What is Eco-mUNITY?

Eco-mUNITY is working to establish itself as a non-profit, and is an creation of E.C.O., an Empowering Community Organization. As the name implies, Eco-mUNITY works to empower communities to unite, to organize themselves around issues and goals. We do this by first providing the infrastructure and then organizing the community to begin advocating for itself, and finally facilitating this process of self advocacy.

How will Eco-mUNITY do this?

There are several concurrent projects bringing this about. These include the Eco-mUNITY Bike, Map, Mesh, and Kiosk Projects. Eco-mUNITY has made significant progress with each of these by working with individuals and entities to put the necessary infrastructure in place. For example, Eco-mUNITY has partnered with Bright Neighbor’s community software to bring interaction, collaboration, and communication to the Eco-mUNITY Kiosk Project. This service can be used for chatting, coordinating community campaigns, ride sharing, voting on community issues, shared ownership of resources, informing the community about news and events, swapping fruits and vegetables, and celebrating the culture of each neighborhood.

What is Eco-mUNITY doing now?

Our main focus currently is the Eco-mUNITY Kiosk based on the OLPC laptop. Eco-mUNITY is working this holiday season to raise enough funds to provide children of third world countries with laptops through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. Last season, Eco-mUNITY successfully provided three laptops for children, and received three laptops in kind from the Give One Get One (G1G1) program. These laptops are the heart of the informational kiosks that Eco-mUNITY is installing around Portland. Each kiosk will be an information node to teach and learn about community news and events, to meet and interact with local community members, and to provide and seek local services peer-to-peer. In addition, an instructional wiki is used to illustrate how communities can affordably build and maintain their own kiosk. The flavor and culture and history of the neighborhood will be brought out in the design of the kiosk, and local information will be part of the display.

What else can the Eco-mUNITY Kiosk do?

We envision many uses for these kiosks, including functioning as an upgrade for the modern phone booth. Eco-munity would like to foster a partnership with Skype and in doing so build the grassroots community through the Skype capable XO laptops. The free call component is one of the basic services that we aim to provide on the “off the grid” kiosk and to ensure the sustainable cost effectiveness of the project, installation and assembly of equipment and network maintenance are taught to members of the community. Eco-mUNITY is working to educate the Portland community while providing third world children with learning tools.

On which communities is Eco-mUNITY focusing now?

Eco-mUNITY is actively working in the Richmond and Montavilla communities in Portland, Oregon, though this template can be used anywhere. Through a four-phase plan, Eco-mUNITY is working with the communities of Portland to provide learning tools here and in less fortunate communities across the world. Eco-mUNITY is building a wi-fi mesh network from the grass-roots up, providing free and accessible internet access using existing internet connections. The first node is already running in the Richmond neighborhood! Top down solutions seem to be ridden with issues. Grass-roots solutions have worked quite well in third world implementations, and they provide the model for this project.

How does Eco-mUNITY increase local commerce?

This infrastructure will be used to link those in the community who wish to provide services to those who may seek them locally, without the need for a storefront, keeping local business local, and thus enhancing the sustainability of the communities we affect. The project will be done face to face, door to door, in a grass-roots format, and paper-free to boot.

With “Eco” in our name, what are we doing for the planet?

Eco-mUNITY is working to increase the sustainability of Portland while increasing the sustainability of our business model at the same time. Environmental concerns and awareness permeate our implementation strategies. Keeping the fundamental services available for free ensures that poverty does not overwhelmingly prohibit access to bicycles, computers, or the internet. By creating an interface that is user friendly, weather proof, and has a minimum impact on the planet, citizens can produce virtual art, vote on community issues, teach classes, and exercise while generating power for the electronic devices. The kiosks can be recharged with a simple handcrank, while on the other end of the spectrum, the cob collaborative open space is powered by bike generators and other solutions offered by the community.

To summarize:

The community computer kiosk is the cornerstone for community collaboration and organization as it has never happened before, and therefore will lay the foundation for a series of computer kiosks in every neighborhood that are created by the community, fostering a feeling of ownership and pride that will trigger the interaction necessary for it to accurately represent the neighborhood in which it resides. By bringing community citizens together to collaborate locally and non-locally, we create a citizen owned mesh network of wi-fi repeaters where existing open networks are scarce, and partner with those that already exist, to supply community residents with free and open access to information repositories both online and locally. By monitoring social and technological trends, E.C.O. is putting the tools of the future into the hands of citizens today, preparing them for tomorrow.

How can you contribute?

The best way to get involved is to contribute today! Contributing to our effort will help Eco-mUNITY to recover the initial outlay of cost for more laptops as well as the hardware to provide free internet access to Portland communities.

REAListic.optimIST
a.citizen
2009