home

INSIDE

Greenwood Tech Center
Seattle Communities Online Pew Survey
BBB Scams
Calendar
Domain Management
Dollars
Linkage
What's Hot

May is Older Americans Month and there are several events happening in the Seattle area. May 26, the Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens is hosting a Healthy Aging Fair from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Central Building, 810 3rd Avenue. Free to attend. On May 30, you can visit with City Attorney Peter Holmes, at the May 20 Senior Coffee Hour from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., also at the Central Building. For the latest in what’s going on for seniors and more information about these events, Visit Encore, the City of Seattle web site for people 50+.

Telecentre.org, the international telecentre resource center and organization, has moved from Ottawa, Canada to Manila, Philippines and metamorphosed into the Telecentre.org Foundation. Originally conceived and implemented by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Microsoft Corporation and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Telecentre.org is now an independent, not for profit organization hosted by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) in the Philippines. See more on their new telecentre magazine.

The Seattle Technology Access and Adoption report found that more seniors are connected, but still less likely to have home Internet (73 percent of seniors 65 and over) or an email address (69 percent), or have a cell or Internet-capable phone. The percentage of seniors 65 and older visiting Seattle.gov increased from 19 percent in 2000 to 24 percent in 2004, to 35 percent in 2009, although the rate of seniors using the City of Seattle web site is still lower than other age groups.

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.

Free cable broadband has recently been installed at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 44808 Delridge Way S.W.; Center West Resident Council, 533 3rd Avenue W. #107; Denise Louie Education Center, 5333 15th Avenue S.; High Point Center, 6400 Sylvan Ave S.W.; SafeFutures youth Center, 6337 35th Avenue S.E.; Denise Louie Education Center, 606 Maynard Avenue S. Bldg 101.

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 Mike McGinn. Next taping is May 13, 7:00 p.m. Email your questions in advance to askthemayor@seattle.gov.

Neighbor to Neighbor Fund
Deadline: Ongoing
Seattle Foundation grants to build stronger communities in the South Seattle, White Center and Kent areas, through the funding of resident-based projects. Grants of up to $5,000 for specific projects or operational support. Seattle Foundation also offers extensive technical support to help neighborhood leaders succeed in the implementation of these grant-funded projects.

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.

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.

This keyboard with larger labels and higher contrast was bought with Greenwood’s tech grant.

Since 2000, the Phinney Neighborhood Association PNA has maintained a Community Technology Center (CTC) for residents of Seattle’s north end neighborhoods. Located in the Greenwood Senior Center, the PNA CTC has nine teaching stations and two community access stations. They offer a variety of volunteer-taught classes and workshops, including basic computer classes designed for older adults and taught by seniors, and a course providing basic computer skills to Spanish-speaking English language learners and a Technology For Seniors: Your Cell Phone Demystified class.

Until recently, however, the CTC was not able to adequately serve seniors with low vision, limited upper extremity coordination and people who use certain wheelchairs. To remedy this, they secured funds from the Technology Matching Fund program in 2009 to improve the accessibility of the computer lab.

The CTC is now equipped with adjustable height tables and new chairs to make it a safer environment for older and/or disabled adults who have difficulty getting in and out of rolling chairs. Other improvements include a large key keyboard and Orbit trackball to enable users with impaired motor control to use the computers. Pocket talker devices are also available to amplify sound for users who have difficulty hearing.

For more information, contact Norah Erwin Stewart or visit their Facebook Page: CTC at Greenwood Senior Center.

New Seattle Communities Online Portal

Neighborhood groups now have a place where they can go to get information to actively engage their community members using online tools. The new Seattle Communities Online portal includes features like “Neighborhoods on the Net”, which is a list of blogs, wikis, websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds associated with specific communities and neighborhoods in Seattle. The project also helps Seattle’s community groups use social media tools for mobilizing their neighborhoods. Amy Hirotaka, UW Evans School of Public Affairs intern, has created curriculum and gathered several resources on how to effectively use tools such as blogs and wikis to encourage community participation.

Amy has put together a short, six question survey to quickly assess your group's needs. Please contact Amy and she would be happy to answer any questions or schedule a workshop for your neighborhood group.

"Some 40 percent of adult Internet users have gone online for raw data about government spending and activities." For more about how Americans are going online to access government, see the new Government Online report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The report also found that almost a third (31 percent) of online adults have used social tools such as blogs, social networking sites, and online video as well as email and text alerts to keep informed about government activities.

