|
|||
I N S I D E
TMF Successes
apply for
| ||||||||
 Gary Gibson |
Gary Gibson has been named as the new director of the City of Seattle's Office of Electronic Communications in the Department of Information Technology. In this capacity, Gary will manage the Citywide Web teams, the Seattle Channel (cable channel 21 & seattlechannel.org), and the City's Community Technology Program.
Previously, Gary was general manager of the Seattle Channel for the past five years. Under Gary's leadership, the Seattle Channel was named the best municipal television station in the United States in 2007, and has consistently won Northwest Emmy Awards and other acclaim for its programming. SeattleChannel's ArtZone series, launched in February, 2007, is a unique and innovative ten-year programming project that is receiving national acclaim. Webpage views at the Seattle Channel website quadrupled during 2007, compared to the same period in 2006.
npower gets
new director
 Alison McCaffree |
Alison McCaffree can run, jump and swim. She's the new Executive Director of NPower Seattle. Most recently, she served as president of MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing Alumni Council. Her experience includes running two successful businesses and stints at Ford and Qualcomm. Alison holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering. She has frequently jumped into the ocean as a scuba instructor. Since she and her husband moved to Seattle last year, she's also jumped in to help Passages Northwest and Global Visionaries with her management, fundraising and strategic planning skills. You can learn more about Alison and NPower Seattle's work aiding non-profits in their effective use of technology at the NPower Seattle site and at their upcoming Innovation Awards Luncheon on February 7. See more in the Calendar.
calendar
Technology Matching Fund Information Workshops Learn more about the grant program and how to apply.
Delridge Community Center
4501 Delridge Way SW
Wednesday, February 6
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Northgate Community Center
10510 5th Avenue NE 98125
Saturday, February 9
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Tech Tour Open House
Attend this open house showcasing the impact of the STAR Center's community technology activities serving people with disabilities.
STAR Center
2121 26th Avenue S, Seattle
Wednesday, January 30
11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
NPower Seattle
Innovation Awards Luncheon
Recognizes nonprofits whose novel approach to using technology has led to a breakthrough on traditional methods and made a measurable difference in the lives of the people they serve.
Grand Hyatt Seattle
Thursday, February 7
11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Low-cost NPower Seattle non-profit technology trainings available here.
Neighborhood Matching Fund Large Projects Fund
Technical Assistance Workshops: Learn more about the grant program and how to apply.
Lake City Library
12501 28th Avevue NE
Wednesday, January 9
6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Beacon Hill Library
2821 Beacon Avenue S
Thursday, January 17
6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
STAR Disabilities Technology Computer Lab Open House
2121 26th Avenue S (MLK and Walker)
January 30
11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
More info: 325-4284 or email STAR.
|
q&a |
free internet
Free cable broadband Internet service is available for organizations providing technology training to community members. The free service is offered the within the Seattle city limits, based on the City's cable franchise agreements with Comcast and Broadstripe (Millennium). For more information and to download a short form to make application, go to our tech web. If you have questions, email Derrick Hall or call (206) 233-5061.
sub/unsub
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.
|
Greg Nickels, Mayor Department of Information Technology BILL SCHRIER chief technology officer GARY GIBSON director, office of electronic communications DAVID KEYES manager, community technology program staff  D.H. CASS MAGNUSKI editor |
Reel Grrls students collaborate on their TMF-funded video projects. |
This issue of Brainstorm announces the 2008 application cycle for the Bill Wright Technology Matching Fund grant program. The results of past grants show what these projects can accomplish. Thirteen Technology Matching Fund (TMF) projects were completed by our community partners in 2007. These projects served more than 620 individuals at 37 sites throughout Seattle. The projects contributed more than $217,000 in matching funds, an amount double the City's original investment. These digital inclusion projects helped more than 100 seniors, 200 youth, 330 adults, 36 immigrants and refugees, 53 disabled residents and 400 low income individuals gain the technology skills necessary to participate in our 21st century economy. The grantees were excited. Here are some of their comments.
"The TMF award has allowed Youngstown to challenge the technology access barriers that exist within Delridge and Southwest Seattle. We have doubled the number of free and after-school technology classes available."
