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City Awards Funds
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Scareware on Twitter
Bing vs. Google
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Video Voters Guide
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Linkage

A collaboration with the City of Seattle and King County, the Video Voter’s Guide gives viewers an in-depth personal look at candidates and ballot issues. The Guide features candidates for the King County 2009 Primary election including: County Executive, County Council and Port of Seattle. The Guide is broadcast nearly daily throughout August, so visit the Seattle Channel for broadcast times.

Due to budget cuts (and the Labor Day holiday), libraries will close August 31 and reopen on September 8. All services offered by the library, including computer access, access to the online catalog and library web site, will be unavailable. For a list of free computer access sites, operating hours and contact information, go here. For more information on the library closure, go here.

A free, collaborative networking & resource sharing website for youth workers and youth development professionals in King County. Post a youth development event, job or discussion by 9/1/09 for a chance to win a $25 Amazon.com gift card. Visit the King County Youth Development Network today!

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.

q&a

Don't miss Ask the Mayor on the Seattle Channel. It's a Q&A show featuring host C.R. Douglas and callers in local issues discussion with Mayor Greg Nickels. Next taping is August 11, 7:00 p.m. Email your questions in advance to askthemayor@seattle.gov.

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.

City council members Richard Conlin and Bruce Harrell joined with the diverse representatives and participants from organizations that are receiving grants this year

Mayor Greg Nickels announced July 21 that 19 organizations will receive $250,000 in Technology Matching Funds from the Department of Information Technology. The money will support projects throughout the City to help close the digital divide.

"Technology Matching Fund projects will provide crucial support to our most vulnerable neighbors at a time that it’s needed the most," said Mayor Greg Nickels. "These projects will bring technology training and access to more than 3,500 low income youth, immigrants and refugees, seniors and people with disabilities. More than half of the funds ($126,000) will help sustain jobs at these Seattle organizations and enable them to provide quality training for residents," he said.

The Citizen’s Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB) recommended these digital inclusion projects to the Mayor. Grant recipients will match the City’s dollars with more than $414,000 in community contributions, including volunteer labor, professional services and donated equipment and software.

"The success of today’s youth in the classroom and in the workforce is strongly connected to technology. All of our youth must be able to speak the universal language of technology and we must help seniors and displaced workers remain competitive. Through efforts such as this, we can provide that opportunity and further the city’s commitment to education and digital inclusion," said Councilmember Bruce Harrell.

2009 Technology Matching Fund recipients are: Campana Quetzal, Center Park Resident Council, Denny Terrace Apartments, East African Arts and Culture Association, East African Community Services, Greenwood Senior Center – Phinney Neighborhood Association, Interconnection, Literacy Source, Neighborhood House, North Seattle Family Center – Children’s Home Society of Washington, Reel Grrls, Refugee Women’s Alliance, Seattle Indian Center, Senior Center of West Seattle, Southeast Senior Center, Wallingford Community Senior Center, WAPI Community Services, YMCA of Greater Seattle – Meredith Mathews East Madison Branch, and Youth Media Institute. To read more about the 2009 recipients, go here.

Since the program began, the City has contributed more than $1,850,832 to 153 projects with community contributions totaling more than $3,963,000. The fund furthers the City’s commitment to education, inclusion, and race and social justice. For more information on the Bill Wright Technology Matching Fund, go here.

Did you know that Seattle is home to more than 250 neighborhood and community blogs, wikis, email lists and websites? Amy Hirotaka, our summer Mayor's Fellow from the University of Washington Evans School, has been inventorying these to see how we can help neighborhoods. Ranging from the widely-read news blogs like the West Seattle Blog, My Ballard, and the Central District News to community groups like the Squire Park Community Council in the Central District and the Othello Neighborhood Association, these web sites are great places to find information about your own little corner of Seattle. Hyperlocal news is more popular than ever, along with reviews and information about neighborhood restaurants, nightlife, parks, and entertainment. Also easily-accessible is information about neighborhood organizations like district councils, community and neighborhood associations, and local interest groups. Explore your neighborhood, find out about community events, and connect with your neighbors, all online. Amy's results will be available in an upcoming Brainstorm.

rogue anti-spyware/scareware on twitter

In addition to Trojans and Worms, Twitter seems to also be a good platform for distributing rogue security solutions (aka scareware). The latest example of this is a program called "MalwareRemovalBot." The link in the tweets leads to the "vendor" site, and nearly every link there leads to the download. The downloaded filename varies: "setup.exe", "setupxv.exe" or "setup-trial.exe."

Once the program is installed and a scan has been run, the program may report fake spyware infections to scare the user and get him to register. The registration web site leads to the shopping site where a "special offer" is waiting for the potential customer. A license for a single PC costs as much as the three PC license: $39.95 plus two 'extra' technologies for $9.95. The total payment of $59.85 can be made by PayPal or credit-card. Pretty expensive for fake protection. Use your common sense, and don't be a twit when you tweet.

bing vs. google

Microsoft released their search engine, Bing, in May of 2009, giving Google's search engine greater competition. Microsoft claims that Bing gives higher quality results and has better functionality. I find this to be true. Bing searches:

• Narrow down the search to show sites that has the word searched in the URL.
• When searching keywords, there are not a lot of market links on the page. This is helpful if you're trying to find unbiased information.
• Shows more profile-based information, if you're searching a name.
• Bing has subcategories that help fit the searched topic.

When you’re searching for a company, both give you the nearest location information if available' however Google also gives you reviews of that location.

Most of the items that Microsoft has come out with have been very resource intensive. However, this product appears to be very lightweight. I believe that Bing will out-do Google one day in the search world. Bing keeps searches others have made that relate to the same content you are searching, making it very useful when doing research.

To compare both search engines side by side go here.

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

City of Seattle Neighborhoods Small and Simple Fund including Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative Projects
Deadline: Monday, August 31, 5:00 p.m.
Funds a broad array of neighborhood-initiated improvement, organizing or planning projects. Small and Simple project proposals under Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative will also be due at this time.

Seattle Foundation
provides grants to hundreds of non-profits every year that are working to build a healthy community. They do this through their grantmaking program, their Healthy Community Funds or their leadership grant. They also administer other grantmaking programs that support their funding philosophy. Visit their web site for application guidelines, and for links to the Anne V. Farrell Leadership Grant, Medical Funds, and Neighbor to Neighbor Fund.
Deadline: Funding is reviewed and awarded quarterly.

Idealware, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, provides candid Consumer-Reports-style reviews and articles about software of interest to nonprofits. For articles on Comparing Online vs. Traditional Office Software, Consumer guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems and other articles of interest, go here.

Customize a public profile of yourself on the Internet.