to 15 cables get built, and it's really frustrating. People will go crazy, and it's a lot of fun watching people go crazy.

Christopher Mitchell (29:23):
You're saying each person will themselves do 15 or 16 cables?

Raul Enriquez (29:27):
No, no, no. Collectively, collectively, they will build [00:29:30] their cables for the kit. So they build one kit that's considered a deployable Portable Network Kit. So that's an pelican case that's waterproof and ruggedized and all that kind of stuff, and has a battery pack inside and it's ready to be deployed. And then they build another kit that goes in a small case, and that's considered the training PNK, and that's the one that they configure it and then they're encouraged to zero it all out and do it again, zero it all out and do it again. Everybody on the team does it least once or twice. [00:30:00] And so they had that practice. So after when they leave, they have a training kit to refine their skills in the documentation on how to do it. And then they all know they can always email me, zoom with me, whatever you want to call it, FaceTime with me to kind of go over various aspects of it.

(30:18):
And that's how they kind of keep their skills intact along the way because again, they go home with an active live network, two of them, one for deploying, one for training. And so it keeps their skills sharp. [00:30:30] And plus we also make it very clear to them that somebody on the team needs to make sure the battery's always charged, that the server's always being backed up, that you're always backing up the rider's files. So the configuration is up to date. Someone has to keep track of the firmware. So all these things are kind of distributed across the team, so everybody is constantly engaged and making sure their little network is alive. It, it's like one of those little toys you have to keep alive with the buttons on it. Yeah, it's forget what they call that Japanese toy,

Christopher Mitchell (31:00):
[00:31:00] The Tamagotchi.

Raul Enriquez (31:02):
Yes, thank you. It's like that where you have to feed it every day, keep it alive, and again, check the cables, check your data, make backups, do a speed test, all those kinds of things. And so they're constantly having to keep this thing alive as networks go down. And so they have those skills and the more they refine their skills by practicing, it just makes sense.

Monique Tate (31:25):
And that's why the Discord community as well.

Raul Enriquez (31:28):
Yes,

Christopher Mitchell (31:28):
Right. For people who aren't familiar, [00:31:30] it's like it's a modern chat system that's commonly used by gamers and other folks.

Raul Enriquez (31:36):
So in the fall, we'll be launching our discord and our websites to support the 10 groups that we've trained so far that we'll have trained by them under the ISOC Foundation to kind of continue the collective understanding of how this thing works.

Monique Tate (31:53):
But we won't limit it to just those who have gone through PNK training because there are digital stewards that are all over, especially [00:32:00] in high numbers in Detroit and in New York. And we always perpetuate that. We remain in connection and in touch because like I said, somebody's always coming up with something else and something new. And remedies especially too, because equipment's changing and as equipment changes, it's like, oh, that thing doesn't work with us anymore. We have to use a different raspberry pie or modify things in different ways. And that's why we also love these young people coming in and helping to train [00:32:30] us and keep us in tune and in track, like saying, no, you don't have to use text. Let's just get on discord. It's like, okay.

Christopher Mitchell (32:38):
Have you ever had a session where you did not have at least one person saying, I don't know if I can do this and not feeling confident? I'm guessing that that's the more common feeling that you have from people on day one.

Raul Enriquez (32:52):
Yes. People are typically a little bit nervous on day one because they see a PNK, they see a bunch of cables, a bunch of boxes inside of a case, [00:33:00] and they get a little squirrely. But after I sit down with them and I basically just walk through each piece of gear, and as I explained the router, I talk about all the parameters that it has that you must pay attention to, and then we plug it in, turn it on, it beeps, it, goes beep, beep, and then we enter into the router, we see the interface, and the next step is to add a server to it. So it basically scaffolds it up. And then when we're done, it's a functioning working [00:33:30] network, a data solving build, and in five minutes, 10 minutes, and they so wire it all up and turn it all on.

(33:36):
So then they realize, oh yeah, I can do this. So then typically we have them do the same thing, okay, go back, unplug everything. Now you plug it in and they plug it all in themselves so they know how all the configuration is supposed to happen. And then the last step, of course is to then reset everything and then they can figure it out from scratch, entering in with the IP address and all that kind of stuff. And they flashed the SD card for [00:34:00] the server and configured the server build, and they adopt the antennas themselves again. So they actually do it themselves on their own laptops. So that's the big difference is that scaffolding of ease of comfort. But then at the end, you get people fighting over, no, I don't want to do the server. No, I don't want to do the antenna. Before they were like, Nope, not for me. I'm not a tech nerd. And when you see them fighting for wanting to build the last gable for the raspberry pie, that's when you know you've got them.

