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The City of Seattle Department of Information Technology is now accepting applications for the Bill Wright Technology Matching Fund. Deadline is March 8. More information, application and workshop dates are available here.

Youth Media Institute not only offers training to youth but also job opportunities. They offer affordable graphic design, photography, video and video editing services for your organization, business or personal use. All costs go to production, equipment, and oversight and you can view the rates here. Please contact Estevan Munoz-Howard for samples of their work and more information on this great program.

Mark Lloyd

Black History Month: Leaders in Civil Rights and Telecommuni-cations: Mark Lloyd
As we were considering how to celebrate Black History Month, I thought of Mark Lloyd, a champion who has tirelessly worked to lay the stones of progress on a long pathway to ensuring diversity in media and the rights of all Americans to create and distribute content. Mark is currently the associate general counsel, chief diversity officer at the Federal Communications Commission. Recently, he moderated a series of panels and blogged about Diversity and Civil Rights Issues in Broadband Adoption and Access. Reading the diversity blog is well worth it. There’s also a treasure of expert reflection and information on the panel site, which features Laura Efurd from Zero Divide and others.

Mark came to the FCC after great work at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, where he also partnered on community technology advocacy with CTCNet. He was a Martin Luther King, Jr. visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and earlier was a reporter for NBC and CNN. Like many historic figures working for diversity, he’s been the target of campaigns against him. This has spilled into his Wikipedia profile. He’s been called a "redistribution of wealth czar," which is certainly a positive or negative title depending on where you stand. Our thanks go out to Mark for his strong and passionate commitment to civil rights and telecommunications justice for all. You can read more about him in a bio on the Social Science Research Council site.

Interpreting the Black Journey: Eight Viewpoints
Walk the trail from Africa to North America with seven recognized contemporary Northwest Artists of African descent. This selected exhibition features engaging images of freedom, family and joy, and the struggle to regain them on two continents. The original art works incorporate a variety of styles and media, such as oils, acrylics, gouache, water color and mixed media. Meet the artists at the Artists Reception on February 17 at 11:30 AM, Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Avenue level 3. For more information, go to the City of Seattle Black History Celebration page.

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. Let us know if you have ideas for future stories. 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.

Literacy Source students in the Computer Skills class

Literacy Source is a non-profit Community Learning Center providing adult literacy services since 1986. Their mission is to build a literate community and promote self-sufficiency by providing leaner-centered instruction to adults in English literacy and basic life skills. They offer Adult Basic Education, English as a Second Language, computer literacy, workplace skills and other learner-centered instruction on-site and at three off-site locations.

With funding from the Technology Matching Fund, Literacy Source seeks to provide computer literacy instruction in Job Readiness, Community Access, and Basic Computer skills to 34 low income adult learners. Literacy Source will also develop partnerships and provide computer skills instruction to three community organizations and train 16 volunteer computer tutors.

Literacy Source values the extensive instructing done through volunteers and seeks to create best practices for volunteer instructors working with this vibrant community. Claudia McQuistion, Ameri*Corps VISTA for Literacy Source reports that they are, “in the midst of building Literacy Online, a website of resources for volunteers. Expect to see curriculum, methods, and lesson plans, as well as a space for reflection and discussion. I’m trying to use my eye as a returning full-time volunteer to see how Literacy Source can grow and be even friendlier to its community. We’d like volunteers to have all of our collective knowledge at their fingertips, which means lesson plans and ideas will be posted online as well as around the center.” (Bridge to Literacy)

An example of their student assessment, Community Access, and Vocational Technology module outlines (PDFs) are available on our site. For more detailed information, referrals and opportunities to partner, please contact Elliott Shuppy at 206.782.2050 or visit www.literacy-source.org.

Is your home computer safe? Are you plagued by viruses, pop-ups, and ugly email? Do you provide services for clients whose first language isn’t English? There is a solution! The Home Computer and Internet Security brochure has been translated into eight languages: Amharic, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. View by clicking on the above language links, or email Vicky Yuki or call 206.233.7877 for copies in any of these languages as well as English.

