Technology For All
Occasional Update - February 2005

"Together We Empower Communities Through Technology"

Here's a quick update regarding Technology For All (TFA) and our collaborative efforts to empower residents of low-income and under resourced communities through the tools of technology. Important information for Community Technology Centers (CTCs) and nonprofits doing community technology is located at the bottom. If you like this newsletter, please e-mail it to a friend. To support our work call 713.454.6400.
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News and Updates   

MEDIA ALERT 
Announcing TFA-Wireless Internet Project ---
10:00 am, Thursday, February 17, 2005
@ Houston Public Library - Melcher Branch
7200 Keller
Houston , Texas  77012 
Mayor Bill White and Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado along with Rice University President David Leebron will assist TFA and its partners Rice University and the Houston Public Library in announcing the collaborative TFA-Wireless project. The project will provide wireless Internet access in Houston's Pecan Park Neighborhood and the Melcher Branch Library. For more information contact Will Reed (TFA,713.454.6400, Will.Reed@techforall.org ) or Jade Boyd (Rice University Media Office, 713.348.6778, JadeBoyd@rice.edu ). For more information about TFA-Wireless click here.

RICE University students  assist TFA-Wireless and gain college credit --- Dr. Ed Knightly's class #438 "Deployment and Measurement of Wireless Networks" is so popular that students wishing to take the class were turned away. Students taking the class are involved in project teams focused on deploying TFA-Wireless in a way that will achieve the greatest efficiencies and "throughputs."

University of Houston College of Technology Students Work with TFA and its Community Partners --- Ten project teams from the University of Houston College of Technology are working with Community Technology Centers (CTCs) during the Spring 2005 semester. Five of the teams are assisting community organizations develop technology plans for their CTCs. Five of the teams are developing web sites for various community organizations. An additional seven students are serving as interns with TFA and its community partners.

Support TFA's Social Enterprises ---   Technology For All operates three social enterprises: TFA-JobTech, TFA-STARRS, and TFA-Wireless. Each enterprise uses technology to address a community need, provide a needed service to the community or to the business community and create revenue through scaleable business models to support TFA's core mission of empowering low-income and under-resourced communities. TFA-JobTech provides high quality document conversion and knowledge management services to its customers. Employees of JobTech are residents of the communities served by participating community technology centers. TFA-STARRS (Secure Technology Asset Recycling and Redeployment Services) provides a needed service at a lower cost to major corporations replacing information technology assets. TFA-Wireless provides an affordable wireless Internet solution in low-income communities while also providing the necessary infrastructure for some JobTech employees to work out of their homes.  TFA's social enterprises seek customers and capital to to reach their full potential.  For more information click here or contact Jim Forrest, TFA's Business Development Officer at 713.961.0012 or by email at jim.forrest@techforall.org . 

Technology For All Installs Updated Telephone System - With the installation of a T-1 for digital phone service at Mission Milby CDC, all Technology For All staff can now be reached at direct phone numbers. The installation of this service has required the installation of a new TFA main number 713.454.6400. While the old number will still work for several months, please make a note of the new number. Some individual #'s of TFA staff members and related projects include:  Will Reed, 713.454.6411; Douglas Caldwell, 713.454.6412; Jim Forrest, 713.454.6413; Rosemarie Foster, 713.454.6414; Pam Gardner, 713.454.6415; Pete Rodriguez, 713.454.6416; Mary Collins, 713.454.6419 (Houston HOPE); TFA Fax, 713.454.6454; and Joe Camp, 713.454.6420 (TFA-Wireless). Other organizations with offices at Mision Milby have new main #'s as well. These include: Mission Milby Community Development Corporation, 713.454.6464; LULAC National Educational Service Center, 713.454.6480; Houston HOPE, 713.454.6444; Cristo Rey Iglesia Episcopal, 713.454.6493, and Milby United Methodist Church, 713.454.6424.

