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July 26 marked the 21st anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It’s a great time to celebrate and to renew our effort to ensure equity moving forward. Here are some resources we wanted to share this month:

• The ADA Anniversary site.
• Americans living with disability and their technology profile.
• What is a disability under the law?
• Reaching Out to Customers with Disabilities, an online ADA course for businesses.
• ADA National Network.
• The federal government ADA site.

Here are some great voices to be heard now on PugetSoundOff.org.

• Have you seen a Muscle Mike Commercial, yet? Try it.
• There's a group of youth in Senegal blogging. Check out pics and what they have to say about their experience.
• How would you take action on education by Scottyd.
• See posts on education, Seattle Public Schools, education in China and more.

Cash Your Refund Check by August! Many Broadstripe Internet customers were mailed a check in June 2011, refunding them for an Internet access tax which was incorrectly collected after the tax was discontinued. If you received a check and put it aside, you should know the checks are “VOID after 90 days” from the check date. Be sure to cash yours before the 90 days has expired. For any questions about this Internet tax refund, contact Broadstripe Customer Service at 800-829-2225.

Here’s an easy-to-use tool that makes it easy to find information or do business with the City. My.Seattle.Gov lets you create and customize your own Seattle.gov homepage with a variety of widgets – or gadgets – such as City Services, Staff Directory, City Facilities, My Neighborhood Map, and The Buy Line – Bids & Proposals. Sign up for My.Seattle.Gov and add any of these gadgets to your homepage for quick access to information. Other features you can add to your customized homepage include news feeds, events and neighborhood crime statistics.

John Giamberso

John Giamberso was just named the new Seattle Channel General Manager, following a national search. He has extensive experience in television production and web streaming, having been both the Operations Manager and Production Manager at the Seattle Channel. Formerly, John was the Station Manager at King County Television. He has been an integral part of the team at Seattle Channel that has built a national reputation with innovative quality programming covering politics, communities and arts.

q&a

Have a question for Mayor Mike McGinn? Join the conversation with Seattle Channel host Barry Mitzman as he sits down with the Mayor on Wednesday, August 24, at 7 PM for Ask the Mayor. Call (206) 684-8821 between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. or email your questions. Also, follow their conversation on Twitter or Facebook with the Seattle Channel’s accounts. You can also tweet your question @SeattleChannel as well.

Follow the Seattle Channel on Twitter.com/SeattleChannel and become a fan of the Seattle Channel on Facebook! Friends and followers get up to the minute info on new programs, behind the scene pictures of shoots and interviews and more!

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.

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.

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.

Darlene enjoys an accessible “Rock Band” computer group.

The PROVAIL Assistive Technology lab is bringing people together through technology. Children and adults with disabilities from all over King County are participating in computer groups held in the lab, a pilot project supported by the Technology Matching Fund in 2010. During the 90-minute lab time, participants have an opportunity to meet with a small group comprised of three to six people with various physical and developmental disabilities. Clients learn to maximize their ability to use Assistive Technology to achieve their personal goals, including specialized computers, software, phone equipment, and communications devices, among others.

Specialized adaptive software and hardware such as access switches activated using feet, voice, knees, infared and sip and puff are used in the lab. Even a person who is non-verbal and has no use of his limbs can independently use a computer work station.

But a key benefit of the project has been that the computer groups have developed into a vital social network for many of the participants. Clients come and participate in activities together, strengthening and building new relationships. “The potential for people to grow in so many ways is very evident to me,” according to Francis Olson, director of clinical Services. For more information or to register for a class call 206-363-7303.

Brian Hsi from Seattle’s tech advisory board (CTTAB) shares tips with the new grantees on audience targeting for online services.

Last month, the Department of Information Technology created a grant opportunity for community and neighborhood groups seeking to "boost" their online presence - the Online Boost Grant. Funds of up to $1000 per organization will be used to help enhance the use of online tools for community building and civic engagement. The following organizations were awarded Boost Grants:

• Alliance of People with disAbilities
• Ashia Circle
• City Fruit
• Education with Purpose
• Fremont Abbey Arts
• Fremont Neighborhood Council
• Friends of Lewis Park
• Horn of Africa Services
• Maiwut Sudanese Organization
• Multicultural Family
• North Delridge Neighborhood Council
• Rainier Chamber of Commerce
• Richard Hugo House
• Southwest District Council
• Sustainable Seattle
• Tree Ambassadors

On July 27 and August 2, representatives from these organizations attended workshops to help them increase their knowledge and capacity around the use of applications like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Volunteers from the Citizens’ Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board, along with City of Seattle technology staff, facilitated valuable discussions about social media and answered questions from grant recipients. Check upcoming editions of Brainstorm for updates about our Boost Grant projects!

Karen Peterson of Edlab Group directs speed resource sharing.