Monique Tate (34:29):
Yes. And [00:34:30] I'll speak to it again in terms of digital stewardship, and I said that that's why we call them that. When I went through the inaugural class of digital stewards in 2012, I was a displaced auto worker and a woman over 50 at the time. You got to think about a new career or something because I'm from Detroit, auto industry failing. And we had to reinvent ourselves in a way. That's when I turned to technology not even realizing that that's what I wanted to do. I was just going to volunteer [00:35:00] for a nonprofit. And because I know I love helping people, but the technology things just started turning. And when I participated, and that was oh nine, but when I started participating in digital stewardship in 2012, the light struck and it's like, this is really cool. I mean, I can't believe I just made my own ethernet cable and I can now connect, even if I didn't understand everything, I knew that it meant I could make a longer cable so that I could connect from my modem to a TV [00:35:30] in a whole nother room, or other than the little short cord that was given to me by my Internet service provider.

(35:36):
It was, and this is the essence of what happens. People do come in leery of what's going to happen, and I don't really know or understand this stuff. Demystifying technology is really key to what it is that we do. And we've got digital stewards, I say always as young as nine and probably younger because people like Raul's son who were brought in at really early ages on [00:36:00] learning how to create cables and understanding how the Internet works and what the connection means. And we had Raul's son in the disco text training people on how to build cables, and he was like 12 or 13 or something, and he's training nine year olds how to do it, and they're getting it lickety split because we create these competitions, people get engaged like, how fast can you build your ethernet and make sure that it's connectable? So I a hundred percent see it all the time.

(36:28):
I've trained hundreds of digital [00:36:30] stewards by this time, and I see them come in apprehensive and leery and don't understand, but then I see when the light switches and then they're like, wow, I'm really good at this. I can do this. And they literally will create competitions within themselves, me and my partner, we're going to see who can get the Internet, because in Detroit, I'm building community networks. So they're like, we're going to see who can get the network built the fastest, because we might be doing two blocks, two houses on one block. And [00:37:00] so people do start off leery, but yeah, they just like I did, and they leave really understanding and realizing that it's something that they can accomplish, do and more importantly, share and continue to help to grow their own communities. That's why we talk about it bringing power.

Christopher Mitchell (37:18):
Well, we're running out of time, but I want to thank you both for I think igniting passion in people around this stuff because I do think the first step is helping them to understand that they can understand [00:37:30] it, they can be a part of it, they can make decisions for their own lives and everything else. Good flows from that. But is there anything you want to conclude with either Monique or Raul?

Monique Tate (37:42):
I want one conclusion because just like you said, that you have to acknowledge Greta Byrum in this. That's true. Greta Byrum, Diane and Nora Preston Raya, Andy Gunn, those are my initial teachers in the digital steward program and who put together the handbook on community technology about teaching [00:38:00] that. But that all happened too because of Allied media projects in Detroit and us being able to evolve from them. And then that turning into the Detroit Community Technology project, who I come from and who has always been in partnership with ommunity Tech New York, who I am now a part of, but we still walk lockstep with them. And I think just us as a whole in our thinking and our approach about making sure that technology is community centric. So wanted to acknowledge that. And the great team [00:38:30] I am with at CTNY as well now is fantastic.

Christopher Mitchell (38:33):
Excellent. Raul, oh,

Raul Enriquez (38:34):
I want to shout out to Oscar at Ente Louis at Puente. Thank you for bringing this up and on Gilberto, Jonathan and Louis, and of course our other wonderful CTNY person, Danny and Ani, I want to thank them all for being part of this work because we work together well, it depends on all of them, so it's wonderful.

Christopher Mitchell (38:58):
And I feel like I should mention also, Danny [00:39:00] Peralta was there at our very first Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, and he brought in energy and knowledge and passion that really helped to make it a success and make us want to do a lot more. So credit to him especially.

Raul Enriquez (39:12):
Yes, and

Monique Tate (39:13):
Thanks for having us so that the word can continue to spread and people know that we're here and we're doing this work, and we'd love to engage with anyone else who wants to do the work.

Christopher Mitchell (39:24):
Excellent. Well, thank you both for your time and for doing this work. It's God's work and appreciate it. Yes,

Monique Tate (39:29):
Thank [00:39:30] you.

Ry Marcattilio (39:31):
We have transcripts for this and other podcasts available@communitynets.org slash broadbandbits. Email us@podcastmuninetworks.org with your ideas for the show. Follow Chris on Twitter. His handle is at Community Nets. Follow community nets.org stories on Twitter, the handles at muni networks. Subscribe to this and other podcasts from ILSR, including Building Local Power, local Energy Rules, and the Composting for Community Podcast. [00:40:00] You can access them anywhere you get your podcasts. You can catch the latest important research from all of our initiatives if you subscribe to our monthly newsletter@ilsr.org. While you're there, please take a moment to donate your support in any amount. Keeps us going. Thank you to Arnie Sby for the song Warm Duck Shuffle, licensed through creative comments.