ACORN

As our project pivoted away from video shooting and editing, we had to make due by learning new technologies that we could develop at a distance. We collectively learned how to use JS Storymap, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Animator, and HTML coding strategies. These proved difficult at times, as they were completely new to us, but by working together and utilizing our project guides, we were able to learn these technologies and put them to their best use.

Learning HTML coding was a substantial barrier to us, as the open source tool we used was riddled with bugs and difficult to input the code into at times. Though this was a substantial barrier, we were able to persevere through this to create a deliverable that our partner organization was happy with.

The COVID-19 pandemic rendered our original project plan of filming ACORN organizing and promotional videos impossible. As a team we were devastated that our previous 3 month's work of project preparation were unusable and only had three months to create a whole new project that attended to the main needs of ACORN.

With the help of our project guide, Molly, we learned of an open-source story mapping tool, Storymap JS, that sparked our new project idea of visualizing ACORN International's chapter network. Using the storymap, we were able to better meet the needs of ACORN and produced unintended impacts, such as inspiring ACORN's chief organizer to hire a communications director. Though COVID spread throughout the world, ACORN and our team used this time to work even harder instead of shutting down.

ACORN's community organizing strategies that have helped them gain a multitude of victories for their chapters was inspiring to us. We learned that solidarity and community action such as mass protest and occupation, spreading awareness by canvassing and door knocking, and striking have all been very effective for members of the organization. Through our centralization of ACORN's information, we learned how important it is for community organizations to have accessible online resources that they can all share and utilize.

Further, this project exemplified the digital divide between the Global North and South that has been perpetuated by imperialism and the monopolizing of resources. In this project, we aimed to provide an equalizer for all of the organization's worldwide chapters. Though we recognize that this project did not necessarily alleviate that barrier, we are thankful to have worked with an organization that is working on global communication and access to resources.