"We have noted an increase in the usage of the center. Senior residents are working on books, connecting with family and friends and exploring entrepreneurial opportunities."
"We increased the ability of eight children with disabilities to communicate and to perform better in school. All eight campers increased their communication ability."
"The youth started off knowing how to get on the Internet and by the end, they were actually able to build their own web sites. This gave the students an opportunity not to only strengthen their math/science and technology skills, but show up as leaders of their learning."
"We helped dozens of people to build businesses that contributed to their incomes and to build their computer knowledge that transferred to their day jobs and life skills. We will use the knowledge and curriculum we have created for a long time to come, and many of our client entrepreneurs will benefit from it."
new cttab members appointed
On December 12, 2007, the City Council appointed four new members, and reappointed another to the Citizens’ Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB). The 2008 appointees are Nancy Gohring, Andrea Lee, John Neuharth, Oren Sreebny, and Ann Suter.
Nancy Gohring has been writing about telecommunications and technology for more than 10 years for the Seattle Times, New York Times, Wi-Fi Network News, and currently, the IDG News Service. She has done volunteer work with SCANTV and the Hugo House.
Andrea Lee was an outstanding CTTAB Get Engaged member prior to taking an internship in Washington, D.C. with the Government Accountability Office. She is currently a policy analyst at the state Budget and Policy Center and was previously employed at the Plymouth Housing Group. Ms. Lee also volunteers with Real Change News.
John Neuharth has worked at Microsoft for the past 12 years and his community involvement includes the Microsoft political action committee and the Benevolent Guild, which is a non-profit that raises funds for children’s charities in King County.
Ann Suter, public access representative, has extensive experience with community and government media. She is currently executive director of the Puget Sound Radio Broadcaster’s Association, and was recently acting director of Puget Sound Access. Prior to that, she was founding board member and executive director of Seattle Community Access Network. Suter served on the Mayor/Council Broadband Task Force and numerous other boards, including the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Public Council for the WUTC, and the Pratt Fine Arts Center.
Oren Sreebny was reappointed to a second term as education representative. He is director of Emerging Technology at the University of Washington and has more than 20 years experience in the public and private sector working on technology issues. During his first CTTAB term, he worked to coordinate common technology issues between UW and the City and was an active member of several committees.
CTTAB is composed of 16 members serving two-year terms each; eight are appointed by the Mayor and seven by City Council. Thirteen members are at-large, with one representative each from education and public access, and one member from Get Engaged. If you have any questions regarding appointments or CTTAB in general, please call Jill Novik at 684-8583.
volunteers bolster election savvy
for seniors in online programs
This fall, Municipal League volunteers visited local community centers to help seniors hone their research skills using the Internet. The program was part of a civic engagement project funded by the Technology Matching Fund. The volunteers taught basic Internet use and highlighted "Best of the Web" sites for researching local candidates and issues. The seniors gained hands-on instruction in the computer lab while working with the volunteers.
"We were excited to share the wealth of knowledge and experience our volunteers have in this area," said Saul Ettlin, Municipal League director. "There is so much information on the Internet. We want to help those who might not have the computer skills or might not otherwise know about the various resources available to voters on the web."
Some of the topics covered include how to verify voter registration and create a personalized voter guide; how to find groups that rate, endorse or make recommendations on candidates and issues; how to find where a campaign gets its money; and how to navigate websites, conduct general web searches and find newspaper editorials online.
The Internet trainings had a positive impact on those who participated. The volunteers visited 16 local senior and community centers and trained 39 individuals. One of the sites was Kawabe Memorial House, an affordable housing community located just east of the International District, serving a predominantly Asian population. "The class inspired many residents to learn more," said Connie Devaney, Kawabe’s Administrator. "They wanted to go through the ballot in more depth and spent the afternoon discussing issues. They were really psyched," she said. Kawabe Memorial House offers naturalization classes and 40 of their seniors have recently become citizens. "This was the piece that was missing," said Connie. "The residents will want us to go through the ballot when the federal elections come around. We truly are making informed voters."
For more information on the Municipal League, contact Saul Ettlin. To view the workshop’s presentation materials online, go here.
