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Town Hall Tweets
Seattle Speaks
PSO Wins Again
Staff Changes
Technology Disparties
Calendar
Riskiest Domains
Document Networks
Dollars
Linkage
What's Hot
Communities Online
New Name for One NW

Glenn Fleishman wrote about our Technology Access and Adoption reportin his Technerd blog on Publicola.

Learn how your computer learning center can participate in the Census Partnership Program through Digital Promise and the Census Bureau. Contact Sandra Mears to RSVP and for more information.
When: Friday, December 11 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Where: Office of Housing and Urban Development, 909 First Avenue, Seattle

The Seattle City Council has passed a resolution supporting continuing Race and Social Justice. Digital inclusion efforts seek many of the same goals for the public.

Councilmember Bruce Harrell will stay on as chair of the Energy and Tech Committee, and adds civil rights to the portfolio. Read more here.

We’re proud to announce release of a valuable new book, Digital Inclusion: Measuring the Impact of Information and Community Technology, edited by Michael Crandall and Karen Fisher. The book builds on community technology work done in Washington State. The book presents an explanation of digital inclusion, examples of the impact successful community technology providers have had, and a model for educating policy makers about the actual impacts of such efforts, along with suggestions for practical implementation. The case studies and analyses presented here will be of critical interest to community technology centers, libraries, government service agencies, and any other organization or funder that uses technology to deliver services to the information poor. It’s available from the publisher or elsewhere online. Mike is a member of the governing board of the Communities Connect Network (CCN).

Amy Hirotaka

Amy Hirotaka, an intern with Community Technology and a graduate student at the UW Evans School of Public Affairs, is excited to continue working on the Communities Online project. Right now, she is creating curriculum for workshops to help City staff and community groups use online social networking tools. She is also looking at ways the City can guide Seattle residents to relevant online neighborhood information, like neighborhood blogs and wikis. Amy looks forward to working with the City’s Department of Neighborhoods to hold workshops at community centers. People who attend these workshops will learn how to create and participate in online communities by using tools like blogs, wikis, Facebook, and Twitter. Additionally, Amy hopes to get feedback from attendees about the content of the workshops. She wants to find out what needs people might have for more advanced training, and how to continue supporting attendees’ use of online social networking tools.

One Northwest, a long-standing premier community organization that helps environmental groups get online and use tech effectively for organizing, has changed its name. The new Groundwire reflects their current life as "a full-service online communications consulting shop delivering websites, databases, email and social media tools, and the strategy needed to weave these systems together for social change." Check 'em out.

Free cable broadband Internet service is available for organizations providing technology training to community members. The free service is offered 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.

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 December 8, 7:00 p.m. Email your questions in advance to askthemayor@seattle.gov.

Twitter and tagging technology used at Mayor-elect's town hall meetings

Seattle’s incoming Mayor Mike McGinn held a series of town hall meetings this month, to get input on trust, priorities and inclusion for the new administration. For those who know how to follow tweeting, testimony blurbs were sent out real-time on Twitter. The transition staff also shared tag clouds showing visually the primary key words from ideas submitted to their questions for the public. Mayor McGinn’s new City web site has been launched here. You can make your own tag clouds at Wordle and Tagcrowd. Here’s a tag cloud for our Community Tech Program.

A multi-media town hall for the 21st century was produced by the Seattle Channel in partnership with City Club and Town Hall Seattle. City leaders are trying to reduce youth violence, but is it working? C.R. Douglas recently moderated a live, interactive discussion with City leaders, police, former gang members and of course, teens. During the show, online viewers took surveys, asked questions and made comments. Seventy young people at three community centers participated via the Internet. The studio audience had polling devices. Watch the video.

City Club awardees with host Eric Liu

City Club's 2009 Community Matters Campaign (CMC) has selected PugetSoundoff (PSO) as a recipient of their 2009 People's Choice Awards! PSO was selected as one of six diverse and dynamic recipients for their success in "increasing youth involvement and engagement within the community while encouraging expression of one's beliefs, respect for others, and commitment to public service."

Puget SoundOff staff and program partners were very excited to receive this award because it was selected by the people as part of a larger campaign to increase civic engagement and encourage teen participation in traditionally adult environments. Awards were presented at the Community Matters Campaign Finale Celebration on Monday, November 16, at City Hall with Councilmember Sally Clark and former Mayor, now Seattle Foundation director, Norman B. Rice. Read more about the awards and Community Matters Campaign here.

Watch the video of the event and hear from host Eric Liu and Norman B. Rice about their great work to further educational and economic opportunities for everyone in our community.

Oscar Escalante has taken over the management of the STAR and Westwood Heights Technology centers. Oscar comes to STAR and WHTC from the disability Resource Center, where he played an instrumental role in reviving their assistive technology program. He is replacing Jacque Cook who was with the STAR and WHTC for more than eight years and will be missed. Oscar can be contacted here.

