{"id":296,"date":"2016-08-19T07:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/?p=296"},"modified":"2016-08-19T14:49:12","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T18:49:12","slug":"hives-first-month-in-austin-what-weve-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/hives-first-month-in-austin-what-weve-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Hive\u2019s First Month in Austin: What We&#8217;ve Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On July 11, Mozilla hit the ground in Austin to spin up our newest Hive Learning Network right here in the heart of Texas. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/advancing-the-promise-of-gigabit-internet-for-learning-in-austin\/\">read our last post<\/a> to learn why we chose Austin from two dozen candidate cities. Our first month here has already demonstrated that we made a great investment. Austin is a city of rapidly growing tech-driven prosperity, but also a city where digital access and inclusion are urgent concerns.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where we believe the <a href=\"http:\/\/mozilla.org\/gigabit\">Gigabit Community Fund<\/a> can make a difference; by supporting entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds and by bringing the educational opportunities of the future into the classrooms of today. Learn more about the Fund <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mozilla.org\/en-US\/gigabit\/apply\/\">here<\/a>; submit a letter of intent by September 15 to get support in preparing a proposal, due October 18.<\/p>\n<h2>Listening To Austin<\/h2>\n<p>We began our work in July with a visit to Pecan Springs Elementary School, an informational breakfast for Austin supporters, a community hangout, and a stakeholder design charrette \u2013\u00a0all in our first three days! During the design charrette we engaged an intentional diversity of stakeholders to understand the Austin community context. You can find slide decks, one-pagers, and documentation of the event <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=0B-EZWDUirQ46VjFCMjJVaXdQSVE\">on our public GDrive<\/a>. Thanks to the Google Fiber Austin team for hosting us!<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Great strategy session for Mozilla&#39;s Gigabit Hive <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HiveATX\">@HiveATX<\/a>, more to come serving all Austinites! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RccyoNhiYD\">https:\/\/t.co\/RccyoNhiYD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; ATXDigital Inclusion (@COADigInclusion) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/COADigInclusion\/status\/753354329357025280\">July 13, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>Since then, we\u2019ve had conversations with dozens of local educators, regional leaders, and direct service professionals; we\u2019ve joined panel discussions at Urban Co-Lab and with the Electronic Frontier Foundation; we\u2019ve been hanging out at the Open Austin meetups every week; and we\u2019re looking forward to the upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/community-meeting-tickets-27078824493\" target=\"_blank\">Learn All the Time Community Meeting<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edsurge.com\/e\/summits\/austin-tech-for-schools-summit-2016\/overview\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Tech for Schools Summit<\/a> co-hosted by our friends at EdTech Action.<\/p>\n<h2>Learning From Austin<\/h2>\n<p>There\u2019s still so much to learn about our new home, but we think we\u2019ve already picked up a couple of important lessons that can inform our work going ahead. Here\u2019s four to start with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Austin is the center of an evolving regional ecosystem.<\/b> The whole city core has been experiencing rapid gentrifying and the target population for broadening inclusion has been migrating beyond the city limits into surrounding communities including Del Valle, Manor, Round Rock and elsewhere. That\u2019s why we\u2019re defining Hive ATX\u2019s service area to be inclusive of Texas Education Agency&#8217;s (TEA) Education Service Centers (ESC) <a href=\"http:\/\/www4.esc13.net\/about\">Region 13<\/a>, which covers Austin Independent School District (AISD) and 59 other school districts between San Antonio and Waco.<\/li>\n<li><b>Austin is doing some serious work on the digital inclusion front.<\/b> Austin is now <a href=\"http:\/\/austinfound.blog.statesman.com\/2015\/04\/02\/austin-growing-you-may-have-heard-this-one-before\/\">America\u2019s fastest growing city<\/a>, fueled by the economic opportunity of a regional tech boom. However, that opportunity is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mystatesman.com\/news\/business\/report-austin-most-economically-segregated-major-m\/nkHLj\/\">not equitably accessible to<\/a> all of Austin\u2019s residents. That\u2019s why Austin\u2019s Office of Digital Inclusion is doing essential work to and needs critical support to help bring everyone along.<\/li>\n<li><b>Austin is already working to strengthen its educational ecosystem.