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I N S I D ENeighborhood Surveys
"We’re one of the most wired cities in the world, but there’s still much we can do to bring the benefits of this technology revolution to all segments of our city." -Mayor Greg Nickels The City of Seattle's Technology Matching Fund (TMF) is embarking upon its seventh year and seeking applications. The deadline is March 8. A workshop will be held on February 9.
The fund supports projects that build capacity in technologically underserved communities. This year, in addition to projects that increase tech access and literacy, the City is encouraging projects that promote civic engagement and e-democracy. Electronic democracy is the use of info technologies to provide effective citizen input and participation in community problem solving and governance. Money for the Technology Matching Fund comes from a City assessment of cable company revenues. To learn more and download the 2004 Guidelines and 2004 Application, see the TMF site on the community technology web site, call (206) 684-0600, or send an email. The Technology Access Foundation (TAF) just got the word that they are recipients of a Magic Johnson Foundation grant. In March, TAF will open the TAF/Magic Johnson Foundation Hewlett Packard Inventor Center at their offices on Rainier Avenue and Edmunds Street. The computer lab, sponsored by Microsoft, will serve approximately 80 students in their TechStart Program each year. Mr. Johnson himself will take part in the opening during the first week of March. For more information, go to techaccess.org psact
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library reopens
A larger Rainier Beach Branch, 9125 Rainier Ave. S., the fifth project completed under The Seattle Public Library's 1998 voter-approved building program, will reopen its doors at noon Saturday, Jan. 17.
The expansion project added 5,994 square feet and many new amenities to the branch. The 15,000-square-foot facility features an updated collection of 66,700 books and materials, more seating, new furniture and book stacks, and upgraded technology services and equipment, including 34 public access computers with access to the library catalog, many information databases, the Internet and word processing.
For more information, go here.
A digital camera might come with an optical zoom, a digital zoom, or both. The optical zoom can magnify a subject without sacrificing clarity. A digital zoom, on the other hand, spreads the pixels to enlarge the subject, then fills in with more pixels. The result can be a loss of quality. The numbering systems, i.e., 3x, are not unlike those used in CD drives, so more is better. Back issues of Brainstorm are now available in our online archives. Click to revisit all previous issues. 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. Tell your colleagues. We welcome your feedback and opinions. 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.t.e.c.h.t.i.p
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Greg Nickels, Mayor
Department of
Information Technology
BILL SCHRIER
chief
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RONA ZEVIN
director, office of
electronic communications
DAVID KEYES
manager, community
technology program
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D.H. CASS MAGNUSKI
editor
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Citizens will use hand-held computer technology to improve Seattle neighborhoods. Photo courtesy Fund for the City of New York and the National Center for Civic Innovation.
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surveys: measuring what matters
Seattle residents will soon have the opportunity to use hand-held technology to document and track quality of life concerns. To bring this tool to Seattle, Sustainable Seattle (S2), a local non-profit that has been working on improving quality of life and sustainability since the early 1990s, has teamed with the Fund for the City of New York, an operating foundation that created Computerized Neighborhood Environment Tracking (ComNETsm) in New York City, and its sister organization, the National Center for Civic Innovation. This technology is currently being used in a variety of cities to help citizens develop performance measures around quality of life in neighborhoods. With funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, S2 will be partnering with community members in seven to 10 Seattle neighborhoods to document, monitor, and improve quality of life over the next four years.
According to Seattle Community Technology Manager David Keyes, "This is a great community technology project that's going to strengthen neighborhoods and solve problems. We're working with Sustainable Seattle to share City of Seattle data and help ensure that the information collected by residents gets used in a meaningful way. We're exploring the use of community tech centers and public Internet terminals as data access sites."
Conducting neighborhood surveys is not a new idea. S2’s Project Manager, Michelle Caulfield explains, “what is really innovative and exciting about ComNETsm is the ability to digitally record conditions by location, include photographs, and efficiently deliver findings to the appropriate city agency.” Because each condition is automatically associated with a responsible agency, ComNETsm helps citizens navigate an often bureaucratic and confusing system for getting action. Through this results-oriented technology, S2 hopes to attract citizens who have historically been less involved in their community. The group is also hoping to engage neighborhood teens in the project – the next generation of community leaders. In cities like Worcester, MA and Hartford, CT, neighborhood youth are working side by side with community leaders to learn how to bring about positive neighborhood change.
ComNETsm is easy to use. Community volunteers can be trained in just a few hours to use hand-held computers to record conditions. Digital cameras attached to the computer provide another way for information to be documented. Once field data is collected, the information is then uploaded to a website maintained by the Fund for the City of New York, where authorized users can almost instantaneously produce high quality reports of the findings. These reports can be used to help community members understand the range of neighborhood concerns and better understand which agency is responsible for a problem. Neighborhood groups can also use these reports to outline priorities and develop strategies for both citizens and government to make the necessary improvements.
ComNETsm planning has already begun in Capitol Hill, Greenwood/Phinney Ridge, and North Beacon Hill. The first round of surveys in these three neighborhoods will occur in April. For more information about Sustainable Seattle’s work to develop performance measures to track quality of life in Seattle, please email Deborah Kuznitz or visit Sustainable Seattle’s website.
free tax money for families
The Puget Sound Alliance for Community Technology (PSACT) and area community tech centers (CTCs) have launched a drive to help low-income families and individuals use the web to get tax money back through the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and to file their taxes online. For a list of participating sites and more information, go to the EITC page on our tech web. Puget Sound organizations interested in participating or that want promotional materials should contact PSACT at (206) 850-1502, or info@psact.org.
