Mayor Greg Nickels recently announced that six community projects will receive grants totaling $50,000 from the City’s Technology Matching Fund (TMF) to develop technology literacy and access for underserved residents.

“These projects will help low-income seniors, youth and families, diverse communities, the visually-impaired, and economically-challenged small businesses,” said Nickels. “The funds we’re providing will add better trained people to our workforce and bring more people into electronic commerce. We’re going to use new wireless and accessible technologies to include residents previously left out of the information age.”

The City's investment in this year’s projects will be leveraged with about $185,000 in community matching resources. Grant recipients are:

Council House Foundation for High Speed Wireless Network - Grant: $10,000; Community Match: $40,230 for training and free Internet service for low-income seniors and families in Hilltop House and Kawabe Memorial House. The project is a joint effort with Cortland Communications, Seattle Wireless and Seattle Community Network.

Jack Straw Productions for Blind Access Project - Grant: $10,000; Community Match: $13,067; for digital recording and editing workstation and training for blind and visually-impaired youth and adults, who will be able to record and edit their own radio programs and audio projects without the assistance of a sighted engineer. The project partners with Arts & Visually Impaired Audiences.

Washington CASH for Computing for Empowerment - Grant: $7,500; Community Match: $18,581; for goal-oriented business technology courses, individual technical assistance, and increased computer access for low-income business owners.

Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) for Sand Point Community Technology Center - Grant: $7,500; Community Match: $75,500; for computer training and access to 100 new residents of Sand Point and the surrounding neighborhood and stable program volunteer base.

Ethiopian Community Mutual Association for Computer Literacy Program - Grant: $7,500; Community Match: $10,000; for after-school tutoring and academic enrichment for children in K-12. The project will work with parents and will also support an Amharic language class by means of computer aided education.

Boys & Girls Club of King County for The Techmobile "Media on the Move" - Grant: $ 7,500; Community Match: $15,1862. Four hundred youths (ages 8 to 18) will receive increased media literacy and develop their own video/media productions, including community related media service announcements and short documentaries. Grant funds will buy new equipment and software and provide development support.

The Citizens Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board, which advises the City on technology policy and issues, helped set selection criteria and provided input on grant recipient recommendations.

The Technology Matching Fund reinvests revenue collected through cable franchising to foster a more technology-healthy community.

Seattle’s technology studies show that although many residents have access to computers and the Internet, some groups such as seniors, limited-English speakers, and those in low- to moderate-income households are being left behind. For more information, go to the TMF pages on our tech web.

Need free Internet access, email, web hosting or community resources?

One of the last of the community freenets, Seattle Community Network (SCN) is still going strong. For many years, there were community networks all over the world. Many have disbanded, reorganized or been swallowed up. That's quite an accomplishment. SCN survived the onslaught of dot.coms and the FreeI/NoPay offerings of “free” email, web site hosting and more. An outgrowth of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), SCN is about 10 years old. They went live in 1994, and incorporated as a nonprofit in 1995.

SCN has offered free dial-up access, email and web hosting for nonprofits since the mid-90s. They've hosted more than 250 nonprofits and even now are considered one of the first places to go for grass-roots information in our area.

Their servers are housed within the Seattle Public Library (SPL) and there is a link to SCN on the library computers as well as several other King County libraries. In spirit and in practice, the library and SCN agree that information should be made available to those who seek it.

SCN Executive Director Steve Guest told us, "SCN is still here, willing to help give people that lift over that digital divide into the information technology age with an understanding and good heart. We still offer more than the Hotmail and Yahoo - and we are still very much Seattle's Community Network."

The City of Seattle Technology Matching Fund grants and the Americorps*VISTA Program have also supported some SCN special projects, including computer training classes and the computer giveaway program.

According to Board President Ti Locke, "By and large, we are an all-volunteer organization, supported by the donations of our users. Without the support of these volunteers and the donations of those that support us, SCN would not exist. It is nice to be able to thank them for their work while we still can."