Open Youth Networks, an innovative program with a national reputation for providing high quality participatory media and digital education for under-resourced youth, is joining the department of Interactive Arts and Media at Columbia College. Open Youth Networks, designed to help bridge the digital participation gap, educates girls and urban youth to use emerging technologies, games and social media to make a better world for themselves and their communities.

Through IAM at Columbia College, Open Youth Networks will be able to:

• Match students in web-development and digital service learning projects with youth and community groups;
• Offer Saturday workshops for teachers/high school youth in pre-programming skills, new technologies and social media;
• Conduct summits, symposia or conferences on topics such as girls in technology and serious games;
• Partner with CPS schools to consult on curriculum alignment and college preparation for computer programming; and,
• Serve as an incubator for innovations in games, apps and social utility tools used for non-profit, community and social justice use.

Annette Barbier, Chair of the Department of Interactive Arts and Media is thrilled to have Open Youth Networks join Columbia College.

“This partnership will provide real and meaningful opportunities for our students and faculty to connect with urban youth, communities and non-profit groups interested in using new user-driven technologies, games and participatory media for social good.”

The Interactive Arts and Media Department prepares students to create interactive art, media, and games that are innovative and compelling.  Students emerge with strong foundations in aesthetics, theory, technology, cultural understanding, critical thinking, and creative problem solving. The combination of media theory and technology, enlivened by practice, prepares students for diverse and successful careers in interactive arts, multimedia, web design, interaction and interface design, and game design.

OYN Founder, Mindy Faber will continue to oversee the program. 2010 project initiatives include: The 3G Summit: The Future of Girls, Gaming and Gender to take place in August 2010 and The Green Games Institute, to be conducted in collaboration with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and the Chicago Metropolitan Agency in Planning’s Future Leaders in Planning group.

Marisol Becerra and Mindy Faber of Open Youth Networks presented OurMap of Environmental Justice along with a video about the impact of industrial pollution on residents of Little Village at the Columbia College School of Journalism’s Conference on Environmental Reporting on April 25th. Marisol explained how news outlets often position the environmental movement as one driven by young educated whites. Stories about personal responsibility to limit one’s carbon footprint trump investigative analyses about the irresponsibility of capitalist industry in creating the crisis in climate change and generating massive health effects on those working in and around those industries.

Photo by Mark Hallett

Moreover, the story about the environmental justice movement in the US — one led primarily by low income communities of color battling environmental racism, a policy of “selective victimization” — is often omitted or distorted by major news outlets. Little Village is a low income Mexican-American community that has been designated as an “ecological sacrifice zone” by both the industry and the state. Yet, the overwhelming majority of Chicago residents are completely unaware of the health and environmental crisis in the neighborhood.  Faber and Becerra explained that this is why it is important that residents and youth living in those communities have access to the tools of communication and technology that allow them to become citizen journalists reporting on their own experiences.

Youth members Marisol Becerra and Zane Scheuerlein worked with Mindy Faber to produce The Cloud Factory: Putting Justice on the Map. They also trained youth members of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization how to collaboratively author a multimedia Google MyMap documenting the toxics and assets of the neighborhood through stories, videos and photos. The map also reveals how many schools are located within a one and two mile radius of the Crawford Coal Power Plant. The asthma rate in Little Village is twice as high as the national average and 40 people in the community die each year from asthma attacks while thousands more must visit emergency rooms and clinics.

Open Youth Networks along with youth partners at LVEJO and their youth membership, Young Activists Organizing as Today’s Leaders are working to expand the map and add content and data about other neighborhoods in Chicago, particularly around the South Side. Visit their blog El Cilantro to learn more. Dozens of allies - other environmental justice organizations in the US -  are also included on the current map, denoted by the icon of a Lorax. If you would like to join the map as a collaborator, send an email to Mindy Faber (mfaber@colum.edu).

View OurMap of Environmental Justice in a larger map

OYN Director, Mindy Faber and Youth Leader, Xavi Macias, Jr. participated on three panels at “Remix/ Mashup 2009: The Future of Creative Production and Ownership” held March 12-13th in Columbus, Ohio. Presented by the Moritz College of Law and the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University, the symposium explored the implications of mashup and remix in the world of Web 2.0.

Recent technological developments have created a wave of user-generated content in which pre-existing sounds and images are appropriated, reshaped, and shared with unprecedented ease. This series of panel discussions and interviews with artists, filmmakers, technology experts, and legal scholars  considered intellectual property questions that emerge when attempting to navigate and shape this thorny landscape.

DJ Spooky, Wexner Center Present Danger Mouse Mashup of Jay Z’s Grey Album with The Beatles

Along with Xavi Macias and Mindy Faber of OYN, speakers included (abbreviated): mash-up artist Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky), social media expert JD Lasica, video remix artist Jonathan McIntosh, singer-songwriter Terra Naomi, documentary filmmaker Gordon Quinn, and Ben Relles, creator of “Obama Girl.”

Legal experts included: Professor Pamela Samuelson (Boalt Hall), Professor Rebecca Tushnet (Georgetown Law Center), Professor Peter Shane (Moritz College of Law), Professor Ed Lee (Moritz College of Law), Gillian Lusins (NBC Universal), Dan Cooper (Fox Interactive), and Darrell Miller (Mason Miller LLP).

Mindy and Xavi also led a three hour hands on inter-generational workshop for high school students and teachers in Remix tools at the Wexner Center. Participants learned tools such as Download Helper, Vixy, Tube Tv, Audio Hijack, Mpeg Streamclip, Kaltura, United Streaming and Remix America. Using an exquisite corpse production process, the teens and teachers created this remix.

