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Julie Adler's picture
Julie Adler
Cambridge Community Television
,
February 19, 2008 - 9:40pm
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The latest from Cambridge, Mass.

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It seems I'm about four field reports behind, so I’m providing four links that will help explain what I’ve been working on. The first two relate to my organization’s citizen journalism project and the last two to the youth video journalism club I work with.

1. NeighborMedia citizen journalism site
The third quarter of my VISTA term has been focused on outreach for NeighborMedia. I have been working with our citizen journalists, one neighborhood at a time, to identify outreach opportunities in their zip codes. We are promoting the project as a source of news and information, while trying to stress the participatory nature of the media in the hopes that people will get involved. Due to the civic-mindedness of the people in the program, engaging community members in issues they’re covering has been successful. The only problem is that many of our cit-jos simply do not have the time to be the sole correspondent – or one of two – in their area. It is a full time job, they say, which is why our model is not working as well as others have, and we are looking to re-examine the direction of the project. Some of the stories covered so far: holiday festivals, neighborhood development issues, traffic calming and snow emergency regulations.

2. NeighborMedia episodes
Each month, we try to put together the best of the content that was produced the previous month. Since much of the video content comes from BeLives (30 minutes on the hot set), we are trying to get creative so the show is not just talking heads. I have been rounding up staff members (including myself) to voice over blog entries, and I have an intern who helps me lay the voice track over photographs the cit-jos have taken. We have been assigning production mentors to work 1-on-1 with participants who seem to have the time but just not the know-how to produce video yet. Many of the cit-jos come from backgrounds in print journalism, so the transition to multimedia has been a real challenge for them.

3. Youth View Cambridge
This is the online archive of our new student newscast at Cambridge Educational Access, a media arts organization affiliated with Cambridge Rindge and Latin H.S. In terms of progress, I feel that we have come a long way. (By we, I mean myself and the CEA staff members I am working with.) Since this is an after-school program and that doesn't leave much room for a training program, we have started to really focus attention on certain students based on their strengths, interests and availability. Instead of reaching out for fresh talent, we are trying to make the most of the students we have, because by investing time in them it's more likely they'll stay involved throughout their high school years. (None are seniors.) There is a group of work-study students at the Media Arts Studio where are based, and we consider them part of our Video Journalism club because they often serve as the crew who goes out and shoots stories for the reporters who don't get paid. These students have some degree of technical expertise. What we realized was that one of them was weaker in the production sense, so we recruited him to instead be a key player on the news team (Associate Producer). He gets paid twice as much to do this, and he's a sophomore, so the hope is that he will really soak up a lot of knowledge and be able to pass it on in the coming years.

In other news, we recently tried to do a live-to-tape studio shoot, but it was unsuccessful, so we are trying to figure out how to get organized and make that happen. We found that it keeps students on their feet, so it has the potential to make shoots go more smoothly.

4. YVC blog
We set up this blog as a forum for story ideas and students’ thoughts, but instead it became a good way for us to document recent developments with the video journalism club. As you’ll see in the blog, we took a field trip to channel 5 in Boston where one of our other club leaders works part-time. He gave us a great tour and students had the opportunity to view the live newscast from the studio and control room. Also since the new year, a new program began that was supposed to be part of my VISTA work-plan but had to be cut out due to time constraints. Instead, the idea – to create a news program for 6th-graders – was tweaked and is now being run by one of the media teachers. She is teaching a few 11-year olds basic video news production skills so they can produce segments for YVC.

Another youth media milestone for me was a cyber-discovery that I made: hsbj.org, an offshoot of highschooljournalism.org, which led me to the RTNDF broadcast journalism teacher listserv. The messages that come through are often very helpful, making the listserv an extremely valuable resource for the high school broadcast journalism community.
------
(In news unrelated to my VISTA work, CCTV is hosting a Digital Divide pilot project in collaboration with the city and an educational nonprofit. Participating residents in a low-income housing development are receiving free wireless, refurbished computers and computer training. It's been a really interesting project to watch unfold, especially because it's so in line with the CTC VISTA mission!)