Mission Milby CTC Begins Spring Classes --- Registration for classes at TFA's Mission Milby Community Technology Center (MMCTC) was recently completed. Almost 100 community residents registered for Spring classes. Classes at MMCTC will include English as a Second Language, Learn and Earn a Computer classes for High School Youth, Introduction to SimHouston, GED, Adult Basic Education, college and career counseling for youth and various computer classes in English and Spanish. These classes are offered to residents of Houston's East End in collaboration with Technology For All, the Mission Milby Community Development Corporation, SimDesk Technologies, Houston Community College, The Technology Opportunity Institute and the LULAC National Educational Service Center. Information about classes can be obtained by calling TFA at 713.454.6400 or Mission Milby at 713.454.6464 or in person at Mission Milby located at  2220 Broadway, Houston, Texas, 77012 (two blocks south of Milby High School). 

Recent Donations to TFA --- TFA expresses thanks to its recent donors including the M.D. Anderson Foundation, The George and Josephine Hamman Foundation, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, David and Judy O'Neil, Charles Williams, Gene and Pat Calvert, Will and Karen Reed, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, . Cash donations can be sent to Technology For All, 2220 Broadway, Houston, Texas, 77012. To make a computer or other technology donation contact Douglas.Caldwell@techforall.org or call 713.454.6412.

Corporations-Reduce your Total Cost of Ownership --- TFA-STARRS (Secure Technology Asset Recycling and Redeployment Services) can assist your company with its technology assets.  As you replace equipment, TFA, through its strategic alliance with CompuCycle and others, can reduce your total cost of ownership. By donating technology assets being replaced to TFA-STARRS, Corporations receive the following benefits: substantially lower cost of total ownership; Comprehensive inventory management and flexible reporting; Secure data removal (above DOD standards); Environmental protection through zero-landfill policy; national and international footprint; and community goodwill. Through our strategic alliances, TFA can customize our services to fit every customer's needs relating to inventory, collection, testing, auditing, recycling, end of lease, surplus and obsolete equipment, and redeployment of these assets to low-income and under-resourced communities. Recent customers of TFA-STARRS include ChevronTexaco, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and GEMSA Loan Services. For more information contact Douglas.Caldwell@techforall.org or Jim.Forrest@techforall.org at 713.454.6400.  

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Important Info for CTCs and CBOs

The Tsunami as a Wake-Up Call to Bridging the Digital Divide--- Andy Carvin recently created an excellent piece on the "The Tsunami as a Wake-Up Call to Bridging the Digital Divide." This is a great read for those who seek to understand and know more about the value of the work of community technology organizations. You can find the podcast here: http://www.andycarvin.com/podcasts/tsunami-divide.mp3    It is just over six minutes long and takes up seven megabytes. Meanwhile, you can still read the text version here:  http://www.digitaldivide.net/articles/view.php?ArticleID=84   For more information about Andy's work note his contact information:  Andy Carvin, Program Director, EDC Center for Media & Community, acarvin@edc.org , http://www.digitaldivide.net  Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com

New Guide of Tools for People with Disabilities --- The Northen Illinois Center for Adaptive Technology (NICAT) (www.nicat.ataccess.org ) recently completed a new "Guide to Low-Cost / No-Cost Online Tools for People with Disabilities " A copy in Word is available to download at: http://www.ctcnet.org/ctc/ata/lowcostnocostATAguide.doc. You are free to create copies on CDs for use in your labs or to give to people with disabilities so they can locate the accessibility tools they need.  NICAT welcomes feedback  and will work with CTCs to keep this resource current .Hope you find it useful. 

New Report on Faith-based CTCs --- A new research report on faith-based CTC's is available online. You can find the report at: http://www.techmission.org/resources/teens.php .TechMission was awarded a partnership grant from the US Department of Education CTC Grant Program to develop a toolkit to support and document partnerships between high school schools and faith-based CTC's. One part of that toolkit was this research report. The report is titled "Faith-Based CTCs Serving at-risk High School Students in Partnership with Schools." 

