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American Podium features Tim Wise
Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S. He is the author of Between Barack and a Hard Place: Race and Whiteness in the Age of Obama, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, and other books. See and hear it here.

60’s Activist Rudd Q&A
American Podium series presents 1960's activist icon Mark Rudd. See and hear it here.

Matt Flannery, CEO and co-Founder of Kiva.org, a peer-to-peer microcredit site, talks about microcredit as a means of poverty eradication, how technology can help facilitate development, and how Kiva's peer-to-peer microcredit site enables individuals to make small loans to micro-entrepreneurs around the world. Presented by Seattle Microfinance.org. See it here.

Washington Law Help provides free legal information and self-help materials with information about non-criminal legal problems affecting low-income people in Washington state.

Neighborhood Matching Fund Technical Workshops
When: Saturday, July 25, 10:00-11:45 a.m.
Where:Youngstown Cultural Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW

When: Monday, August 3, 6:00-7:45 p.m.
Where:Ballard Branch – Seattle Public Library, 5614 22nd Ave. N.W.

Nonprofit Grantwriting Clinic
When: First Monday of each month, 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Where: Nonprofit Assistance Center, 1618 S. Lane, Suite 201, Seattle
By appointment only. Call (206) 324-5850 ext. 10.

Nonprofit Legal Clinic
When: Third Monday of each month, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Seattle University, Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic, 1122 E. Columbia St., Seattle
By appointment only. Call (206) 324-5850 ext. 10.

Grant Foundation Center Professional Grant Proposal Writing Workshop and Program Planning Certificate: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Emergency Stimulus Workshop
When: July 13-14
Where: Portland, Oregon
Contact: (800) 343-9073 or online at GrantFoundationCenter.org.

City of Seattle Neighborhoods Small and Simple Fund
Deadline: Monday, August 31, 5:00 p.m.
Funds a broad array of neighborhood-initiated improvement, organizing or planning projects.

Ruddie Memorial Youth Foundation
Deadline: July 31

Tom’s of Maine in 50 States for Good
Deadline: August 30
Tom's of Maine is accepting grant applications from nonprofits for community enriching projects. The charitable campaign, dubbed "50 States for Good," will result in five organizations receiving $20,000 each.

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.

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.

Street Youth Ministries Technology teachers: Jill Woelfer, Tyler Bauer, Jason Seagraves, David Hendry

Homeless youth served by Street Youth Ministries in the University District can now participate in technology literacy and life skills classes offered through a partnership with the University of Washington iSchool.

Basic computer skills are necessary to build a resume, find a job Web site or complete online employment applications. Everyday life skills are just as crucial for homeless youth, so the curriculum combines low-barrier technology skills with ways to work on issues that might prevent youth from setting and achieving their next goals.

It was Jill Woelfer, a 2008 alumna of the iSchool's Master of Science in Information Management program, who first began to explore the needs of homeless youth with iSchool Associate Professor David Hendry in mid-2007 for a student design competition.

Woelfer and Hendry discovered U-District agencies serving the homeless had hundreds of brochures and flyers with considerable duplication. For her capstone research project, Woelfer tackled the task of developing an information architecture to categorize information for the homeless and develop prototypes for design.

"The goal was how to employ information more effectively so homeless youth, in particular, could make more effective decisions. It was also about understanding how information supported the values of service agencies in the U-District," Hendry recalls.

As a result of Woelfer's project, Street Youth Ministries (SYM), which serves youth ages 13 to 22, developed an interest in the iSchool's research expertise, interdisciplinary approach and emphasis on using information to meet broad humanistic goals. Street Youth Ministries applied for and received a $35,000 Community Technology Opportunity Program (CTOP) grant to equip its drop-in center with computers.

Tyler Bauer, program manager at SYM, notes his agency is inundated with requests to become involved in a variety of UW student projects. This one, however, stood out.

Sessions are continuing and, as of July 2, 26 homeless youth have completed them. For more information visit Street Youth Ministries and the UW iSchool.

Seattle Jobs Initiative recently published a new report, Charting a Path: An Exploration of the Statewide Career Pathway Efforts in Arkansas, Kentucky, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. This report examines the role the state can play in instituting the career pathways framework, which can be a key strategy for linking low-income, low-skilled adults to education and training that leads to family-supporting jobs. Science and technology was identified as a key target sector for Washington state, as well as accounting; aircraft mechanics and technicians; auto diesel mechanics; early childhood education; healthcare practitioners; installation, maintenance, repair; and transportation and construction trades. View the full report here.

