About+Us

=Mission=

The Department of Play (DoP) is a working group of researchers, students, and community practitioners at the MIT Center for Future Civic Media who share a common value: the design of new technology and methodologies to support youth as active participants in their local communities. By developing new open source technologies, community-based curricula, and networking opportunities, we support youth-led active exploration, participatory learning, and civic engagement among children and adolescents in their urban neighborhoods. =Vision= While higher broadband speeds and affordability recommended by the [|FCC’s recent national broadband plan] should increase access to internet tools in under-served communities, we still need to consider the increased digital literacy and local facilitation necessary to use fully tap the power of these tools. While access is important, much more is needed to make sure technology can be used to empower young people. In the world of Web 2.0, power is not just those who can read blogs, watch YouTube videos, or reference Wikipedia – it’s in the opportunity and motivation to produce, recommend, and create communities around digital content.

Although some existing technologies can be used to foster youth participation and create locally relevant contexts for civic engagement, most tools are too complex at first or lack the functionality appropriate for youth-led endeavors. At the Department of Play, we not only advocate for a child’s right to “leisure, play and culture” (see article 31 of [|UNICEF’s Convention on the Rights of the Child]) in [|child-friendly cities], but we also want to tap into the unique energy that comes from play. We aim to mobilize this grassroots ingenuity and innovation towards the development of healthy, creative and engaged citizens that actively contribute to the development of democratic societies.

=Who we are:=

**On-going projects of the founding DoP team:**

 * //film, digital storytelling, mapping, in conflicted space//s - Voices Beyond Walls, West Bank & Gaza [Nitin Sawhney]
 * //mobile voice messaging for youth organizing// - Young Activists Network, What's Up Lawrence & [|VOIP Drupal] [Leo Burd]
 * //participatory mapping projects involving communities in cartographic dispute// - GrassrootsMapping.org / Public Laboratory for Open Technology & Science, Lima (Peru), Belize [Jeff Warren]
 * //social/participatory media strategy & skills for community practitioners & action researchers// - CoLab Radio [Alexa Mills]
 * //youth-led learning and empowerment through digital photography,// //digital storytelling and social networking// - MassIMPACT / Peace in Focus / [|Intel Computer Clubhouse Network], Boston [Danielle Martin]

Our international group of community-based project partners includes:

 * Bradesco Foundation (Brazil)
 * CEDRO (Peru)
 * Les Enfants, Le Jeu et l’Education (West Bank)
 * MassIMPACT, Boston
 * MIT Community Innovator’s Lab
 * Voices Beyond Walls

Boston area organizations who participated in the Community Working Group (Spring '10, Boston):

 * Boston Center for Youth and Families
 * Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston
 * Cambridge Community TV
 * __[|Cambridge Public School District]__
 * [|Design Studio for Social Intervention]
 * MIT Community Innovators Lab
 * Museum of African American History
 * My Town
 * Peace in Focus
 * Press Pass TV
 * South End Tech Center at Tent City
 * The Gathering for Justice
 * Urban Lab