Davis H. Park

Personal Biography:

Davis Park is the program director of the DISKovery Center, a community computer learning center which is a project of the Little Tokyo Service Center CDC in Downtown Los Angeles. The DISKovery Center provides computer skills training which includes a variety of programming for older adults, and offers classes taught by both English and Japanese speaking instructors.

With a Masters of Arts in urban planning and community economic development, Davis is a technology educator and activist. Over the last several years, he has been involved in computer-based learning and access programs for residents of low-income housing communities, and has recently been working to help build the capacities among other Los Angeles CTCs.

Before directing the DISKovery Center, Davis worked for the Lowell Telecommunications Corporation and the New England Community Technology Consulting Group in Massachusetts. Davis managed a basic/intermediate skills program for a multi-generation, multi-cultural housing community under a HUD Safe Neighborhoods initiative, and provided computer-based training for afterschool programs, classes for seniors, and individuals on transitional assistance.

As a native resident of Los Angeles, Davis scorned East Coast winters and its hell's kitchen summers. He decided to return to milder weather conditions and get involved in helping to organize the
region's community technology centers. Upon returning, Davis began working at the DISKovery Center, and has also been helping to develop technology-based organizing capacities in the Los Angeles area. He is a co-founder of the Community Technology Organizing Consortium, and has helped form the Asian Pacific Islander Community Technology Collaborative, a group of nonprofit
technology access providers serving low-income Asian and Pacific Islander populations.

Goals:

To find ways for community technology practitioners and advocates to mobilize and increase the visibility of our programs. Such a goal, I believe, is necessary for expanding resources and funding for community technology projects. I am particularly interesting in finding out how, as a group or coalition, we can impact favorable policy decisions on a regional and statewide basis.

To network with other community technology professionals to share best practices. We cannot work in isolation, and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. I feel that we should be open and willing to share with each other what works and what doesn't, and I would like to help foster this sort of communication. A number of community technology center toolkits are available (CIOF, CTCNet), but making the personal connection while discovering solutions and resources are far more valuable than simply reading documents.

To bring back with me ideas and newfound energy to organize other community technology leaders in my community. I hope that my participation in the Zerodivide program will allow me to step back from my comfort zone, and gain a fresh perspective on building the capacity of community technology programs in my community and region.