Teens from the Southwest Community Center Late Night Program have developed a critical eye for television. The teens participated in a program with Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN) and the UW Teen Futures Media Network to explore steroetypes in the media. The students first learned how to critically analzye media content by viewing messages about sex, relationships, and gender roles.

“Many of the students discovered things that had been bothering them about the world,” said SCAN Youth Program Leader Jillian Rood. Youths expressed their frustration with the emphasis on beauty and sex foisted upon young women. Young men become aware of how masculinity excludes major portions of the natural emotional spectrum. Youths of color started to analyze how they are stereotyped as untrustworthy and dangerous. “The deeper they looked, said Rood, “the more they saw.”

The students were then given the technology training and tools to create their own media messages. Interestingly, the teens often used tactics similar to the ones advertisers use to create their own counter-ads. One cohort created a video featuring four boys touting qualities that they look for in a girl, entitled "There's more to a girl than the way she looks." Another group dramatized prejudice in action. Their video follows a white woman walking through a parking lot to her car. When she sees a young black man running towards her, she begins to panic. She’s terrified as the young man approaches. He then reaches into his coat and pulls out a familiar object. “You dropped your purse," he says. The woman, shocked and embarrassed, thanks him. The last frame shows the entire group saying, "I'm not what you see on TV. I'm me."

Participation in the project helped the teens learn that they have a voice, and that what they have to say is important. One student got involved in an effort to end stereotypes of African Americans as gangsters and to express positive feelings toward women.

“This project let me be myself and not what everyone else wants me to be,” he said. “I am very proud of the work of these creative young people,” said Rood “They make people think about the biases presented in the media, and how they affect us all.”

As part of the Black History Month celebration, the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA) Seattle Chapter hosted a PC Building Contest on February 24 at the Safeco community building. Teams of youth were given instruction and then challenged to see who could build and test a computer the fastest. They were also asked to write what they had gained from their computer experience there and what area, if any, of computing they are planning to go into. Here are a few of their responses:

“I’ve learned that it is very hard and you need to listen and find any problem. I learned that its fun to work in a group. I don’t really see myself in a computing area because its not that exciting to me. I want to be a doctor.” - Carissa

“What I have gained is how to put a computer together. I also learned the names of the different parts of the computer. Before I would hear these names; however now I know what they are.” – Jasmine

“I would like to make my own website to teach young or older people about computers.” - Davonte

Cash awards were given out for the advanced and beginner teams. Winners are now writing an essay on “Bridging The Gap between Heritage and Information Technology” providing history on minority achievements in information technology. They’ll receive more awards when they complete and present their essays.

The latest community story on the Seattle Channel celebrates Uncle Jimmy. Born and raised in Seattle, James Mar has spent many of his 91 years working out of his family’s store in the International District. The Yick Fung Co., established in 1910, is a restaurant supply store that also acted as an unofficial social service agency to new Chinese immigrants. 90 years later, James carries on the tradition of helping his community. As the only funeral director for the Chinese community, James, or “Uncle Jimmy,” can be counted on to help the folks in need. Reflecting on his life and the International District, James Mar is living history and a neighborhood institution. See it online or on cable. For streaming video or the cable schedule go to seattlechannel.org and search for Community Stories.

The Refugees Social Development Resource Center (RSDRC) recently began receiving free high speed Internet service from Comcast through the City of Seattle’s cable franchise agreement. The Center uses their broadband Internet connection to provide computer skills and English language training, and to connect community members with other important services. RSDRC is located in southeast Seattle at 6740 MLK Jr. Way South. RSDRC’S Mission is to “improve the well-being and quality of life of refugees and their families, and to preserve diverse cultural heritage.” They are focused on the Somali community in King County, building capacity at individual, family, and community levels. Since opening their doors in 2000, RSDRC has provided culturally specific advocacy, case management and assessment, refugee resettlement services, health care access, crime prevention, support for parent involvement in children’s education and a seniors program. For more information, contact them at rsdrc@comcast.net or (206) 721-1119 or see their web site at rsdrc.com. For more info and to apply for the City's free Internet program for organizations, see the City's cable site.

