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Fed Grant to Labs
Seattle.gov Facelift
Seattle Channel Wins
Q&A for 'hoods
What's Hot
Malicious Browsers
VoIP & 911
Dollars
Linkage
Calendar

Did you know you can attend classes for free or low cost at most area labs? Do you know where your nearest lab is? If not, participate in Get Online! day on Thursday, November 18. Ten labs in the Central and Southeast Seattle areas are partnering with the City of Seattle and the Citizens Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB) for activities, workshops and demonstrations on how to better use the Internet to your benefit. This event runs from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 18. Go here for more information on the event, ways to volunteer and locations.

New business opportunities, multi-location video conferencing for education, workforce training, and more affordable broadband for low-income residents, and better resources for health care were a few of the broadband needs and applications raised by a broad cross-section of people attending the state forum on Oct 19, at Delridge Community Center. Approximately 30 people attended, representing technology and telecommunications industry, community technology and health centers, workforce training, community colleges, government and venture capital firms. This completed a series of workshops hosted by the State DIS Broadband Office and the Department of Commerce to gather input for a report to be used for state policy development and potential future federal funding applications. There was very good discussion about potential roles for the state. The presentation by Angela Wu, state broadband policy and programs manager is available online [PDF] and so is a summary of the participant discussions here.

Those who wish to share information about broadband needs or challenges, can email them. The state collaborated with the Communities Connect Network and Washington State University with assistance from the RecTech/Associated Recreation Council.

NPower now offers a new kind of training class. Educational Coaching sessions to allow students to work on their own projects. Coming in December, two versions are offered: Web Project Educational Coaching on December 3, and InDesign and Photoshop Educational Coaching on December 8.

Bring projects and work on them in the NPower computer lab while InDesign and Photoshop trainer Mike Anitas coaches, or Joel Davis, web trainer, supports and collaborates with you. Grow your skills and move critical projects forward in a supportive classroom setting. Meet other non-profit community members and get a ton of work done while having fun!

Thanks to a generous grant from Adobe, this session is being offered at a deep discount off the regular educational coaching rates - only $35 per student for members, and $50 for non-members. Due to the high level of individual attention given, registration in these sessions is limited to five students. Be sure to register early.

Budget season is heating up. How will the November election affect our City budget? Join host C.R. Douglas for City Inside/Out: Council Edition as Council Members Sally Clark, Jean Godden and Council President Richard Conlin come to the table. Submit your questions for the conversation by going here. Then tune in on Thursday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m. to find out what they have to say.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has added new maps and services to their online tools. SDOT travel times online e-Park provides real-time short-term parking information for downtown Seattle. The interactive Parking Map provides info on garages and parking zones and limits. Seattle walking maps: full city or sectors in PDF.

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

Have a question for Mayor Mike McGinn? Join the conversation with Seattle Channel host C.R. Douglas as he sits down with the Mayor on Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. for Ask the Mayor. Call (206) 681-8821 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 submit questions through Twitter and Facebook 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!

Cascade People's Center

The Cascade People's Center recently updated their public computer lab to better serve the South Lake Union area. The neighborhood lacks a Seattle Public Library branch with computer access, so volunteers secured funding through the Technology Matching Fund to upgrade the lab and provide expanded service hours. The new venue will offer open lab time and computer workshops to area residents, including seniors, youth, refugees, and homeless and low income individuals.

One extra benefit of upgrading the lab is that the new computers will save significant energy. Joshua David Franklin, the lead volunteer who installed the equipment as part of the United Way Day of Caring project, measured the old PCs at 158 watts and the new Dell Optiplex desktops at only 57 watts. Volunteers also purchased power strips that will automatically turn off the monitors when the computers go on standby.

It is hoped that the newly upgraded Tech Center will be a resource for the community for years to come. Volunteers will play a key role in making that happen. "The other neighborhood geeks and I are committed to keeping the software in the lab updated and to maximizing its usefulness into the future," said Joshua. For more information on Cascade People's Center lab contact Lloyd Douglas or Joshua David Franklin.

A cleaner, simpler look for City government was launched this month with a major redesign of the City of Seattle website. The City's redesign offers a much more direct access to the most used City web pages. It provides an increased social media presence and streamlines the interface to five portals, instead of nine. The new site improves access to information based on feedback from the first Seattle.Gov usability study ever done. The focus of the redesign was to simplify access to City services online. The City web site includes more than 150,000 pages, the top 700 of which are linked to five main portals: Business in Seattle, Living in Seattle, Visiting Seattle, City Services, and City Departments. There are now 23 percent fewer links on the homepage - down 24 from 106. Read more about this change and upcoming added public engagement services in the Seattle.gov press release. Here are some initial responses to the new site:

"Absolutely love your new site. Especially the web 2.0 features!" -Vandna Singh, Web Specialist, Downtown Seattle Association

"New web site is beautiful. Looks much less bureaucratic. Nice work!" -Dawn Blanch, Environmental Stewardship Coordinator, Volunteer Programs Supervisor, Seattle Parks and Recreation

"Congratulations on creating a more contemporary, manageable and attractive website. Love the photo addition. Makes all the difference in the character. Hopefully those photos will change regularly to showcase the amazing beauty of our city." -Heather Lowe, Emerald City Nights, Northern Lights Northwest

"Congratulations! This looks great! I've already showed it off to everyone in my office, and the response was quite positive." -Will Pugh, CTTAB

"Congrats on getting this up and running. Looks great and navigates smoothly. And terrific horizontal images, Seattle looks good on the Internet." -Alan Justad, Deputy Director, Seattle Deptartment of Planning & Development

The Seattle Channel has won the first place award for Excellence in Government Programming from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA). This makes an incredible three wins in four years. The Channel also won first place for these programs:

• Election Coverage: City Inside/Out: King County Executive Debate
• Documentary- Profile: Community Stories: Perche No
• Profile of a City/County Dept.: CityStream: New Penguin Exhibit
• Public Health: CityStream: Fit With Fido
• Seniors: CityStream: Senior Shop Around
• Sports Programming: Community Stories: Seattle Quake Rugby Team

All these programs and more are available here. Follow the Seattle Channel on Twitter or on Facebook.