Scammers are taking the Better Business Bureau's (BBB) name in vain, in yet another version of the phishing scam, according to the agency's Pacific Northwest office.

The scammers are sending out fake complaint notices to businesses that purport to be from the BBB. The emails use the return address of seatac@bbb.org and the subject line refers to a "BBB Complaint Case" followed by a nine-digit number.

The emails claim that the company receiving the "notice" has not responded to a complaint, the real BBB says. The emails ask companies to "click and download" the complaint. If someone at the company does this, their computer is infected with a virus, according to the BBB. "We believe this virus hacked into each computer, stealing personal information like passwords, access to personal email accounts, etc.," said the vice president of marketing for the regional BBB. The BBB for Oregon, western Washington and Alaska says that these notices have been sent to both businesses that are accredited by the BBB and those that are not.

We have seen similar scams from the IRS, DHS, etc. It is very unlikely that any of these organizations would ever contact someone via email. You should never click on a link or open an attachment unless you are absolutely sure it is legitimate.

Visit here for up-to-date security alerts.

South Park Youth Photo Exhibit
When: Friday, May 7, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Where: South Park Community Center, 8319 8th Ave. S., Seattle
Photos by Concord Elementary 5th graders show with theme of media literacy, tobacco advertising, and the healthy and unhealthy products being sold to youth in South Park. Produced by Photovoice Seattle. See the Photovoice site or contact Antoinette Angula at SeaMar for more info.

Technology and its Impact on the Future of Libraries
When: Saturday, May 8, 10:00 AM
Where: Central Library, 1000 Fourth Avenue, Level 4, Room 1, Seattle
The Seattle Public Library will present a panel discussion titled, "Technology and it's Impact on the Future of Libraries." The event is free and open to the public. Parking available at the Central Library garage at the regular rates. Visit the Seattle Public Library site for more information.

NPower Seattle Training Opportunities
Classes held at the NPower Lab, 403 23rd Ave S, Seattle. More information, costs and registration guidelines available here.

Dreamweaver Foundations: Learn how to create basic web pages that incorporate text, graphics, tables, frames and hyperlinks to enhance your web site.
When: May 7, 9:00 to 4:30 p.m.

Social Media for Building Community
When: May 25, 1:00 to 4:30 p.m.
Learn how social media can support the communication of your organization and advance its goals.

Idealware Training Opportunities. For more information and to register, click on the link.
Fundraising through Social and Personal Networks: What is Social/Friend-to-Friend Fundraising? What tools are available? What are the best practices that can lead to success?
When: May 14, 1 to 2:30 EST

Getting Started with Online Conferencing and Seminar Tools
What better way to learn about online seminar (webinar) tools than via an online seminar? Tips for conducting meetings or trainings over the Web, and free and affordable options for conducting training via the web.
When: May 26, 1:00 to 2:30 EST

When you have a domain, for example, mydomain.com, there are several things you need to be aware of when managing it. On your domain you can manage multiple servers with sub names like server1.mydomain.com and server2.mydomain.com. You can host your own website like http://www.mydomain.com and have email addresses such as myname@mydomain.com. All of this requires knowledge of what you want your domain to manage. Most small organizations only use one server to manage all of their domain needs; however larger organizations, such as seattle.gov, need multiple servers. The City of Seattle has more than 300 servers managing different parts of their domain.

The first thing you need to do in managing a domain is to pick a domain name. It is normally good to pick a name that references your organization or needs, such as seattle.gov for the City of Seattle. Then you need to pick what you want your domain to manage: your email, servers, web site, etc. You can have one server manage multiple domains, services, and sub domains. Here is a link to help you pick a good registrar.

Next you need to find a hosting provider that can provide all the services you need. Make sure the provider offers some sort of guarantee of its services outside of your immediate needs; it would not be good if they offer you web services but your website will be down for two weeks out of the year.

Tech Soup offers information on hosting providers.

In my opinion, it is better to register your domain separately from your hosting provider. You might save money and you would still have greater control should you decide to fire your hosting provider for bad service.

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

We Feel Fine is described as a "An exploration of human emotion, in six movements." You can grab human feeling lines gathered from blogs across the world that include the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling." Open the We Feel Fine applet, then let us know how to describe it!

Find a list of Assistive Listening Devices provided by the University of Alberta Web Project for the university, but useful to others.

Some Short Messaging Services (SMS) text messaging tools for blogs and web sites are presented by JT Pratt on his blog.