Creating the Digital Bridge: Methods

A man wearing a tan sweater talking on his cell phone outside.

January 21, 2021

Since the last update on the Digital Bridge project, we’ve completed our data collection for the project, and we’ve begun analysis. Throughout the course of the project, several people have expressed interest in our use of audio diaries as part of our methods. This post provides the nitty gritty on the methods and our initial…

First months of Creating the Digital Bridge

A woman sitting in front of her computer and talking on her mobile phone. She is wearing a white button up shirt and a tan headscarf.

October 30, 2020

The pandemic has forced even more of our lives to move online. In Seattle, much like the rest of the country, lower income households are significantly less likely to have a computer or internet at home and have lower than average levels of computer-based digital skills. Physical distancing requirements and the unpredictability of the virus…

Translating technology terms into Burmese

October 14, 2015

Earlier this summer, Thomas Fuller of the New York Times published a memo from Yangon lamenting the lack of political vocabulary in the Burmese language, in which words like “democracy,” “institution,” and “privacy” lack direct translations. Even more notable than Fuller’s nuanced sociolinguistic discussion is the way he ends it: with a conclusion that leaves…

Democratized tools of production: New technologies spurring the maker movement

August 18, 2014

The discourse surrounding the Maker Movement, particularly in the political spectrum, focuses heavily on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education, manufacturing, and jobs (Kalil, Extreme Marshmellow Canons, 2012). It is the technology and tools that are ushering in “the new industrial revolution” (Anderson, 2012). Through democratizing access to these tools, “anyone can change the world” (Hatch, 2014 p.10). Makerspaces are said to give communities facing social and economic challenges the ability to create jobs, innovate, and grow small businesses, through access to the tools of production (Barjarin, 2014) (Gershenfeld, 2005).