Community Technology Review --- The Winter 2005 “Community Technology Review” is now available (http://www.comtechreview.org). In the aftermath of the election and the defunding of the Technology Opportunities Program (see reflections by TOP Director Tony Wilhelm and AFCN President Michael Maranda), it is also a time of exciting developments in community technology.  With 40 articles, updates, perspectives and reviews, “e-Liberation: Broadband, Wireless, Blogging, Podcasting, Open Source, Community eBay, Digital Divide Network” points to specific articles as well as themes in covering projects from Philadelphia, New York City, San Diego, Minneapolis, Champaign-Urbana, IL, Columbia, SC, Illinois and Ohio.  International coverage includes an extended Introduction to the new Journal of Community Informatics, model/best practices from the Ecuadorian Rainforest and the Owerri Digital Village in Nigeria, and Teen Mobile Phone Culture in Japan.  With TA to nonprofit stories on NPower Arizona, TechXchange Philadelphia, the Atlanta Alliance on Developmental Disabilities, and CompuMentor, the issue includes additional policy, advocacy, and organizing coverage as well as a resource section with book and software reviews.

Online Tools for Community Engagement ---Deborah Elizabeth Finn, a community technology leader in Boston recently led a workshop in Roxbury, Massachusetts at the invitation of Organizers Collaborative <www.organizenow.net>, which has created an Organizational Divide Initative with funding from the Boston Foundation <www.tbf.org>. The topic was online tools for constituent engagement. Deborah has made available for downloading in two parts a version of the handout she created for the workshop. Part 1 features a chart of recommendations for specific types of email and web-based tools, which should be useful for nonprofits and other mission-based organizations that are going online to do outreach,organizing, activism, or advocacy. Part 2 offers some strategic guidelines for using online tools; readers of my blog will already be familiar with many of the ideas explained in this section. The handout was designed for organizers and nonprofit workers who are highly skilled in advocacy and organizing but are not experienced in using information and communication technology. You can download the handout at:
http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog/_archives/2005/2/10/314428.html

New Report Notes Importance of Online Health Information for Seniors --- The Kaiser Family Foundation just completed a report that notes another way that the digital divide contributes to widening health disparities and inequities. The report advocates for a public infrastructure that provides an inclusive, open access, information "commons." According to the report, this type of public infrastructure must be actively pursued to create and sustain just and equitable civil societies.  A webcast of this event was provided by kaisernetwork.org, a free service of the Kaiser Family Foundation. The webcast, transcript, and related resources is available at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/healthcast/kff/12jan05 . Copies of the report (#7223) are available on the Kaiser Family Foundation's Web site at www.kff.org .

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Websites of Interest to CTCs and CBOs

Black History Month Resources  --- http://www.gp.k12.mi.us/ci/ce/multi/bhmmhs.htm 
African American Art --- http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_AfAm/index.html 
Storyline Online --- http://www.bookpals.net/storyline/index.html
World Conflict Map --- http://nobelprize.org/peace/educational/conflictmap/ 
Digital Divide Network --- www.digitaldivide.net 
Join CTCNet today - TFA encourages community technology centers to join the  Community Technology Centers' Network. For more information, go to www.ctcnet.org .
Support our Program Partners  ---  For a complete list of TFA and TFA-Houston program partners, go to click here.  
We welcome your feedback!  Contact Will Reed at 713.454.6400 or by email at will.reed@techforall.org .

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TECHNOLOGY FOR ALL/Technology For All-Houston

This newsletter is produced by Technology For All especially for our donors and friends.

Technology For All (TFA) and Technology For All-Houston (TFA-Houston) are Houston based non-profit organizations working together to empower underserved communities through the tools of technology.  TFA has supportive relationships with community based organizations operating CTCs in 56 US cities. TFA creates social enterprises to empower low-income and under-resourced communities. Since 1997, TFA-Houston has assisted 185 community based organizations to create and develop community technology centers that bring technology and the opportunities it provides to the residents of Houston area neighborhoods. TFA-Houston operates its own CTC at Mision Milby in Houston's East End. To make a donation click on the donate now button at the bottom of this page. To learn more call 713.961.0012 or email info@techforall.org.

If you do not wish to receive the Technology For All occasional update send  an email to Will.Reed@techforall.org  with the words "please remove" in the subject line.

Copyright 2005  Technology For All, Inc. All rights reserved

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