Jack Waugh's picture
Jack Waugh
Center for Community Technology Services at the University of Baltimore
,
February 14, 2008 - 2:54am
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Menus and Uploads

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I implemented the "main menu" for our CMS. Nine rules determine which pages the menu indexes when a given page is being displayed.

Currently, I am working on the ability to import HTML files exported from Microsoft Word (even though everyone should switch to OpenOffice.org).

Victoria Edwards's picture
Victoria Edwards
Collins Center for Public Policy, Inc.
,
February 8, 2008 - 1:33pm
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Update

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So long time no write, I guess I haven't updated in a while. Anyway in the last few months we threw our first Breakfast Blastoff Conference in January. We had a great showing, including the local program director for the Knight Foundation (who we're having another meeting with next week). It was really exciting to get the separate agencies together, and a few agencies have even started working together on separate projects. Since the success of that meeting we've been working on a couple follow-up meetings. First one that will be devoted to helping the separate agencies as a resource in building curriculum, and then another meeting to educate these agencies, and see how they can get involved with, the Knight Foundation's $4.5 milliion dollar Universal Access Initiative. Anyway I have a conference call today so I'll talk with all of you soon.

~Vic

Tony Brown's picture
Tony Brown
The Wilderness Technology Alliance
,
February 5, 2008 - 1:04am
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Up Date

well thing's is still hective around here I am glad to say that we are now starting our 3nd. semester and even added a new class so now we have intro to computers, microsoft word ,excel also a coputer refurbishing class. also take note that the microsoft classes is 2007 also we are prepairing for the nten confreence we plan on taking (5) of my volunteers with us also we have been choosing to set up the internet caf'e for the conference we are still continuring our saturday's classes where we offer a p4 tower & a 18''flat screen monitor for $99.00

Tony Brown's picture
Tony Brown
The Wilderness Technology Alliance
,
February 4, 2008 - 10:03pm
No comments

Up Date

well thing's is still hective around here I am glad to say that we are now starting our 3nd. semester and even added a new class so now we have intro to computers, microsoft word ,excel also a computer refurbishing class. also take note that the microsoft classes is 2007 also we are prepairing for the nten confreence we plan on taking (5) of my volunteers with us also we have been choosing to set up the internet caf'e for the conference we are still continuring our saturday's classes where we offer a p4 tower & a 18''flat screen monitor for $99.00

Morgan Sully's picture
Morgan Sully
Media Arts Center San Diego
San Diego, CA
February 1, 2008 - 11:24pm
No comments

Field Report #10: Reconciling 'Capacity Building' with 'Fighting Poverty'

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KM
So the past few weeks have seen some pretty exciting things happening around the website I'm developing for NAMAC. We've had some good conversations around how we will build it out, what the different parts will look like and what benefit we will be able to offer our members. Building out our website with the new technologies (previously unavailable through our current site or to NAMAC as a whole) will certainly be a bit 'disruptive' at first and I'm a little nervous.

Our website has a national readership from people across the field of media arts and technically, has had quite a bit of extensive customization. It's development is coming along well, if a bit tedious at times. LOTS of technical tweaks, multiple module/theme installs, TONS of learning about even more intricacies of Drupal throughout. I've also done a few custom PHP hacks in the code of certain modules and am looking forward to learning more about PHP (which my org has offered to support via paying for classes - sweet!).

In all of this technical service though, sitting behind the computer screen and making sure all the various bugs are worked out of the system, making sure things appear and function correctly - I can't help but think I'm missing something important to my service as a VISTA - working to end poverty. This is a HUGE part of what it means to be a VISTA. This is part of our underlying mission in all of the work that we do and as VISTAs we are situated at the tail end of a long history of national public service through AmeriCorps. It is this idea, that I feel is at the core of being a VISTA.

Yet here I am, sitting in an office, looking at lines and lines of code, PHP and Excel spreadsheets - far removed from the people/communities who VISTA supposedly helps. I feel like I'm having a bit of VISTA 'mid-year crisis'. Is the work I am doing really helping people? Will it really help people?