Identity Theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States. Last year for the first time ever, organized crime made more money from cyber crime than they did from the illegal drug trade. It is a huge problem and anyone who has been through it will tell you that it takes an inordinate amount of time and trouble to correct. While most financial institutions cover the actual dollar cost, there is no one who covers the cost of the time and energy you will have to expend repairing your credit history and your reputation.

As long as there is a need to have identity, there will be identity theft. There is no way to prevent it completely. However, there are ways to make yourself less vulnerable: 1) Shred any documents that have personally identifiable information on them; 2) Get a free copy of your credit report - you can do this three times a year by using the three different agencies that have to provide you a free annual report; 3) Never give out your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information over the internet in response to email, or even over the phone in most cases unless you initiated the call and can be sure of the person's identity on the other end.

For many more tips and more information, take a look at the following websites:

FBI’s website with prevention tips
FTC site with Cybercrime information
Citibank site with tool kit
Annual Credit report site

Bill Wright Technology Matching Fund
Deadline: March 20
Funds projects that reach technology underserved communities to address the following goals: 1) Increase technology literacy, 2) provide residents with access to computers, the Internet and other information technology and 3) Increase residents' use of technology for civic engagement and democratic participation.

US Bank Education Grants
Deadline: May 31
Provides funds for innovative programs that help low-income and at-risk students succeed in school and prepare for post-secondary education, for financial literacy training, and for effective mentoring programs.

Verizon Foundation Grants
Deadline: Ongoing
Provides grants for basic literacy due to its enormous impact on education, health, economic development and the digital divide.

Boeing Charitable Giving
Deadline: Ongoing, January 1 - October 31
Funds in five priority areas: education, health and human services, culture and the arts, and civic and environmental issues.

Boeing Employee Fund
Deadline: Ongoing
Provides funds for capital purchases, including computers, and offers seed money to support new programs that promote innovation in the delivery of services.

Black History Month may be over, but the acknowledgement of the life struggles and accomplishments of African American people is not bound by a month. The City of Seattle Black History Month page provides information and links to a range of valuable education and community resources.

TakingItGlobal.org is a youth focused international portal “that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities." It’s offerings include tools for creating and managing projects, opportunities to contribute to an online magazine, artists' galleries or blogs.

Practice Typing. The Lee’s Summit School District has a page of online keyboarding practice sites. You’ll find other resources there too!

Who was born in Seattle? Yes, there is a Wikipedia list of famous Seattleites live, dead, musical and fictional.

RSS Stands for Rich Site Summary. Once called RDF Site Summary, it has become the latest way of communicating and subscribing to news headlines or special topics on the web. RSS readers are usually free. Web pages with RSS or information feeds will typically have a "Subscribe" link and usually use one of these symbols:

Netscape invented the RSS format, featuring it on the my.netscape.com page in 1999. The first non-Netscape website to use the RSS format was scripting.com, a popular technology news site. In May of 1999, Scripting News president Dave Winer released a new version of the scripting News XML format, which added new content-rich elements. Netscape followed suit by adopting most of the new elements into RSS 0.91, which was released in July of 1999.

Why use RSS Feeds?
RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows us to stay informed by retrieving summaries, rather than entire articles. We save time by not needing to visit each site individually, and ensure privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter.

This is a good method for keeping your web visitors up to date with what’s going on with your website or programs. The visitor reads only the highlights, and click on the stories if details are desired. To learn more, see Tech Soup’s article by Marnie Webb of TechCommons here, Andy Carvin’s article on Digital Divide Network here, or see Wikipedia.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to Brainstorm, please email us, and we'll add you to our email notification list, or subtract you per your request. If you have ideas for future stories, please let us know and we'll try to accommodate them. We encourage you to visit the City of Seattle's Community Tech pages, seattle.gov/tech.