Technology For All  
Occasional Update -  July 2005    

"Together We Empower Communities"

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

Janice Anderson, Jack Clark, Ray Davis, and Greg Phillips join boards --- Three new board members have been elected to the Technology For All Board of Directors. Janice Anderson, Andrew J. Clark, III and Ray Davis bring important skills and expertise to the board. Janice Anderson serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Access Sciences Corporation (www.accesssciences.com ), a company that she founded in 1985 as Access Information Associates. Access Sciences Corporation and its employees are information management specialists. Ray Davis is the Founder and Vice Chairman of SimDesk Technologies, Inc. (www.simdesk.com) He is the visionary behind SimDesk's revolutionary technology, a revolutionary combination of web-enabled client software and highly scalable data communications technology that are the most significant and pioneering Internet innovation in the last 20 years. This quantum leap is made possible by a unique data transport technology and high-speed server architecture that produce system efficiency, reliability, and scalability that are orders of magnitude beyond previous standards. SimDesk’s World Wide Server™ provides communication, collaboration, and personal services securely to any Internet-capable computer, wireless, or personal device, anywhere in the world.  Jack Clark has been with TFA since its beginning through the provision of pro bono legal services and important leadership connecting TFA's work to the work of the YMCA, where he has served for many years as an active board member. Jack continues to serve on the board of TFA-Houston which he helped found as an organizing board member in 1997.  In addition to his important assistance with nonprofit legal issues, Jack's work as a corporate attorney brings important expertise and relationships to TFA.
    Joining the Technology For All-Houston board is Gregory L. Phillips. Phillips is the co-founder of Phillips & Reiter, PLLC, which provides independent general counsel services for small to medium market corporations. His services include providing legal services for commercial transactions, counseling on intellectual property issues, support of corporate governance and securities matters, as well as the management of litigation and labor issues.  The firm has offices in both Houston and Austin, Texas.  Prior to establishing his own firm, Greg was an Associate General Counsel and Assistant Corporate Secretary for Compaq Computer Corporation. Greg also serves on the board of the South Union CDC, which will soon be one of Houston's newest community technology centers.
    TFA welcomes each new board member and thanks them for taking on this important community leadership role. For a complete list of board members click here. 
 
Summer Interns from area universities --- TFA is fortunate to have several interns from area universities. Anita Reyes is assisting in the TFA office. Aditya Nag and from Rice University are working with Joseph Camp on the TFA-Wireless project. Ning Dong, an MBA student with the Jones School at Rice is working on the TFA-Wireless business plan. Summer Interns from the University of Houston College of Technology include Pedro Herrera and Horacio Moreno. They are providing IT services for TFA.
 
Chevron Monitor Distribution --- On Saturday, August 13 TFA will distribute over 500 monitors to Houston area community technology centers. Monitors donated by Chevron will upgrade and replace broken or older and out of date monitors. TFA thanks Chevron for the generous donation that makes this distribution possible and CompuCycle for helping TFA manage the recycling process of monitors being replaced.
 
Request for Computers --- TFA recently opened up an online application process for Houston area community organizations wishing to request computers for the development or enhancement of community technology centers. The online application is open through August 5, 2005 and can be accessed by clicking here. Organizations intending to submit a proposal for the TFA-Houston computer grant MUST attend the RFC-Computer Grant Workshop to be held on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 from Noon-1:30 p.m. The workshop will be held at Mission Milby CDC, 2220 Broadway, Houston, Texas 77012.  Please register for this workshop by sending an email to pam.gardner@techforall.org. Please note in the body of your email that you are registering for the RFC -Computer Grant Workshop.
 
TFA thanks the University of Houston College of Technology, its interns and its students....  ---TFA was the recipient of over 1600 hours of IT services provided by seven interns during Spring 2005 from the University of Houston College of Technology. The seven interns recently completed their work and were honored at the UH Celebration Day held at Mission Milby on Friday, April 29. Interns honored include Levi Adkinson, Ted Bronstad, Chris Bossier, Geremy Eiland, Teague Kramer, Kevin Nguyen, Larry Nguyen. In addition, student project teams from  University of Houston "Technology in the Community" classes presented their findings from technology planning and other projects completed with ten CTCs across the region.  TFA especially thanks TFA-Houston board member, Dr. Cheryl Willis, for her faculty leadership in establishing these service learning opportunities that benefit both the students and Houston area community based organizations with CTCs.
 