The City's RecTech computer learning labs in our Parks and Recreation Community Centers have also seen some staff changes and movement over the past six months, leading to some very exciting programming and instruction. Here’s a list of the coordinators for each center:

• Delridge Community Center: Leslie Howle
• Garfield Community Center: Brooke Kempner
• Garfield Teen Life Center: Bana Abera
• Rainier Beach Community Center: Carl Dwyer
• South Park Community Center: Lovely Domingo
• Yesler Community Center: Asfaha Lemlem

For more information on their programs and hours of operations, contact Carl Dwyer, RecTech Lab Coordinator.

Neighborhood House welcomes Arielle Rosenberg as the new lab coordinator at Rainier Vista Computer Lab. For program information, contact Arielle. Long time Rainier Vista Computer Lab Coordinator, Tsegaye Gebru, has been selected as the executive director at Horn of Africa Services (HOAS), where he first started as computer learning center manager. HOAS is an organization providing social and outreach services for the East African communities in greater Seattle.

If you know of staffing changes happening at computer centers, send them to us and we’ll put it in Brainstorm.

Seattle’s immigrant residents with limited English skills are less connected to the Internet and email, as revealed in focus groups with some of Seattle’s larger communities of color and immigrant/refugee communities. Forty-four percent of the immigrant focus group participants assessed their computer skills as "none or not very skilled" and another 30 percent selected "know what I need to know." See more in our Technology Access and Adoption Report.

Municipal League is accepting nominations for the Centennial Civic Award. Awards celebrate individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to the community over many years. View award categories here.
Deadline: January 8

The Small and Simple Projects Fund provides awards up to $20,000 to support community members in building community relationships around a project.
Deadline: January 11, 2010

The Department of Neighborhoods is hosting workshops to inform and educate community groups on developing Neighborhood Matching Fund large projects fund proposals.
When: Thursday, January 7, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Lake City Library, 12501 28th Ave NE

When: Tuesday, January 12, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Phinney Neighborhood Association, 6532 Phinney Ave N

When: Thursday, January 21, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Where: Youngstown Cultural Arts Center – 4408 Delridge Way SW

mcafee reveals riskiest web domains

This report underscores how quickly cybercriminals change tactics to lure the most victims and avoid being caught. Cameroon, a small African country that borders Nigeria, jumped to the number one spot this year with 36.7 percent of the .cm domain posing a security risk, but did not even make the list last year. Because the domain (.cm) is a common typo for (.com), many cybercriminals set up fake typo-squatting sites that lead to malicious downloads, spyware, adware and other potentially unwanted programs.

Following aggressive measures from .hk’s domain managers to clamp down on scam-related registrations last year, Hong Kong fell 33 spots from the most risky domain in 2008 to the 34th most risky domain in 2009. Now only 1.1 percent of (.hk) sites pose a risk, whereas last year nearly one in five (.hk) Web sites were risky. The most heavily trafficked web domain in the world, commercial (.com), jumped from the ninth to second most dangerous domain, while government (.gov) is the safest non-country domain. Among country domains, the People’s Republic of China (.cn) and Samoa (.ws) remained in the top five most dangerous places in the last two years.

For more information on safe websites, please see the full article. Visit our site for up-to-date security tips.

document your network

Most nonprofit computer labs I come across don’t have adequate technical support for their networks. To meet their support needs, they often rely upon volunteers. While this is often their best option, there many technical things you must be able to access if you’re relying on volunteers or part time help.

Documentation is a very important extra step to take, but often skipped in order to save time. Consider the time and energy it takes when that particular volunteer leaves and you have no record of what was done. Here is a list of some basic information to keep on file:

• Administrative usernames and passwords for workstations and servers
• Who is your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the passwords to routers
• Basic work flow of how your network is designed
• Warranty information on equipment

To fully document your computing environment, I would suggest checking out The Beginners Guide to Healthy and secure computing.

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

M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
Deadline: No deadline for submission of the letter of inquiry.
Accepts letters of inquiry for organizations looking for grants in the education, arts and culture, and health and human services areas. Approximately half of the grants awarded are for capital projects and the other half are for program initiation, expansion or for increased organizational capacity.

Medina Foundation
Deadline: No deadline for submission of the letter of inquiry.
Medina Foundation has approximately $4 million in funding available for non-profit organizations in the greater Puget Sound counties of Washington. Funds priorities include: emergency and critical human services, employment and self-sufficiency programs, educational opportunities for pre-school to 12th grade, services to those with disabilities and programs working with substance abuse and domestic violence.

Office Depot Foundation
Deadline: online applications considered monthly.
Through their 5x5 program, Office Depot Foundation is making grants of up to $10,000 available for programs making a difference in children’s lives, building community, and providing disaster relief. Most programs are funded at the $1,000 level, and are supported by in-kind donations when inventory allows.

Tips for scannable resumés: How to write a resumé in case it gets evaluated by automated scanning for key words by the employer. Yes, it is being used!

The Northwest Area Foundation's new report out about poverty in Washington. Look for the Washington Data and Tools link here.

Non-profit Social Network Report: How are NPO’s using social networking?

Review of Wave, Google’s upcoming real-time collaborative document app.

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