The Department of Commerce has started to release more announcements about round one Broadband Stimulus Funding. See the list here. FCC’s Blair Levin, executive director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative, delivered a speech entitled Wired for Social Justice (pdf of speech). at the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council's Broadband and Social Justice Summit. Get a PDF copy of the speech here or read a summary by the FCC’s New Media Director on the FCC Broadband Blog.

TMF Grant Information Sessions
Learn more about how to apply for a grant at one of these upcoming information sessions.

Wednesday, February 3
Delridge Community Center
4501 Delridge Way SW 98106
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Saturday, February 6
Miller Community Center
330 19th Ave. E 98112
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Neighborhoods Service Centers closed on February 16 due to City budget cuts. Go here for alternative locations to access computers and free Internet.


s.e.c.u.r.i.t.y

phishing scam targets adobe pdf reader

Email messages claim to offer a download of Adobe Reader

A new phishing scam is trying to fool people into thinking it comes from Adobe, announcing a new version of PDF Reader/Writer. The message is making its way into email boxes today, and the real Adobe urged any recipients to simply delete it.

The phishing scam has a subject line "download and upgrade Adobe PDF Reader – Writer for Windows," includes a fake version of Adobe's logo and provides links that would lead to malicious code or other trouble if a victim clicked on them. The email appears to come from Adobe newsletter@pdf-adobe.org, which is part of the scam. "It has come to Adobe's attention that email messages purporting to offer a download of the Adobe Reader have been sent by entities claiming to be Adobe," the company said in a statement warning about it. "Many of these emails are signed as 'Adobe PDF' (or similar), and in some instances require recipients to register and/or provide personal information. Please be aware that these emails are phishing scams and have not been sent by Adobe or on Adobe's behalf."

Click here to read the full article and visit here for up-to-date security alerts.

do you back up?

About 30 percent of computer users do not back up their documentation at all, with only about six percent of users backing up on a daily basis. Backing up your personal computer should be done on a regular basis, failure to do so could cost you hundreds to thousands of dollars to restore in the event that something happens. It is important to back up the following areas of your computer on a regular basis.

• My Documents area
• Photos and Music
• Programs that you downloaded “including license keys”
• Personal Email, normally archiving to a different media source is ok

While there are several ways to backup your data, online backups are normally better to go off-site. For example, if there were a fire in the area where your computer is, your data is still safe.

More information:
Microsoft and Data Backup
Techsoup online backups

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

Technology Matching Fund
Deadline: March 8, 5:00 p.m.
City of Seattle Deparmtne of Information Technology is now accepting application for the 2010 Technology Matching Fund. Funds support projects that reach technology underserved communities thereby increasing, "digital inclusion."

Safeco Insurance Foundation
Deadline: Applications are reviewed every six weeks.
Safeco Insurance Foundation grants priorities are education and broad based health and human services. They are also focused on investing in access to health care for low-income individuals and cultural organizations.

Scholarship opportunities for students
Deadline: Various deadlines between February and June depending on the grant.
Visit the National Education Association for a list of scholarship opportunities and contests for kindergarten through high school students.

Entertainment Software Association
Deadline: April 15, 2010
The ESA Foundation is dedicated to supporting positive programs and opportunities that make a difference in the lives of America's youth. The Foundation seeks to harness the collective power of the interactive entertainment industry to create positive social impact in our communities. We support geographically diverse projects and programs that benefit boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 18 of all races and religions.

Dealing with Domain Names and Registration
Peter Campbell published a couple of very useful pieces on Idealware.org last month about domain name registration and transferring to new providers. See Part One and Part Two.

10 Trends in Technology and Education
Are mobile phones better for learning than computers? See more on the Educational Technology Debate site, which promotes discussion on low-cost Information and Communications Technology (ICT) initiatives for educational systems. Check out the latest article there, "10 Global Trends in ICT and Education for 2010 and Beyond" by Robert Hawkins.

Create an Emergency List
King County’s Link By Zip tool helps you create a list of emergency contacts for utilities, human services, police, fire, and more in a printable format.

Good bye email?
Stella Hernandez at Idealware has published "Is Email Old News? Social Networks as the New Communications Channel" on Idealware.org. Is email effective anymore? Read the article.

Wordnik is a new dictionary of sorts, with example sentences, random words and more. Check it out.