Detroit – Resiliency and Advocacy in Tech

One would not think of, Detroit, Michigan as an “exemplar” in anything, let alone an exemplar in tech. This is a city that has suffered a catastrophic economic collapse, went through a bankruptcy, and currently has a hemorrhaging population and an extremely high poverty rate.

So, why did I choose Detroit, out of all the advanced cities I researched, as my favourite exemplar, or as an exemplar at all? For a simple reason. That is, when you understand adversity, you understand resiliency, and when you understand inequality, you understand advocacy. Detroit is exemplary in the way the city’s residents and organizations here have built resiliency and fostered advocacy through technology.

Through organizations like the Detroit Technology Community Project and initiatives i.e. Equitable Internet Access and the Data Justice program, going in and building networks in communities, facilitating discussions, sometimes literally installing internet, are prime models our city should look towards when it comes to addressing digital inequalities.

Despite the many chronic shocks that Detroit has already endured, the city has developed a very resilient and robust technological network of advocacy, a citizen-led network unlike any of the other more technologically advanced cities one might think of as exemplars.

– MT