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Meet Derrick Hall
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"Cascadia" region leaders are gathering on March 26 and 27 at City Hall. Put on by City of Seattle and Knowledge As Power, click here for more details on how you can participate!

Attend one or more of the three upcoming workshops in March to give your feedback on what is important to your children and families. Click here for more details and access to the Get Involved page.

Who’s in the Office? The Mayor has begun posting the lists of who has visited his office. Be in the know at the Mayor’s site.

Numerous cable customers in the area covered by Broadstripe (Beacon Hill, Central District, Chinatown/International District, part of Queen Anne) have been dissatisfied with the quality of services. So what’s been going on and what’s being done about it? Chief Technology Officer Bill Schrier, and Director of the Office of Cable Communications Tony Perez, of the Department of Information Technology, present the finding of a technical audit of the company’s signal transmission. Turns out that part of the problem is the equipment from the node to the home. Broadstripe’s executive vice president and general manager of Pac West, David Irons, responds to the findings and shares what the company is doing. See the video. of the City Council’s Energy, Technology and Civil Rights meeting of Feb. 17.

Derrick Hall

Derrick Hall is our community tech support and listserv manager. He is our resident computer expert, providing support to City public computers and technical advice to community technology learning programs. He oversees deployment of our free Internet connections for non-profits, maintains our public computer stations, and helps manage the City's listservs. E-mail: Email him, or call: (206) 233-5061.

Don’t miss City Inside/Out: Council Edition on the Seattle Channel. It’s a Q&A show featuring host C.R. Douglas and callers in a discussion about local issues with three City Councilmembers. The next taping is March 27, 7p.m. on Cable 21 or online at the Seattle Channel. Email your questions in advance or call (206) 684-8821.

Do you have questions for Seattle City Councilmembers? How does the Council want to handle the City's 2011 $50 million budget deficit? What are the Council’s plan for a City wide broadband system. What are their thoughts on a solution for rebuilding the State Route 520 bridge? Join Seattle Channel host C.R. Douglas as he sits down in March with three members of the Seattle City Council. Email to send in your questions. Then tune in Wednesday, March 24 at 7 PM to see the answers. You can catch the current episode of City Inside/Out: Council Edition with Councilmembers Jean Godden, Tim Burgess and Bruce Harrell now by going here.

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.

Watch for the national broadband plan being released now.

United Nations to launch a global Broadband Commission for Digital Development on March 15.

An International Look at High-Speed Broadband.

Duck or Duct tape?
More than everything you want to know! History of duct tape by Jim and Tim the Duct Tape Guys; read about a duct tape scientist. Read about innovative uses, or learn about duct tape used on the moon. Really!

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.

Latino parents in tech training

Campana Quetzal received a 2009 Tech Matching Fund grant to train a group of Latino parents as peer leaders and equip them with laptops to engage other Latino parents in computer literacy trainings, and online accessto educational resources during home visits. The Meredith Mathews East Madison YMCA YTECH program also received a 2009 Tech Matching Fund grant that included adult computer literacy trainings. Instead of duplicating efforts, they decided to collaborate and support one another in developing a more digitally inclusive Seattle community.

Campana Quetzal’s Peer Leaders have engaged in two trainings provided by YTECH. The first training provided an overview of One Economy’s Seattle Beehive, which is, "… the place to go for information and resources around the things that matter in our lives: money, health, jobs, school and family." The Beehive is a bilingual site available in English and Spanish. They also did a Mac Basics workshop to help Campana Quetzal’s Peer Leaders get acquainted with their Mac laptops in preparation for their use in community home visits.

Through these two trainings they have engaged approximately 20 adult community members. They have future trainings in mind, such as: The Source; Online Safety; and another Mac overview workshop in the works.

These are challenging economic times and the more that we can collaborate and share resources, the better. This partnership symbolizes working together and building something that is beneficial for all. For example, YTECH is sharing their WiFi with Campana Quetzal and providing workshop facilitators, while Campana Quetzal is helping to recruit the participants and bringing the laptops. A true win-win for all.

If you would like to learn more about this partnership, attend a training, or arrange for a training, contact: Maria Ramirez, executive director, Campana Quetzal; or Chris Tugwell, director technology programs, Metrocenter YMCA.

Online and off, via video, web forum, or as a volunteer facilitator, Mayor McGinn is seeking your participation and this initiative signals a new track on resident engagement. The Mayor and community outreach staff Sol Villareal have created a website and welcoming video on how the city is gathering input on issues affecting how our youth and families are served. From now through September, the City will be facilitiating large Group Workshops, conducting Community Caucuses, sponsoring a Kids and Families Congress, and Action Planning Groups.

The first phase of the Seattle Youth and Families initiative, where people from across our community will come together to make their voices heard and talk about the issues facing our children and families in Seattle today. Attend one or more of the following workshops and have your voice heard!

When: March 8, 7:00 to 8:30PM
Where: Van Asselt Elementary School, 8311 Beacon Ave S

When: March 15, 7:00 to 8:30PM
Where: Denny Middle School, 8402 30th Ave SW

When: March 22, 7:00 to 8:30PM
Where: Garfield Community Center, 2323 E Cherry St

Co-chairs for this new Initiative are former Mayor Norm Rice, former deputy mayor Bob Watt, and Estela Ortega, executive director at El Centro de la Raza. You can read more, get dates for community focus groups, and volunteer or comment through the Youth and Families Get Involved page. Please encourage others to contribute!