In 2003, Marisol Becerra volunteered with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) to map and inventory the toxins found within 150 blocks of her predominantly Mexican-American community, Little Village in Chicago. Marisol was enraged to discover that in Little Village more than 60,000 youth in a two-mile radius of the Fisk and Crawford Coal Power Plants are forced to breathe air that violates EPA standards. She was inspired to act, she said, “in order to shut down these coal power plants, build more parks, and clean up the toxics. We must organize more people to stand up and fight.” Her first step was launching the youth branch of LVEJO — Youth Activists Organizing as Today’s Leaders, YAOTL. Based on the data Marisol collected, YAOTL collaborated with Chicago-based Open Youth Networks to devise OurMap of Environmental Justice, an interactive online map that includes 12 youth-created videos, descriptions of toxic sites, and gang territory delineations. With this map, Marisol educated her community about local environmental injustice and motivated them to become involved in campaigns. The map uses poignant facts and videos to educate about the different pollutants and contaminants in Little Village that cause 41 premature deaths and 550 emergency room visits annually. In 2008, Marisol was awarded a Brower Youth Award for her commitment and work.

Open Youth Networks is offering two training workshops in Google MyMaps this February.

The first one takes place at the Illinois Computing Educators Confrence in St. Charles on Feb 26th 10-12:30. See Below
View Larger Map

The second takes place in collaboration with Columbia Links on Saturday February 28th. Teachers and youth are invited as well as youth media educators.

Teachers will receive continuing education credits and a $50 stipend.
Lunch will be provided.

Teachers can bring two students with them to the workshop.


10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Feb. 28

Columbia College Department of Journalism,
33 E. Congress Parkway, Room 214

To RSVP please e-mail columbialinks@colum.edu or call 312-369-8993

Our own youth member, Martin Macias, Jr. just published an article called Political Remix Video - The New Activism inspired by his participation in our Fair Use Remix Institute. Read the article here.

Here is an excerpt from his piece:

Remix has always been part of history. Poets, artists, and writers have “recycled” bits and pieces from past history to create new culture.  Remix, when used creatively, can be a very powerful weapon. It can challenge corporate media and break the stereotypical molds that advertisements create for youth. But most importantly, remix is one way to take part, fully, in this democracy. This country can’t function as it was meant to if there are no voices that can speak out against injustices.

Xavi - as we like to call him - also just interviewed William Ayers on video. Look for this video on our blog soon.

On Tuesday, November 11th, Open Youth Networks member and grad of the 2007 YouthLAB Program - Zane Scheuerlein was awarded a Goldman Sachs Youth Prize for Excellence in International Education.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation and Asia Society partnered to create the Youth Prizes for Excellence in International Education, which are awarded to U.S. high school students, ages 14-18, who demonstrate an in-depth understanding of key issues in international affairs. On November 11, 2008, five U.S. high school students were awarded $10,000 college scholarships for proposing solutions to some of the world’s toughest challenges. The ceremony was held at the Waldorf Astoria in NY during the 2008 Annual Gala of the Asia Society. The 2008 competition asked students to create an in-depth written essay or multimedia feature examining a social or economic issue that has relevance to them in a global context.

Over 700 American teens from every state, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, addressed a wide range of political and humanitarian issues, including entries on the environment, peace and conflict, poverty, education, immigration, and many more.

In his video “Border Crossings” about environmental injustice in Chicago and a small border town in Mexico, Zane documented the effects of waste sites and industrial facilities on air pollution, employment, and public health in neighboring communities. Zane is interested in alternative media production, international relations and sociology.

Click here to see Zane’s video, Border Crossings.

Click here to see more photos of the event.

Click here to read a brief article in the Evanston Review.

Click here to read article/see video at Northwestern News Network

Our very own Marisol Becerra was recently awarded one of the prestigious Brower Youth Awards by the Earth Island Institute for her community organizing work with Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and the creation of “Our Map of Environmental Justice” through the support of Open Youth Networks.

A huge article appeared in the November 3, 2008 front page section of the Chicago Tribune which you can access here. Also, read Mindy Faber’s response to the article here which unfortunately neglected to mention Open Youth Networks or LVEJO.

The Brower Youth Award website is chocked full of great information too, not only about Marisol but about the other winners as well. Check it out here.

But first watch this video…

As part of its 50 million dollar Digital Media and Learning initiative, The MacArthur Foundation recently concluded its call for submissions to its Young Innovator Awards ($15,000 and $30,000), prizes which go to smaller participatory learning projects that would benefit from mentor expertise in industry or nonprofit institutions. These awards include internships and are for 18-25 year old applicants taking projects from “garage” to “market.” In the end, up to $1.8 million will be awarded to Innovation in Participatory Learning Award winners, and up to eight Young Innovator Award winners will be selected.

At Open Youth Networks, we are proud to be part of a growing community or activist, scholars, educators, media-makers, artists, researchers and youth committed to expanding the democratic and educational potential of the new public networks.

Two foundations here in Chicago that have taken bold steps to formally recognize the important role that youth are playing in the new digital learning environment are the McCormick Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.

The McCormick Foundation funded our ground-breaking model programs in 2007 - YOUTHLAB and 2008, Fair Use Remix Institute (FURI). They are the leading philanthropist for youth media and journalism in Chicago.

The MacArthur Foundation funded the DIY Video Summit that we participated in as curators and speakers last February. Watch this video that captures a little bit of what this community is all about and don’t miss the section with Open Youth Networks and clips from our curated program YouTube-sized from the 24/7 DIY Video Summit held in Los Angeles.

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