I imagine that this is a common issue for other VISTAs who do a lot of 'capacity building' work - particularly the more 'technical' work, like database management, IT systems planning, etc. My work is certainly that, but the day to day interaction I've previously had with people in the computer labs, youth centers and drop-in centers - direct-service - is amiss. To see the immediate effect of things I did with people to help them along their way - whether helping a homeless kid write a resumé, taking a former speed addict to a college 'open house', or even showing someone how to register for an email address were so gratifying and I could take great pride in doing those things - it also kept me pretty humble to the things in life I was lucky to have or achieved.

Photobucket

Currently, the thing that keeps me going - and which guides most all decisions around the design and implementation of the new system - is an idea. The idea is to use the website as a member knowledge management platform for the field - a resource that people in the field of media arts can trust as a guide to galvanize field-wide development and innovation, an idea that people can rally around in support of NAMAC's own mission to "energize independent voices in the field of media arts". Luckily, it's a vision that many of our member orgs share and it also happens to tie in with my own aspirations in life.

Being here at NAMAC as a VISTA has put me on a good career path for professional development in the field of knowledge management and my org is certainly supportive of it, but I still have my occasional difficult patches along this path opening up as I imagine other VISTAs do on their own paths. And there's still the need to bring our communities out of poverty - our mission as VISTAs.

It's been said that "No one is free when others are oppressed". Challenges mean growth, right?

My question to anyone reading this, particularly CTC VISTAs is:

How do you reconcile not being able to see the immediate effects of what you do in your 'capacity building' as a CTC VISTA with the AmeriCorps mandate of 'helping to alleviate illiteracy and poverty'? Isn't that what most of us became VISTAs for? To serve our communities, fight the bad guys of poverty and illiteracy and perhaps, if we're lucky, get a good start to a sweet career path?

What are your thoughts?

gariet cowin's picture
gariet cowin
Portland Community Media
,
January 25, 2008 - 6:07pm
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I love books.

Categories:

This isn't really VISTA related, but I just wanted to give a shout-out to the Portland Public Library system, which is super-great. Due to lack of funds, VISTA's often have to find free entertainment, and for me, that means the library. The Portland library system allows me to check out 150 items at once. They also let me place holds online, and then they ship my books (or DVDs or CDs or whatever else) to the library location of my choice (for free). All items that I check out are mine for three weeks.

Recently (at the library), I discovered a book series called The Story of Science, by Joy Hakim. Although it seems to be written for 5th graders, I found all three books to be fascinating (especially the second book, "Newton At the Center", and the second half of the third book, "Einstein Adds a New Dimension"). In fact, I am now considering going back to school after my VISTA term is up, and becoming a scientist. Hooray!

gariet cowin's picture
gariet cowin
Portland Community Media
,
January 25, 2008 - 5:45pm
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OLLIE gigs and Dental complaints

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I'm just finishing up week one (week two for some schools) for the Winter session of OLLIE. The groups we are working with this time already seem to be an infinite improvement over some of the groups from last session. I'm not going to put all of the blame on the schools and students though. I was so burnt out by the end of the Fall session, that I probably wasn't very fun to work with either. From now on, I am going to make sure that I have a couple weeks between sessions where I can regroup and de-stress. That doesn't necessarily mean a vacation. In my case, it just means doing something else that doesn't involve kids.

In other news, I am extremely frustrated with my dental situation. I've been avoiding the dentist because I can barely afford a cleaning, not to mention whatever fillings might be required. Turns out this was a bad idea. But now I REALLY can't afford to go to the dentist because I know something is (expensively) wrong, but not wrong enough to warrant immediate relief-of-pain surgery which is the only type of coverage I have. So what can I do? Wait until it gets worse and painful, I guess.

Would it really cost that much for the government to throw in a little basic dental care for us? It seems to me that it would save them money on costly emergency dental procedures. Maybe I'll just swap my teeth out for some dentures. Then I won't have to worry about it.

Elisha Durrant's picture
Elisha Durrant
Tincan
,
January 23, 2008 - 4:02pm
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A complete year

Everyone is writing their end of the year reports. For me it has been a rather challenging year. There are so many hurdles that you have to over come.