Open Government West is a large, two-day conference on March 26 and 27, hosted by the City of Seattle and Knowledge As Power. Many governments throughout the greater "Cascadia" region have launched open government directives. Our region is host to innovative technology, government and civic engagement organizations. Open Government West is a unique opportunity to bring these leaders together to facilitate regional collaboration across open government initiatives. Convened by incoming Mayor of Seattle Mike McGinn, and coordinated by Knowledge as Power, this important gathering will bring together 500 decision makers, IT managers and citizen activists from private industry, city and state government, agencies and organizations from throughout Oregon, Washington State, British Columbia, Idaho and Montana. To find out more information about the conference go here.

In March 2010, more than 130 million addresses across the nation will receive a census form. The 2010 Census asks ten questions and takes only ten minutes to complete. Completing the census form is easy, important and safe.

Required once every ten years by the U.S. Constitution, the census will count everyone in the United States, both citizens and noncitizens, regardless of legal status. Census data also directly affects how more than $400 billion per year in federal funding is distributed to state, local and tribal governments. Census data are used to determine how we are represented at all levels of government. Equally important, census data provides a picture of who we are as a nation and community.

Kenny Pittman, a senior policy advisor with the city, was the lead on the City’s efforts to raise awareness and get the message out about the census. To help with this effort, the Seattle Complete Count Committee was formed in 2009 and developed and implemented a grass roots campaign. Different from the last Census completed in 2000, this year they used social networking. "Conducting outreach for the census is instrumental in making sure everyone counts," according to Pittman. "We found that using social networking such as Facebook and Twitter were instrumental in getting the message out quickly and reach more people in Seattle."

To read more information about the census go here.

Summer Institute on Technology and Disability: An Introduction to Assistive Technology
The University of Washington Center for Technology and Disability Studies will offer a series of workshops on topics including assistive technology; funding for assistive technology; seating, positioning, and mobility; environmental control units; Web accessibility and individuals with low vision or blindness; and case studies and consultations. Includes hands-on labs.

When: June 21–24
Where: University of Washington Seattle Campus
Cost: $495 See web site for more information on professional development credits. To register: (206) 685-4181 (V/TTY), (206) 616-1396 (TTY/TTY Message), email, or on the web.

New Media Literacy Offers Monthly Webinar Series
New Media Literacy, (NML) has recently partnered with New Hampshire's Department of Education to facilitate a year-long professional development initiative using the new media literacies as a springboard for developing innovative curriculum. Their goal is to help foster a broader perspective of what it means to be media literate in the digital age, and offer tools for translating the social skills and cultural competencies NML proposes in its white paper into meaningful and engaging learning experiences in the classroom and beyond. For the recording of their first webinar, Appropriation and Judgment with a focus on copyright, fair use and creative commons click here.

Next webinar: Networking and Negotiation
When: March 11, 7:00 p.m. EST / 4:00 p.m. PST
See the full listing of upcoming webinars and get information on how to join the sessions here.

scareware scams ride the killer whale tragedy

Supposed footage of Wednesday's fatal Sea World killer whale attack in Florida actually points at sites distributing scareware.

Dawn Brancheau, 40, a trainer at Sea World in Orlando, lost her life yesterday after a killer whale attack. Miscreants have wasted no time is exploiting the tragedy, as so many before it, by setting up malware traps designed to ensnare the unwary.

Black hat search engine trickery is once again being used to drive traffic to these sites, by planting links to malware portals in Google results for search terms related to the tragedy, such as "killer whale video pictures." Users who follow poisoned links will be warned of supposed security risks on their PCs in an effort to persuade them to try and then buy fake anti-virus software of little or no utility,

Just about any newsworthy tragedy is likely to be used as a theme to promote scareware portals these days, one of the easiest mechanisms for cybercrooks to make money. As we always remind you, expect these types of scams every time there is any kind of breaking news. Don't fall for the scareware tactic. If you get one of these pop-ups, you need to shut down your browser immediately and do not respond to them. Trying to just close the pop-up will not work.

Visit here for up-to-date security alerts.

Voice over Internet Protocol, aka VOIP, is becoming more and more popular, especially with providers offering free long distance for free international calling with their services at low rates. You may wonder how you can use this service in your lab, or whether you have the Internet speed to support it. Unlike browsing, the Internet VOIP services need to have a sustained connection to the Internet for both up- and downloading. For every VOIP line you want to use on your Internet connection, you need to ensure that you can stream 56 to 128K of data for both up- and downloading. With any DSL or Cable modem service, if you plan to have more than two lines running, it is better to have an IT person set your router to give traffic priority to your phones. If you are using more than eight lines, it is better to have a dedicated Internet connection for your phones.

It is not recommended to use your fax over VOIP at this time, as most fax machines communicate faster than the VOIP system's ability to translate the data, causing errors or failures in faxes. If you are using DSL, one ideal would be to have your DSL line be your fax line and your other lines be your VOIP lines.

More information:
Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
Tech soup’s Ditch Your Telephone for VOIP
How VOIP Works
Speed Testing

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."

4Culture Audio Art Grant
Budget: $20,000
Deadline: March 22, 2010
4Culture and King County Metro Transit seek an artist, or a team of artists, who resides in Washington, Oregon or British Columbia to create audio work that will explore and enhance the experience along a new rapid transit bus corridor. The soundscape will be accessible as downloadable audio files through the 4Culture website, while onboard via WiFi-enabled RapidRide busses, and through Listen4Culture, an audio cell phone program.

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.