Our Last Harvest
We regret to announce that this August, 2011 will mark the end of the Transmission Project’s main initiative, the Digital Arts Service Corps. The Corporation for National and Community Service has not renewed funding of our work. It is important to us that the knowledge and experience we have acquired over the past ten years be kept available for future reference. The following highlights of our work reflect our values and capture the strengths of our methodology. These points are the seeds of an idea.
Service
- We have built a Service Corps made up of individuals of all ages and backgrounds – both personal and professional.
- We provide a support structure for Corps members to ensure they have the resources and security necessary to be an effective force at the organizations where they serve. This includes a wiki to help members navigate their year of service.
- By making it easier to serve, we have introduced more talented leaders to the field of public and community media than it would see otherwise.
Ecologies
- We help organizations design the most transformative projects possible with insight from a national advisory board of public media professionals; at the same time, we respect organizations’ need for autonomy by asking them what project would best contribute sustainable infrastructure, how they define success, and what they need to achieve it. Check out last year’s request for proposals.
- Our perspective as practitioners in the field and as custodians of a movement makes us sympathetic to the unique needs of organizations and cognizant of what can be feasibly accomplished in the field today.
- By spanning the gap between governments and grassroots movements, we give more organizations greater access to people who want to help.
Space
- With healthy criticality we encourage and actively create space for reflection on the honest practices we experience every day.
- We share Corps members’ stories and the resources they develop in the hope that they will lead to better-informed, contextualized ideas and actions in the field.
- We insist upon an expansive definition of media and a comprehensive understanding of the roles media and technology can play in bringing individuals and communities out of poverty. We therefore support a wide variety of organizations.
Networks
- Our membership in national networks of media and arts organizations contributes to the success of each of our Corps members; the connectedness of Corps members in turn amplifies the benefits of their work beyond their individual communities.
- Our connections to media policy reform advocates keep us informed regarding the ideological and political frames within which all our work happens.
- We are and have always been part of big-picture national digital literacy and media justice initiatives, and our network of Corps volunteers overlap closely with the groups involved.
“I take for granted that there’s an understanding that those who sign up for DASC are incredibly passionate about community building, technology and media.
The best gift that DASC gave me in my two years of service – in opposite parts of the country – was to equip me to navigate that balance between passion and work when you’re lucky enough to have those two align. No matter what people say, when you devote that much time to one thing, work becomes an integral part of your identity, and this program is an integral part of mine.”
Denise Cheng,
GRMC, Portland Community Media
“My year in the Digital Arts Service Corps profoundly shaped who I am today and what I hope to do in the future. I consider myself really lucky to have discovered and participated in DASC, and I think its demise is a tremendous loss for the community of people who see technology and media as critical parts of community service and social justice — and for the people across the country who would have been helped through stronger community organizations.”
Chris Gang,
NY Media Alliance
“Community media was a vague concept I learned about prior to serving, and then once coming on board with the Digital Arts Service Corps, I found myself empowered and motivated by passion to learn more about grassroots community and community media. I truly have learned what it takes to build community partnerships with other organizations locally, state-wide and even regionally. The experience is one that will never be replaced with any other future job.”
Erica Jones,
Quote Unquote, Inc.
“I still find the lessons and skills I learned over that year invaluable almost every day. Having experienced the joys of trying to make a difference and being involved in my local community, I now feel that pursuing service and social activism is an important aspect of a rich and fulfilling life. I’ll always be thankful to the Transmission Project for enabling this experience.”
Lee Goodrich,
Community Software Lab