"We are leading the work on Information Equity," Bill Ellis called out to the sixty partners for the kickoff gathering of the Communities Connect Network federal broadband stimulus public computing center project on July 26. Bill, as chair of the EdLab Group Board was joined by computing center project staff and training partners from around the state. Karen Perry, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation U.S. Libraries program drew a line from the national broadband plan goals to those lives being changed as result of the work of the public computing centers. Will Saunders, Director of the Washington State Broadband Office, now part of the Department of Commerce, joined Karen in appreciating the role digital literacy and community access play as critical parts of the strategy necessary to ensure economic opportunity for all Washingtonians. From Kalispell, the Yakama Nation, South Seattle and elsewhere, there was a rich exchange of tech talk, workforce, justice, youth, disabilities access and social media resources. Pictures of the event are posted on the EdLab Group’s Facebook page.

On July 1, 2011, the Seattle Community College District (SCCD) became Seattle’s new Public Access Channel manager, operating public access television as Seattle Community Media.

Besides broadcasting public access programs on Comcast channel 77 and Broadstripe channel 23, Seattle Community Media provides related public access services, such as training in media production and use of equipment, and maintaining equipment necessary for the creation, production, storage, and archiving of video programming. Equipment will be available for producers to use at SCCD’s North Seattle Community College facility, or to borrow for use outside of the facility.

With the change to Seattle Community Media, Seattle ushers in a new model for public access television. The model is based on the belief that advances in digital media production and distribution technologies create new, lower-cost alternatives for community and individual expression. The new model relies less on financial support from the City and supplements traditional television production techniques with new social media technologies.

The Seattle Community College District has many years of television experience from operating its own station called Seattle Community Colleges television (SCCTV), which plays on Comcast Channel 28 and Broadstripe Channel 19.

For more details on the change in Public Access Manager and the City’s contract with SCCD, see Seattle City Council Bill 117204.

Most lab users browse the Internet, write emails and other simple documents needing only 200 to 500 MBs - one-fifth to one-half a GB of RAM - very little CPU processing time and not a lot of hard drive space. Most computers use full featured CPUs utilizing two to four GBs of RAM, lots of hard drive space and generating lots of heat and electricity.

Microsoft Windows Multipoint Server allows administration of one CPU with multiple users accessing its resources. The way this is handled is users have their own monitor, mouse, and keyboards connected, and use the resources of the main CPU. This is similar to Windows Terminal Services, which is a product that has been used in call centers for years, without a bootable device such as a computer.

Using this technology in a computer lab would help save money and time when you’re looking to upgrade your hardware and software. You would only need to upgrade one CPU with any new items and each multipoint terminal would be updated. You may save a little on the first year's costs, but when you’re looking at upgrading in the future you will save a bunch as you only need to purchase one computer.

The downside of using a Windows Multipoint device is if your main hardware goes out you will lose access to all of your computing devices. Although Windows Multipoint could support high resource needs, I would not recommend using it for this. It is good to keep the usage to your browsing, word processing, and other basic computer needs.

This Friday, August 5, 2011, at 12 noon, we will be previewing a working copy of Windows Multipoint at the Yesler Community Center. You are invited to come take a look.

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

Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (SYVPI) Community Matching Grant
Provides matching funds of up to $20,000 for community-based projects to supplement existing Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (SYVPI) services and that serve youth referred by one or more of the three SYVPI Neighborhood Networks (Central, Southeast and Southwest Seattle). CMG seeks innovative projects that engage, uplift, educate and support youth who are deemed at risk of perpetuating or being a victim of violence.
Deadline: September 23

Neighborhood and Community Arts (NCA)
Supports arts councils and community groups with $1,200 to produce events to promote arts and cultural participation and build community. Also supports neighborhood groups that produce recurring festivals or events that promote arts and cultural participation, build community, and enhance the visibility of neighborhoods through arts and culture. Project examples include: Arts festivals, cultural celebrations, music festivals and film festivals.
Deadline: October 26

National Center for Family Literacy
The National Center for Family Literacy is accepting grant applications from education and community organizations working to provide support for Latino and other families whose members want to earn college degrees. These grants will broaden the availability and targeted use of a recently developed comprehensive set of tools by community programs, schools and community colleges. Ten grants of up to $25,000 will be awarded nationwide.
Deadline: August 22

Information, literacy, tech and library trends: videos from the 2011 American Library Association national conference.

See old TV’s.

Redistrict Washington: Draw your own lines!

Sourcemap is a fascinating and very cool platform for researching, optimizing and sharing supply chains. Their motto: We believe that people have the right to know where things come from and what they are made of. How Networked Nonprofits Use Facebook Smart.ly, from Beth Kantor’s blog - http://www.bethkanter.org/facebook-smartly

How Networked Nonprofits Use Facebook Smartly, from Beth Kantor’s blog.