Teaching Community Technology Handbook

Communication is a fundamental human right — and now more than ever, we depend on digital technologies to sustain relationships and stay connected to the world. Technology and the Internet have the ability to transform our communities, shape our future, assist economic development, and help people utilize individual and collective power. 

Yet, digital and wireless technology is not available to everyone, especially those of us who live in neighborhoods that have been abandoned by government and capital alike. 

How do we create technology that is accessible and responsive to community needs? How can technologically redlined communities create their own tech?

This handbook, drawn from years of popular education approaches to learning from and teaching residents in Detroit, Michigan, to build and run their own Internet service providers, is in equal parts an educator’s guide to teaching technology, and a community organizing manual in the service of digital justice.