Summer Youth Programs --- In collaboration with the Mission Milby Community Development Corporation, LNESC and other community partners, TFA has implemented an extensive summer program of planned learning activities for youth in the East End coordinated by Pete Rodriguez, our AmericorpsVISTA. TFA recently received a United Way Community Building grant to help cover some of the costs of the program which is expected to serve several hundred different junior and senior high students over the summer. For more information contact Pete.Rodriguez@techforall.org or call 713.454.6400.
 
TFA receives United Way Grant --- Recently TFA received a United Way Community Building grant designated for a new digital media program with youth in Houston's east End. For more information about the grant go to http://www.unitedwayhouston.org/news/2005/070105_tfa.html
 
Recent Donations to TFA --- TFA expresses thanks to its recent donors including the Vivian Smith Foundation, Plant Success, American International University, N.A.H., Inc., Sharon Friedman, Chris Bossier, Ellen Peterson, Anthony Dia, Marion Harrison, Mike Dominguez, Access Sciences Corporation, Rice University, Dr. Will Reed, Dr. Bill Haglund, United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, John Brasher, Adam Gohlieb, Crescent Real Estate Equities, The Powell Foundation, Chevron, St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and the  U. S. Department of Commerce.  Cash donations can be sent to Technology For All, 2220 Broadway, Houston, Texas, 77012. To make a computer or other in-kind donation contact Douglas.Caldwell@techforall.org or call 713.454.6412.
 
Is your corporation replacing desktops or laptops? --- TFA has several community organizations waiting to provide a home for those computers in service to community technology centers serving Houston's low-income neighborhoods. Also, we need "learn and earn" computers for students in the East End. Consider the goodwill that your corporation can create by empowering a low-income community with technology tools. As noted, we have a large donation of several thousand monitors from Chevron underway, but each of those monitors needs a computer. Can your company or organization fill the gap? TFA has established TFA-STARRS to assist corporations with its Secure Technology Asset Recycling and Redeployment Services. Through our strategic alliances we can provide you a turn key solution that addresses your data security issues, reduces your total cost of ownership when upgrading computers and benefits Houston's low-income communities. 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


Online Community for Houston area CTCs created on Digital Divide Network --- TFA has created an online community for CTCs in the greater Houston area on the Digital Divide Network (www.digitaldivide.net ). Go to http://www.digitaldivide.net/community/CTCs-Houston  to find out current information about CTCs in Houston and join the community. 

Software for After-School Settings ---The America Connects Consortium recently completed  several research briefs of interest to Community Technology Centers. Perhaps the most useful to those of us in the field is the new downloadable report (PDF format) on software for utilization in after-school settings.   You can download the after-school software report and see all the other reports at http://www.americaconnects.net/research/default.asp?subid=34

Community Technology Review ---Published to coincide with the 13th Annual CTCNet Conference in Cleveland, the current issue of the Community Technology Review has 38 articles, profiles, reviews, and perspectives on a variety of community technology issues including an an update on the expanding CTC VISTA Project, more on Community Networking including Open Space Austin and Houston Wireless, an overview of the growth and impact of the Digital Divide Network, pieces on VoIP and Universal Service, expanded research/resource and international sections, more. It is available online at www.comtechreview.org and in hard copy with discounts for CTCNet, AFCN, and NTEN members.

Save the Date --- Fourth Annual Community Technology Conference & Community Technology Awards Presentation
Friday, November 4, 2005 at the new United Way Community Resource Center
50 Waugh Drive, Houston, Texas
For more information contact Pam.Gardner@techforall.org.
The featured speaker will be Art McGee, http://www.onlinepolicy.org/about/bio/mcgee.shtml

Children’s Partnership releases new report: Measuring Digital Opportunity for America’s Children: Where We Stand And Where We Go From Here. This report is the first to look across four key areas to see whether Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is helping children 1) improve educational achievement, 2) lead healthier lives, 3) increase economic opportunity, and 4) participate in their communities.  The report can be found at http://www.contentbank.org/doms/ .
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Websites of Interest to CTCs and CBOs


NASA Education Resources for CTCs --- http://prime.jsc.nasa.gov/CTC/TFA_BrownBag/ProgramSummaries.htm  
Amelia Earhart --- http://www.ameliaearhart.com/ 
United Nations Population Fund --- http://www.unfpa.org/index.htm
Doodles, Drafts and Designs at the Smithsonian - http://www.sil.si.edu/exhibitions/doodles/index.htm
America Connects Consortium --- www.americaconnects.net
Digital Divide Network --- www.digitaldivide.net

Association for Community Networking - www.afcn.org 
 
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 over 200 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 go to  www.techforall.org and click on the donate now button. To learn more call 713.454.6400 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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