Yesler Learning Center (YLC), located at the Yesler Community Center in the Yesler Terrace neighborhood, was awarded a $240,000, 2006 Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Neighborhood Networks Grant, in partnership with the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA). This new opportunity builds on the success of the YLC, which opened in 2000 as a partnership between SHA, Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Seattle Technology Alliance. After being awarded a similar grant in 2002, more partnerships were developed, enabling the YLC to increase its services to include seniors and immigrants. This grant period began in October 2007 and will continue through September 2010.
YLC anticipates that these funds will assist in providing employment-related training to 60 public housing residents, provide various life-skills and interest-based workshops for 85 residents, expand the current ESL and Basic Computer classes for immigrants, English-proficient adults and seniors, provide younger youth and teens with technology-based programming such as multi-media classes, and help to increase staff capacity and build sustainability for the lab.
Statistics on the use of the City of Seattle Seattle Wi-Fi pilot project are now online. This information covers use in the University District, Columbia City and the downtown parks and City Hall free Wi-Fi accesss areas. This will be updated monthly. The number of users in 2007 went up dramatically, almost doubling to 31,122 users, as defined by distinct MAC device addresses. The University District and Columbia City more than doubled. The U-District represented 62 percent of use, Columbia City 19 percent and the Parks and City Hall areas, 18 percent. Computer running slow? Strange things popping up when you start your normal programs or when you try to shut down? These can be symptoms of a malware infection, spyware, or something even worse called a root kit. So what is a root kit? No matter what operating system you use, your computer is controlled by a basic program called the "kernel" or "root." You could think of this as the control center for the operating system. There are often hidden system files that control things such as the communications between your computer and your mouse and keyboard, or the signals that are sent to your monitor, etc. These are referred to as "root" files. A root kit is designed to re-engineer those files so they continue to do their job, have the same name and reside in the same location, but now they also perform other tasks. Root kits are not actually malware, but are often designed to hide the presence of malware. For instance, they might contain a basic emailing program so the person who now "owns" your computer can use it to send out mass spam. Or it might contain a key-logger that is designed to fire up whenever it recognizes that you have navigated to a financial web site and send all of your keystrokes--and maybe screen shots--back to the criminal's server. It could also just be set up to connect you to a group of controlled computers called a "bot army" that can be used for any of the above and many more types of Internet crime. If you suspect that you might be a victim of a root kit, or your computer is just performing poorly we recommend the following: You can find information on good antivirus, antispyware and software firewall programs on the Information Security page. Some good root kit detectors include: "RootKitRevealer" and "IceSword." There are some who feel that if you have a root kit, you are better off just re-building your computer, because they can be extremely difficult to clean out. To that end, it is good practice to create an exact copy or "image" backup of your computer when it is in pristine condition and keep that around. If you do get infected with a root kit, then you can start from scratch. We'll talk about ways to make that "image" in another "Tip O' the Week." Technology Matching Fund Paccar Foundation Neighborhood Matching Fund Large Project Fund Next time you want to edit pictures, try snipshot.com, a quick way to edit pictures online. For a list of the Top 10 universities offering free online courses, go here.
43Things.com is an online goal-setting site that allows you to set your goals, gain inspiration and meet others seeking to accomplish the same things. Back issues of Brainstorm including techtips and linkage are now available in our online archives. Previous TechTips and Linkage are also available. Click to revisit all previous issues.
year-end wifi stats now online
s.e.c.u.r.i.t.y
be aware of root kits
d.o.l.l.a.r.s
Deadline: March 10
Funds projects that reach technology underserved communities, thereby increasing "digital inclusion." The goals are to:
10 to increase technology literacy, 2) to provide residents with access to computers, the Internet and other information technology, and 3) to increase residents' use of technology for community problem solving, civic engagement and community building. Funds up to $20,000 from a total fund of $175,000.
Deadline: Ongoing
Funds capital campaigns involving acquisition or improvement of facilities used for social and health services, education and cultural affairs. Proposals for program funds, support of operation budgets and fund-raising events are seldom funded.
Deadline: February 4: Letter of Intent to Apply
Funds neighborhood and community organizations for a wide variety of neighborhood-based projects from $15,000 to $100,000.l.i.n.k.a.g.e
archives