features

	18/9/2003
	Excerpt from noise magazine

If you�re living in one of our country�s major metropolitan cities, getting access to a computer to check your email is pretty damn easy. Even small country towns usually have a library or an internet outlet of some sort. But what do you do when your home is situated in the middle of the desert and you want to learn how to use Flash? Or if you�re home is a remote property in the outback, and you want to connect to the net to chat to friends? Enter the dEadly mOb.
Situated out of the Gap Youth Centre in Alice Springs, dEadly mOb is an organisation that works with young Aboriginal youth across the Northern Territory to provide creative and professional opportunities in information and communications technology. With a mentor program for Year 9 and 10 students, a newly established internet cafe in Alice and a website (www.deadlymob.org), dEadly mOb is a not for profit initiative that aims at developing an online indigenous community for both educational and entertainment purposes. This year they�ve expanded to include remote rural communities in their web outlook - starting an outreach program called the �Youth Out Bush� tour. And that�s where noise comes in. Just how do you get online skills when there�s no computer course to attend?  And where can you create � and show � digital artworks?  When the dEadly mOb called, noise jumped on board.
�If you�re a kid in Papunya and you want to study or go to school, you have to travel 280 kilometres from home - and a lot of them don�t want to leave their traditional country,� says Jay Gibson, dEadly mOb�s Out Bush tour manager. �So the internet has a lot to offer as far as education is concerned.

Targeting Aboriginal youth between 12 and 25 and encouraging them to �skill-up� in order to help with community development, Jay�s project is not technologically driven. Rather it aims to inform communities about the type of new media and communications infrastructure available, so that they can consider what may be of value to their communities. �We want to work to the communities objectives,� Jay emphasises, �and it needs to be long term.�

By Adrienne Adams

Want more information of the dEadly mOb?
Then head to their website, www.deadlymob.org for details on their caf�, their mentors and their day-to day operation, as well as the latest news on the Youth Out Bush tour. And make sure you check out www.noise.net.au for some images created by brand new young indigenous new media artists!
For the feature length story check out noise magazine, in bookstores and newagents in October 2003.