The EITC is a $32 billion program that provides tax reductions and wage supplements for low-income working families. Many who are eligible for the EITC do not know about it, and do not know how to claim it. Low-income taxpayers may be eligible for up to $4,204 when they file for the EITC. Thousands of families are eligible but never claim the money. The icanefile.org site helps clients claim the credit easily and for free. Most other tax services charge for tax preparation and filing for the EITC.
Anyone can use icanefile.org if they have access to an online computer. Staff at the PSACT participating sites have been trained to guide and empower clients to use the system. Online computers are available for use at community technology centers and the Seattle Public Libraries. Click on the "centers" link above to locate one near you. Your help is needed in getting the word out to the community.
The I-CAN! web site is easy to use. Simple questions are asked and a person appears on video to provide instruction. The questions are available in Spanish or English, and the application fills out the form in English.
E-filing speeds up refunds and also ensures that families get all the money they deserve. Filers should be alerted to loan scams. Many low-income families commonly fall victim to high priced “Refund Anticipation Loans” (RALs), offered by most commercial tax preparation offices. While these loans speed an advanced payment to a worker by a few weeks, families lose needed money in fees.
computers for families with kids
The Wilderness Technology Alliance has just announced a program that will provide refurbished Pentium II computers to every low-income household with a K-12 student in Washington State. Half of the computers will be distributed via high schools trained in the program and half via social services. WorkSource, HeadStart, and other social service agencies will determine those recipients. The program also includes a three-hour training class. Advanced students serve as classroom teachers and community technology support specialists. For more info, see wildtech.org.
volunteers needed for ctcnet
CTCNet is seeking individuals in the Seattle area to assist in the producion of the 13th Annual CTCNet Conference, to be held June 11-13, 2004 (with pre-conference activity June 10) at the DoubleTree Hotel Seattle-Airport. This is an exciting opportunity to help design the leading national event in Community Technology, to ensure that CTCNet members and others in Seattle are well-represented at the conference and to showcase your programs and communities for a national audience.
CTCNet is assembling a volunteer planning committee to be led by a committee chair. They will be hiring a Seattle-based conference coordinator and a committee chair. If you are interested in being on the committee or applying for the jobs, contact Stephen Quinn at CTCNet at squinn@ctcnet.org. Here are links to the jobs and committee description.
Volunteer Planning Committee
Volunteer Planning Committee Chair
Logistics Coordinator
video contest: enter or be a judge
The Alliance for Community (ACM) is inviting entries for the annual Hometown Video Festival. The deadline is February 15, 2004. Video producers can learn more about the competition at the ACM website, or stop by for a copy of the festival entry forms. There are 41 categories for entrants, including community events, computer/video art and animation, entertainment talk show, informational talk show, live format, making a difference, spiritual/inspirational, sports coverage and more.
Seattle Community Access Network's (SCAN) producers can submit entries through SCAN's organizational membership. SCAN is Seattle's public access programming outlet on Channel 77/29. It offers individuals or organizations the opportunity to write, produce, direct, and perform in original programs. Entry cost for each videotape is $40 for ACM organizational members or $70 for non-members.
SCAN will also be volunteering to serve as a judging site. If you are interested in being on a judging team, please send an email to anns@scantv.org.
d.o.l.l.a.r.s
Scholarships for Youth Leaders
Deadline: April 8, 2004
Each of six winners is awarded a $5,000 higher education scholarship, a $5,000 grant for continued community work, a range of pro bono services, and other support and recognition. Do Something is a national not-for-profit organization that trains, funds, and mobilizes young people to be leaders who measurably strengthen communities. Founded in 1996, the Do Something Brick Awards program is designed to honor young people under the age of eighteen for service in the areas of community building, health, or the environment.
Community College Transfer Scholarships
Deadline: February 2, 2004
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has announced that it will focus its undergraduate scholarship program on students transferring from community college to pursue four-year degrees at any accredited college or university in the United States or abroad. Awards will provide funding for tuition, room and board, required fees, and books for the period required to complete the undergraduate degree (generally two years). Each award can total up to $30,000 annually, although the amount will vary based on such factors as tuition.
A single comprehensive Web site that will contain information about finding and applying for all federal grant programs. Grants.gov is a key element of President Bush's E-Gov Initiative, which aims at harnessing Internet-based technology to make it easy for citizens and businesses to interact with the government, save taxpayer dollars and streamline citizen-to-government communications. The Web site now has information about more than 800 available grant programs involving all 26 federal grant-making agencies. The site provides information in a standardized format across the agencies and includes a "Federal Grant Opportunities" feature to help applicants find potential funding opportunities. The site also contains an "Apply for Grants" feature that greatly simplifies the application process by allowing applicants to download, complete, and submit applications for specific grant opportunities from any federal grant-making agency. Get more info or visit grants.gov.
l.i.n.k.a.g.e
Community Technology Directory
Find a community technology center (CTC) in your neighborhood. Look up contact info on the Techmap.
Free ISP Seattle Community Network (SCN) SCN is the volunteer-run, donation-funded nonprofit providing free Internet access to all. Their vision: "Powering our communities with technology."