Down here in Austin, TX it’s been hot and crazy. When I arrived at the Mobile Film School, I learned that we were planning our first annual fundraiser for Aug. 9th. “The Mobile Film School Bowl-a-Rama,” was held in a biergarten and historic six-lane bowling alley. Companies put teams together to bowl in the historic alley where free drinks and food were readily available, while general admission played Wii Bowling, listened to live music, and munched on BBQ. The two full-time employees of the Mobile Film School came up with this idea a mere 7-weeks before the event was set to take place. So, we were on the fast track to a really big event with a really small staff.
In order to do my part in helping get this event off the ground, I needed to jump in quickly. I began where their previous graphic designer left off. Ideally, I would have started a month earlier and conceived all of the ideas myself, but I had to start with the logo and flyer he designed and make the rest of the event a seamless match. After countless emails to our sponsors begging for EPS files, I was on my way to designing my first large signs. Begging for files turned out to be the easiest part, as I was about to get my first lesson in large corporation communication.
One large printing company, that shall remain nameless was horrible to deal with. Although the event has already passed, I’m still receiving emails about filling out the proper legal documents to use their logo. (Not to mention the only reason we used their logo was because they gave us a discount, so we in turn wanted to promote them) This nameless company also printed large orders late, wrong, and lost files.
However, my time here has been fun. It was great to get so involved in an event and get to see the results so quickly. ‘Till next time…

Moving to rural Kentucky sure was an experience. But as the days pass I'm settling in more and getting more accustomed to living in such a small town. I'm really enjoying my work at Appalshop. I'm working specifically on the Thousand Kites Project, which is a relatively new initiative within Appalshop to promote dialogue around the criminal justice system. We do that through various forms of media: film, theatre, radio, and the internet. One of my big projects is to help develop the the web-based portion of the program. I'm working on creating a United States map through google maps that people can navigate to post their own stories, hear stories, see films clips, photos, etc. Through this site we'll be able to connect people on a national (for now) level to engage in conversation. We're also looking at other social networking sites such as Flikr and Facebook to be tools for access.

I'm also learning our content management system, which is exciting. I feel like I've become much more technologically savy working here!

I just got back from a fantastic five days at the Annual Meeting for Alternate ROOTS. ROOTS is a gathering of social justice artists from the south. It was incredible few days and I did a lot of great networking with people in this region. Technology is on the table and many in leadership there are looking to the younger people in ROOTS to guide the way in becoming a technologically efficient organization. We at Appalshop will be part of that process.

Now I'm looking forward to using what I've learned so far and really moving forward in a full and ready way.

Comment from Jules Goins on August 11, 2008 - 1:39pm

Great post, Julia! I am glad you are getting settled in your new community.

The thousand kites site and the social networking sites it is connected to reminded me of a blog post i was reading about establishing an organization's brand across social media. I don't know how much of this has already been mapped out, but it still might be a good read: 50 steps to establishing a consistent social media practice.

Keep up the good work.

The first month went by like a blur. It was so fast I almost forgot to post a report (oops!). It's probably a cliché, but I really did hit the ground running.

My first week was busy with trying to make heads and tales of exactly what I would be doing for my year. I sat down with Josh (my supervisor) and we mapped out a plan for the year. Something that was real helpful was a skill assessment that we wrote out together. We listed skills that I have or would like to have by the end of the year and then he asked me to place my self on a scale from 1 to 10 on each skill. We promised to check in every three months to see how I was progressing. It was also good because it gave us guidelines for the kind of work I would be doing. Once that was finished, he had me working right away.

The highlight of last month was a report that Josh and I co-authored on the way the City of New York shares its information electronically. As a media justice organization, PPH focuses on media and internet policy. One of the ways that we advocate for a more free and more open internet is through periodical articles on key issues that go hand in hand with our organizations overall agenda.

This particular article focused on the way NYC could take better advantage of technology for more government transparency and more government participation. It was exciting because researching for the piece had me talking to people across the spectrum. I spoke to representatives at City offices like the NYPD and the Dept. of Information Tech. and Telecommunications who thought the city was doing a brilliant job on sharing information. I also spoke with people like Daniel O'Neil at everyblock.com (a website dedicated to offering citywide statistics for several cities across the US) who though the NYC could do much better. I also spoke with Council Member Gale Brewer who has been one of the big players within the City government pushing to use technology more to make government more accessible. In the end, I learned a great deal about what they do here at PPH and understood how better to help the organization in building towards doing more advocacy work like this. If you want to check the article, you can go here.