There are three essential questions for neighborhood groups looking to start an online presence.

1. Who are you trying to reach? Many groups hope to get more people to participate in their meetings. If you want to get younger people involved, Facebook or Twitter could be good outreach tools. If you hope to reach the immigrant and refugee community, you should use a tool that supports a variety of languages, like Wordpress. If you only want to work with people already in your group, maybe a wiki tool like PBWorks is the right fit. Look at the Tools at a Glance worksheet to see some free and low-cost tools.
2. What activities do you want your online tool to help you accomplish? Do you want to host discussions online, blog about neighborhood issues, or simply share meeting times and minutes? Check out the Activities to Tools Worksheet to get more ideas and see some tools that might benefit your group.
3. What online tools are already being used to provide information in your neighborhood? You'll want to explore the current online landscape of your neighborhood to make sure that your group isn't repeating information that's already out there. Take a look at Neighborhoods on the Net to see what's happening online in your community.

Security researchers warn that a new malware distribution campaign uses fake versions of the malicious site warnings commonly displayed by Firefox and Google Chrome.

Both Chrome and Firefox tap into Google's Safe Browsing service to check if the accessed URLs are known attack sites. Security researchers from F-Secure now warn malware pushers are increasingly abusing the trust users associate with these warnings to infect them.

Softpedia reports that malicious Web sites that mimic both Firefox's "Reported Attack Page" alert, as well as Chrome's "this site may harm your computer" warning, have been spotted. The pages look exactly the same as the real thing, except for a button that reads "Download Updates," suggesting that security patches are available for the browsers. The executable files served when these buttons are pressed install rogue antivirus programs, which try to scare users into paying a license fee. However, the users who land on these latest sites discovered by F-Secure are also exposed to drive-by downloads via a hidden IFrame, which loads the Phoenix exploit kit.

This could be a serious threat to your computer and privacy. Be aware of this and inform your friends and family. If you ever find yourself dealing with one of these fake antivirus attacks, shut down your browser immediately and restart your computer. Then do a complete antivirus scan of your hard drive(s).

Voice over IP systems are becoming more and more the way we communicate. This is because it is normally cheaper to communicate via the Internet versus the traditional land line. When using a Voice Over IP service provider, there is one important thing to remember. In the case of emergencies, you normally dial 911. If you do this through a Voice Over IP phone, you might send the emergency service providers to the wrong address. This is because with VoIP, all you have to have is an Internet connection to make a call, however it is mobile, and you may not be at the address the VoIP provider has for you. It is always good to contact your provider and see what E911 address they have for you. So if you travel with your service, make sure you disable the 911 feature or update the address.

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

Knight News Challenge Invites Submission of Media Innovations
Awards will be given to individuals, schools, nonprofits, governments, and businesses for the development of innovative techniques and technologies that advance the Knight Foundation's goal of informing and engaging communities. For the first time, the grant will feature four experimental categories: Mobile, Authenticity, Sustainability and Community. Visit their Web site for more information.
Deadline: December 1, 2010

National Endowment for the Humanities Offers Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants for Innovative Projects
Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded to U.S. individuals and organizations working on digital initiatives in any area of the humanities. Applicants must propose an innovative approach, method, tool, or idea that has not been used before in the humanities. Grants should result in plans, prototypes, or proofs of concept for long-term digital humanities projects prior to implementation. Visit their Web site for more information.
Deadline: February 23, 2011

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Announces Next Generation Learning Challenges Request for Proposals
Grants of up to $750,000 will be awarded to technologists and institutions within the education community working to expand the use of promising technology tools among students, teachers, and schools. Visit the Next Generation Learning Challenges Web site for complete program information and FAQs.
Deadline: November 19, 2010 (Pre-proposals)

Check this out for fun or news: Assemble star clusters, word clusters or pics of the universe of Seattle online.

Multiracial Sky is aimed at providing resources for multiracial families, and includes good materials for anyone interested in race conversations, glossary of terms, skin care for kids, finding community and more.

ICTlogy - Information and Communications Technology for development and other commentary and resources from Ismael Peña-López, lecturer at the Open University of Catalonia, School of Law and Political Science.

Data.seattle.gov is the site where the City makes available a wide range of data sets for the public to look up or to mash up or map up. You can see the newest data sets by clicking on the "new data sets" in the intro or by clicking on any of the data options on the left navigation bar, then choosing to filter the list by "newest." Some recent additions to data.seattle.gov include the Department of Planning and Development datasets: Active Building Permits, Active Land Use Permits, and Active Code Violation Cases. These new datasets join the initial datasets - those currently shown on My Neighborhood Map which has been expanded to include Real Time 911 Fire. We invite you to participate in this project. Please register and tell us what new datasets you would like to see.

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.

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