Fearless City

Fearless City Mobile is the mobile technology piece of a larger grassroots effort to build the W2 Community Media Centre for our inner-city Vancouver neighbourhood. Fearless represents the effort of our residents working together to break the digital divide and learn about appropriate technology to overcome marginalization and support self-representation.

• Local 

• Marginalized residents of the downtown east side
• They are starting a new project targeted at recruiting aboriginal youth

• Since: 2006 (had beginnings as a print publication and evolved)
• Umbrella Organization: Yes (DTES Community Arts Network )
• Since 2008 Fearless City Mobile has been conducting research and mobile technology engagement events in the community. Fearless is a project with a demonstrated track record and people watching our work from other cities can have confidence that we will continue to ramp up and complete our proposed tasks within the next 10 months. We list this roster (below) to share our experiences, but also demonstrate our capacity and track-record, as we finish our infrastructure pieces in time for the Olympics in February 2010.Mobile Media Labs took place at a street centre for marginalized and street-entrenched DTES residents where they are provided skills or employment training, peer support, referrals and laundry and coffee services. More sessions took place at a mental health cultural centre where artists informed by mental health, trauma, and sexual abuse survivor issues accessed weekly support sessions learning about mobile gear, writing, blogging, and social networking. Other sessions have taken place at a local housing cooperative community room. More than 20 workshops have taken place and fifty DTES residents trained through the program. An additional 40 will be trained during 2009.

  In 2008, we participated with local open source technology activists to help advance hopes of building a neighbourhood mesh network using Meraki network of nodes. Plans were blocked when Meraki changed their terms of use, and no alternate system was put in place, and Fearless focused on other short-term priorities.

video production

web production

not provided 

Fearless City Mobile has programmed a series of live events in and around our inner-city neighbourhood while supporting daily production of community generated media and media artwork.

Mobile Media Labs have taken place every week throughout 2008, promoting a peer-to-peer training methodology and sharing both learning and practical implementation and paid work experiences.

Workshops on a range of topics were held and scheduled in a sequence which builds skills parallel to the many events and research projects conducted throughout the year. Examples include: mobile sound gathering, geotagging data, mobile uploading, in-camera edits, open source strategies, working with drupal, camera techniques, lighting for mobile video production, overcoming the user interface, primer on mobile technologies, Web 2.0, blogging, and more. Workshop mentors and teachers included some of the most advanced artists and technologists working in mobile technology: Roland Tanglao, Kris Krug, Mo Simpson, Scott Nelson, Lorraine Murphy, Amy Kazymerchyk, Irwin Oostindie.