Overall it's been an exciting month and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead. I'm currently trying to rework the programs community outreach strategy, which is proving to be a challenge. I'm also trying to narrow down a few course options for the In Service Training. Till next month.

Comment from Jules Goins on August 11, 2008 - 2:01pm

Kris:
Nice article. Already building up your clips portfolio.

I have to agree with the PDF part of the article; nothing makes me less likely to write about a subject than dealing with info locked in a PDF.

And if you want to read more, check out Kris' blog here.

This first month at UTEC has definitely been activity filled! We have a bunch of programs and activities planned... a youth show, promo spots, commercials, a documentary.. etc (only etc because we seem to add to the list daily) All of the activity is great, lately I've been filming UTEC events and editing them along with LTC's VISTA .. Thomas K. Everything is going well so far and as I organize the various projects I know that things will only get better... Alot of fun, alot of filming and alot of editing... that's what I signed up for and I hope things continue to go in that direction as far as my work. I know that my supervisors want me to become more of a factor in the outreach and street work process here at the Teen Center, but I signed up to mainly use my media skills as a tool to do so.. I hope I can show them, that I will truly be more useful as a silent behind the scenes type director of the media movement as opposed to a direct link between media and Lowell's youth... but as my comfort level with Teens in general increases I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the future, I find myself working directly with Teens and enjoying it. Only time and progress will tell...

Comment from Jules Goins on August 11, 2008 - 4:11pm

Guillermo:
Good work, and I hope you can throw up a link to all the videos and whatnot you are editing/producing.

And, yeah, you might have to grow into outreach, so just keep an open mind to it.

Hello VISTAS!
I hope everyone is officially settled in their new locations and that the first few weeks on the job have been progressing smoothly. Things in NYC have gotten off to a "Great start", as the title of this field report confirms. Along with Alice, I have been learning the ropes at Grassroots.org and getting a better idea of what the year will bring.
One of the things I've been working on with our website (which provides other nonprofits with free technology/online services) is helping to coordinate our Volunteer Web design program.
When a non-profit signs-up to be a Grassroots.org member, they have the opportunity to apply for a volunteer web designer to help them create or improve their site! The volunteers come from all over the world and it's great to see how many talented people dedicate themselves to our member nonprofits. Some of my tasks include connecting/outreach to new volunteers (Craigslist, Volunteermatch, idealist.org) and finding a more effective way for our organization to measure the impact of the volunteer program(tracking the hours volunteers spend on each site).
You can see the Grassroots.org volunteer site here . If the program sounds cool to you and you have web design experience check out the "Opportunities" section to see if there's an organization that interests you!!

Hope to hear about everyone's work soon :)
Laura

Comment from Jules Goins on August 11, 2008 - 4:17pm

Laura:
Volunteer recruitment, my old friend. I'd like to hear how it goes and how you are targeting new volunteers.

I have also had people ask me about getting help with their website, so I will be glad to have a place to direct them, even if just for ideas.

Hope to see you at the New York Craigslist boot camp.

Last week, three young men came into my organization. Initially, I didn’t have a clue why they were here but was told they would be dismantling the moveable wall out of the middle of my room in order to stop the “cubicle” feel of my office. The three of them are recent graduates who grew up in NJ. As it turns out, they’re doing a documentary on volunteering while taking a road trip across the country. When they visited us, they had just started their journey.

If anyone’s interested, their videos from July 25 are from my organization. Their website is http://goodworkstour.wordpress.com/. If you want them to visit your organization, shoot them an email or shoot me one and I can let them know. They’re nice guys and their schedule seemed pretty open. They have been doing volunteer work in each organization they’ve visited. I really admire their work and I have to admit, part of me wanted to join them on their tour of the country.

Comment from Janet Vo on August 4, 2008 - 6:48pm

inspirational stuff...thanks for link.

So, first of all, it was great hanging out with everyone at the PSO in Boston this year. We have a really great crew this year, which makes it a fun and challenging time to become a VISTA Leader, and I'm really looking forward to the next 12 months.

Since the PSO, I've been mainly going over the PSO feedback, getting caught up on my projects at Acorn Active Media, and helping to get Stephen and Nicole settled in their roles as VISTAs at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, which is about 4 blocks from my apartment. Acorn is closely allied with the IMC, and I've always spent a great deal of time there helping out. It's really great to see the IMC having regular staff meetings, and mobilizing around getting them active on their projects.