<\/b> Nationally recognized and vibrant groups like EdTech Austin have been building bridges between the tech sector and school districts for years, new players like Code\/Interactive have arrived to work alongside folks at CS4TX, and collective action initiatives like Learn All the Time are aligning service agencies across Region 13.<\/li>\n<li><b>Austin wants to talk about Digital Literacy.<\/b> If anything, our connections over the last month have resulted in many creative, nuanced, and passionate conversations on the importance of digital literacy, what it means, and who\u2019s in greatest need. We can see that people still have more to say and we\u2019d love to keep the conversation going.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Working With Austin<\/h2>\n<p>Hive Austin has the opportunity to add fuel where communities of practice on digital literacy may already exist, like with Learn All the Time. Where they don\u2019t, we have the opportunity to build, but our greatest potential lies in convening a cross-sector community of practice focused on defining digital literacy and inclusion for their communities.<\/p>\n<p>With the The Gigabit Community Fund, we can invest in leaders who are already laying down pathways and building bridges between diverse learners and the tech sector, like e4 Youth.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Truly AWSM contributions 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CapMetroATX\">@CapMetroATX<\/a> campaign frm <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/e4youth\">@e4youth<\/a> students profile riders on ATX bus &amp; train <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/hivebuzz?src=hash\">#hivebuzz<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jBvieWT1sh\">pic.twitter.com\/jBvieWT1sh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hive Austin (@HiveATX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HiveATX\/status\/758460550061891584\">July 28, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>We can invest in educators and educational organizations that create diverse and inclusive learning environments for learners of all backgrounds and ages, like the Thinkery.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThinkeryATX\">@ThinkeryATX<\/a> puts inclusion first, literally as soon as u walk in w\/ diverse faces of STEAM. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LATTNetwork\">@LATTNetwork<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/hivebuzz?src=hash\">#hivebuzz<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/K1u9zh7ySh\">pic.twitter.com\/K1u9zh7ySh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hive Austin (@HiveATX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HiveATX\/status\/761670302162038784\">August 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>We can invest in entrepreneurs and technologists \u2013\u00a0like the folks at Urban Co-Lab\u2019s diversity in tech launch party \u2013\u00a0that hope to build tools and resources that help learners leapfrog the current digital divide by anticipating the high-speed, networked innovations of the future.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Very excited 2b here 4 the release of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UrbanCoLabATX\">@UrbanCoLabATX<\/a> diversity in tech report <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Rg97wG7xPp\">https:\/\/t.co\/Rg97wG7xPp<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HiveATX\">@HiveATX<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mozilla\">@mozilla<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Robert Friedman (@omnignorant) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/omnignorant\/status\/756284843650973696\">July 22, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><\/p>\n<p>This is how we can support Austin to create the inclusive and equitable tech boom its community deserves.<\/p>\n<h2>Get Involved with Hive Austin<\/h2>\n<p>Save the date for our <a href=\"http:\/\/2016r2gigfund-info.eventbrite.com\">Information and Networking Meetup<\/a> event on September 24 at the Google Fiber Space. Sign up for <a href=\"http:\/\/mzl.la\/gigmail\">our mailing list<\/a> and follow <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/hiveatx\">@HiveATX<\/a> on Twitter to stay up to date with local opportunities to learn more. Then take a moment to <a href=\"http:\/\/panelpicker.sxsw.com\/vote\/67716\">vote for our Core Conversation<\/a> at SXSWEdu, \u201cEmpowering educators to shape the Web&#8230;empowers youth to shape society.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 11, Mozilla hit the ground in Austin to spin up our newest Hive Learning Network right here in the heart of Texas. You can read our last post to learn why we chose Austin from two dozen candidate &hellip; <a class=\"go\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/hives-first-month-in-austin-what-weve-learned\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1332,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47691,47693],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1332"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/gigabit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}