Communities Connect Network (CCN) recently hosted a Washington State broadband stimulus and community technology work session at Microsoft. Video of the presentation and work groups reports are available on Ustream. Highlights of the video include an overview of the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) by Greg Rohde, President of e-Copernicus and Former Administrator of the NTIA. State legislator Zack Hudgins and State Senator Jim Kastama also spoke. You can view photos of the event on Flickr.
View the NTIA's Notice of Financial Availability (NOFA) on their new BroadbandUSA website here.

What are you doing to save money during this economic recession? If you are like most Americans, you are not willing to give up your broadband connection. According to a recent study by Pew, broadband is indispensable to Americans. Read more about this in a recent article in Govtech. Read the full Pew report on Home Broadband Adpotion 2009 here.

Garfield program youth at new Teen Life Center

Garfield Community Center is home to one of the Associated Recreation Council’s eight RecTech sites. The Community Center is adjacent to the new Teen Life Center, where most of the youth programming takes place.

In the summer months Garfield RecTech will be offering two basic skills classes, Introduction to Computers and Internet Basics. These free classes are intended to give participants the terminology and skills they will need to begin using some of the resources in the lab. On the morning of July 11, adults can learn about the world of social networking, focusing on sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Not only will the program address specific Web sites and the way to use them, but an emphasis will also be placed on protecting users’ privacy and information.

Youth have several options this summer, including a gaming-centered summer camp offered in partnership with the University of Washington and Microsoft. Youth will learn the programming skills necessary to create a video game which they will showcase among their peers. That program is open to middle school youth entering fifth through eighth grades.

The Garfield Campus also will be the home of a summer internship program for high school youth. Ten youth will have the opportunity to learn digital photography skills and create a final art show that will raise awareness about violence and youth. The program will take place at the Garfield Teen Life Center and is being offered in partnership with Youth in Focus, a youth development program centered on photography.

As always, youth and adults will have the opportunity to access the computer lab during open lab hours. Open lab times are offered six days a week. Please contact Liz Miller for more information.

new scare tactic email threatens legal action for fake accusations

Enterprise Security Today reports that they have reports of a new email virus campaign designed to scare email users with bogus legal action for activities including illegal music downloads.

The virus campaign calls attention to users' supposed recent activity at sites commonly used to share and download copyrighted movies, music and software. The email content threatens recipients with legal action and includes a link to a "log report" that is actually a virus executable.

This is a new twist on the scare tactics we've seen more of lately. Be aware and inform your vulnerable friends and family.

keeping networking equipment cool

With some days where the temperature reaches around 90 plus degrees, it got me to thinking. How should a small organization keep technology equipment cool? Visiting many sites, I notice that most organizations don’t have the appropriate cooling devices in their labs to keep routers, switches, and their Internet modems cool. Here are a few tips:

1. Get a thermometer. This is helpful to watch your network closet. Most Netgear, Linksys, D-link and other products can’t function over 104 degrees.
2. Make sure the equipment is in a well-ventilated area.
3. Do not stack your equipment.
4. Turn off the equipment if not used. Most equipment generates heat 24/7 when on, and things overheat if left on in a hot room.
5. Open the closet door if your equipment gets too hot; although this may pose a security problem.

Even though the outside temperature may be 80 or 90 degrees, your equipment may already be over 100 degrees. It is very important that you know the status of your equipment. This will extends its life. Try and have some sort of cooling, even if it’s just your standard fan. This will help you circulate the air in that closet and bring down the temperature a little. If you can afford to buy a portable air-conditioning system, make sure it does not emit condensation and that it has proper drainage, as moisture might get into your equipment and can cause damage.

Agree or disagree with me? Drop me a note: Derrick Hall.

Are mobile phones better than computers for learning? See the debate here.

Community technology center standards of excellence. This may somewhat outdated, but is still an excellent resource.

Non-profit Matrix A guide to commercial ASP and portal providers for the non-profit sector.

Cligs Cligs helps you create short urls and track traffic on your Twitter or other accounts.

Twittersnooze.com lets you set a time length to ignore tweets if you’re away or need the quiet.