I have to go up to Chicago this weekend, so right now I'm just trying to make sure that the two of them have everything they need, and to complete some of my projects before I have to leave. Currently I'm working on creating new drafts of the research whitepaper on open-source wireless mesh networking that I completed in May, and of the ARIN IPv6 policy proposal for community networks. The former needs to incorporate some edits by another member of Acorn, and I'm using the opportunity to shore up some of the citations and to add screenshots from the newest build of the mesh software we're developing, but in order to do that I need to build custom images and determine how to flash them onto the hardware I have (Fonera+'s). The latter was introduced at the ARIN meeting in May, where it received a lot of interest but was sent back for revisions. There's a advisory council meeting on a Thursday in the middle of each month, so I was trying to get the edit in for this Thursday, but I'm not sure if I'll make it with all of my other projects. It has to be done by September at the latest.

I'm also working on a website design project for Tokyoprogressive.org and ongoing server maintenance on the Chambana.net colocation project. Chambana.net has a new mailserver that I want to get online, and set up filesharing, distributed logons and a local Ubuntu mirror for the production lab that my VISTAs are working in. Hopefully I'll be able to get at least some of these done before Friday, but if not I should get them done in short order next week.

Hello My Fellow Vistas!

Tomorrow is my last day of service. I'll be checking in to see how everyone is doing! Best of luck to all of you and your future pursuits!

One topic that we've been discussing at length recently is the wisdom of efforts such as One Laptop Per Child, which aim to greatly expand home computer use among low-income children, especially in the third world. It has been taken as fact that computer access is beneficial to children, but is this really so? Are computers an important priority, or are they a distraction from more pressing needs?

A new study offers an interesting perspective on these questions. Economists Ofer Malamud and Cristian Pop-Eleches studied a Romanian program that offered 200 Euro vouchers to tens of thousands of families with children. The circumstances of the program offered the researchers a unique opportunity to compare demographically similar families where the only variable was whether or not the family had received a voucher. The results showed that the program was a tremendous success at improving access to computer technology, but having a home computer actually had a negative result on the child's academic situation - time spent doing homework declined, as did GPAs. Children with computers were 13% less likely to want to go to college and, surprisingly, were no more likely to want to pursue higher education in computer science.

There are a few important caveats. First, and perhaps most importantly, parental involvement greatly reduced the negative effects of winning a computer voucher. This was especially true of families with a stay-at-home mother. Secondly, although the Romanian Ministry of Education provided free educational software, only 30% of families reported having such software installed on their computer. Only 20% of children reported using educational software more than once a week, versus 70% for games. Any new large-scale efforts to provide computers to low-income families need to focus on educational uses - something OLPC is doing, to their credit - to avoid the negative outcomes reported in this study.

Third, it is clear from this study that demand for home computers was very high with this low-income Romanian population. Over 90% of families used their vouchers towards a computer purchase - even though the voucher only covered about 75% of the cost of a computer. By my calculation that would mean that families spent about $80. If we consider that families needed to make less than $16 a month per household member to receive a voucher, than families were likely spending more than a month's income on their computer. If the demand for computers among low-income families in the United States even approximates that in Romania, than digital inclusion efforts shouldn't be afraid to charge modest sums for computers.

Finally, it is important to note that only 6% of those surveyed here had Internet access at home. Fortunately, Internet access is more widely available in American cities than it is in rural Romania, but if a computer with no Internet access serves primarily as a distraction for schoolchildren, will the potential benefits of Internet access also be outweighed by the potential to distract?

Of course, this study only measures the impact of technology access in one area - school performance. It may be the case that computer access is a net benefit for adults - offering access to new resources like distance learning, for example, at the expense of time that would otherwise be spent watching television. Additionally, having a home computer in the United States, where computer knowledge is expected and the Internet is a major part of culture, may be relatively more beneficial than owning a computer in a third world country.

Having said all that, this study should give technologists the opportunity to examine carefully whether we really know as much as we think we do about problems like third-world poverty and education. We ought to consider whether computer technology and the ideas computer scientists embrace (open source or constructivist educational theory for example) may not be appropriate in all circumstances.

Source: http://www.columbia.edu/~cp2124/papers/computer.pdf