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Since the Tribal Digital Village was launched in 2001 with a $5 million HP grant to SCTCA, the program has successfully fostered cultural, educational, community and economic development in the Southern California tribal community. HP's contributions have enabled the diverse tribal communities to connect and communicate with each other and preserve their culture through the use of technology and they have provided opportunities for economic growth with the establishment of a for-profit digital printing business, Hi Rez Digital Solutions.
The Tribal Digital Village has engaged community youth and adults to ensure the development and transfer of technical knowledge and expertise going forward. In addition, the Tribal Digital Village has conducted outreach to communicate its goals to organizations and institutions outside of the tribal community.
Tribal Digital Village achievements include:
Community Network Infrastructure
An impressive, high-speed wireless Internet and wide area network infrastructure spread over several thousand square miles and utilizing 200-plus miles of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links was designed, built and implemented by newly trained tribal community members.
Local high school students participated in Youth Academy programs where they were trained to use topographic and global positioning system software to identify and survey potential sites for the solar-powered wireless network line-of-sight radio nodes.
The community backbone links thousands of American Indians across the region and enables interaction and collaboration among members of rural tribal areas, and it provides access to educational resources outside the reservations. More than 50 buildings, including 20 computer labs, are now connected.
Community Service Access
Tribal members can now access their own Web portal and e-mail system, leverage video and webcams, and access other online cultural, medical and technological information. The team also has created a portal to enable individual tribes to host their government and educational Web sites. Multiple community calendars are helping facilitate communication throughout tribal communities.
Distance Learning
Community members, including young people and seniors, are connecting to each other's tribes, surrounding school districts, health agencies and colleges for distance learning, tutoring and mentoring programs.
Cultural Education and Preservation
Tribal members, from youth to elders, are creating audio and video materials for a variety of projects related to community members' histories, languages and cultures. The Tribal Digital Village collaborated with First Peoples Cultural Foundation to launch a Web-based, multimedia, indigenous language dictionary system (www.FirstVoices.com).
FirstVoices provides tools for language preservation efforts while giving control of content to each tribe. In addition, Tribal Resource Centers are now using distance-learning services through Internet-based video conferencing.
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Two businesses that launched in October 2003 - Hi Rez Digital Solutions and Southern California Tribal Technologies (S.C.T.T.) - are believed to be the only American Indian consortium-owned, technology-based for profit businesses in the United States.
Hi Rez provides digital printing services in the Southern California area using an HP-donated HP Indigo 3000 series digital press, as well as HP service and support. S.C.T.T. is an Internet service provider and technical-support business. One goal of the businesses is to generate income for the 18 community tribes; a portion of profits is planned for use in funding ongoing tribal community programs. The ventures also will provide technology-based jobs for Native Americans throughout the region.
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