About
The Transmission Project amplifies the power of public media and technology.
Our vision is a robust and diverse media ecology enabling a world built upon the full participation of society.
For nearly ten years, we have worked to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations that use media and technology to strengthen communities. The Transmission Project fulfills its mission by supporting a diverse network of partner organizations that provide services to benefit communities nationwide.
History
The CTC VISTA Project (now the Transmission Project) began in the fall of 2000 as the recipient of a million dollar, three-year grant from the Corporation National and Community Service (CNCS), in response to a Request For Proposals to help low-income Americans Bridge the Digital Divide. Now entering its tenth year, the Transmission Project is the only remaining project of those selected by CNCS, leaving it as the country’s longest standing national digital opportunities program supported by CNCS. Today, the Transmission Project continues to be active and successful, placing hundreds AmeriCorps*VISTA members in over 100 non-profit organizations since its inception.
Originally developed in partnership with CTCNet, the country’s oldest and largest association of nonprofit organizations devoted to technology access and education for low-income communities, the CTC VISTA Project represented the development and continued advancement of community technology centers. These Community Technology Centers (CTCs), of which there were less than a dozen in the early 90s, have grown in both number and scope of services. Now with more than an estimated 20,000 centers, these organizations have created an infrastructure capable of supplementing schools, employment agencies, and other national service providers.
At its conception, the CTC VISTA Project was a program that helped both recruit and support the placement of AmeriCorps*VISTA members in CTCs across the country. As the Project grew and developed relationships with an increasing number of these CTCs, it naturally began learning about the new applications and directions for community technology. The Project capitalized on this advantageous position by assuming a major role in the publication of the Community Technology Review, a journal dedicated to covering trends in non-profit technology fields.
The collaborative nature and broad scope of the Review allowed for the CTC VISTA Project to forge close ties with national community media and technology networks available beyond CTCs. The CTC VISTA Project continues to develop relationships with national networks, which have included the Association for Community Networking, the Association for Community Media (ACM), the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) and the Alliance for Technology Access, in addition to our partnership with CTCNet.
Following developments in the field, the CTC VISTA Project expanded its reach considerably, integrating a wide range of non-profit organizations. This diversification subsequently led to the recent creation of four Priority Areas that shaped the direction and scope of organizations and programs the CTC VISTA Project seeks to support. These Priority Areas provided additional structure, organization, and collaborative opportunities to support the Project’s growth. VISTA members served in one or more areas of Digital Media for Youth, Community Networking, Technical Assistance for Non-Profits, and Community Organizing.
As the landscape of community technology changed along with the scope of the Project, it became quite obvious that the name CTC VISTA had not kept pace. More and more, there were questions of what the name meant, a lacking identification with the CTC terminology, and a presumed affiliation with a well-marketed computer operating system. The primary stakeholders knew that something (the name) had to change and a process was begun culminating in this announcment:
The CTC VISTA Project has a new name: The Transmission Project. For 9 years the Project has amplified the use of media and technology within more than 100 non-profit organizations across the country. While diverse in the services they provide, the Project’s partners all have one thing in common: their use of media and technology to challenge social and economic inequality in communities.
With a new name, the Transmission Project places a stronger emphasis on building capacity for equitable and effective use of public media and technology. To facilitate this, a newly created Digital Arts Service Corps recruits AmeriCorps*VISTA members to further develop our nation’s public media and technology infrastructure. These full-time volunteers will serve with community radio stations, media arts and technology centers, rural broadband internet initiatives and others seeking to empower their community through the use of media and technology.
By creating a Digital Arts Service Corps, the talents and organizing skills of committed volunteers can be harnessed to connect people across online communities and amplify America’s independent media voices and visions. Community-driven teams will design tools, social networks and online environments that bolster and stimulate community-building and participation. They will work with information technology specialists and independent media makers to democratize the next generation of broadband and information access.
The launch of the Digital Arts Service Corps marks a new strategic collaboration with the National Alliance for Media Arts & Culture (NAMAC). Together, the Transmission Project and NAMAC hope to advance a movement that integrates national service, public digital infrastructure construction, capacity building for nonprofits, and innovative uses of the technological arts in public and community-based organizations.
Housed at the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, the Transmission Project and its new initiative, the Digital Arts Service Corps, is a grantee of the Corporation for National and Community Service.