Professionally this year has been a wonderful opportunity. I have learned so much from my organization and the people that I work with. I'm surrounded by awesome people that have become great friends. I've got to do quiet a bit of networking and learning about how nonprofits operate or should operate. I've been introduced to the world of grant writing. I feel that I accomplished a great deal. We received a local grant that I've been working on since summer. I've planned public events (even though it was a complete flop) I learned the processes required for putting together a successful event. I worked with an after school program. And now I'm learning about running a fundraising campaign. And so much more....

Personally I've made a great deal of sacrifices. It has been a very hard year. Was the sacrifice worth this wonderful experience? I'm not sure I know the answer to that question. Early on I agree to complete another year as a Vista. Now that decision is haunting me. I'm not sure if I want to have to live this way for another year. We will see.

Jack Waugh's picture
Jack Waugh
Center for Community Technology Services at the University of Baltimore
,
January 23, 2008 - 2:46pm
3 comments

Still Working on CMS

Categories:

I am still working on the CMS.

I am investigating how we can accept uploads of Microsoft Word documents and extract the content from them to convert to our format.

Most recently I contributed some test cases to the tests that get run repeatedly to defend against breaking the code.

In my last report, I didn't say what areas of the code I was contributing on. Since the previous report to that one, I have worked on the editable pages. I also added code that lets an administrator compose their own menu, and code that generates a menu automatically based on the context of a page within an hierarchy of pages. I added the code that lets the administrator choose from among a few predefined layouts for a given page (this choice being inherited, by default, by the page's descendants in the hierarchy), and choose the menu and sidebar for a given layout to include.

I posted at http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/2606 a comparison of programming languages Smalltalk and Ruby.

Comment from Kevin Palmer on January 24, 2008 - 3:02pm

Kevin Palmer's picture

Hey Jack,

As always I'm impressed by your Ruby know-how. One quick question: for an amateur like myself where would be a good place to start learning Ruby-on-Rails basics/how did you learn it? Thanks!

Comment from Jack Waugh on January 24, 2008 - 4:27pm

Jack Waugh's picture

Hey, Kevin.

I started learning (I still have a lot to learn when it comes to the Rails framework) from Hansson, Thomas Heinemeier: _Agile Web Development with Rails_. However, I have heard at least one other Rails developer cite some other book, that I don't remember, that he said he liked better than Hansson's. You might want to scan some of the fora for conversations where others have asked for book recommendations and the more experienced people have responded. Maybe you'll see two or three reviews putting some other book above that one. Not that it's a bad book; I think its approach teaches quite well. He begins with the simplest working examples and builds on those.

One problem with writing about Rails is that Rails evolves pretty fast by comparison to the time scale on which books get published.

By the way, I came across a development that's maybe to the alpha-test stage, for which the author claims programming efficiency to put Rails to shame. See Flower.

Comment from Jack Waugh on January 25, 2008 - 10:30am

Jack Waugh's picture

My mentor just wrote to me, "As an aid in learning Rails, and if you haven't already, I strongly suggest
spending some time with the screencasts at http://railscasts.com ". Those are free. Our other co-worker routinely watches one of those while he has his lunch, and he says they have informed him greatly.

Naomi Jimenez's picture
Naomi Jimenez
Marcus A. Foster Educational Institute/OTXWest
,
January 22, 2008 - 3:52am
1 comment

The time has come to say goodbye...

Categories:

Hi everyone! This is my last blog entry as a CTC VISTA. It has been a very fun and rewarding year for me. It all started when I moved to California from Philly. I still can't believe I up and left Philly and all my family and friends to move to a place where I had no permanent place to live, everything was totally unfamiliar, and where everyone (except for 1 person) was a stranger. I remember feeling so scared yet excited at the same time. I didn't know what to expect. My transition was rough not only for me but for my cat that I dragged along (sorry Meechie). I was fortunate to be temporarily housed by my co-worker and his wife for a month and then again for a few more months after my first roommate situation went bad. But then I ended up with a really cool and compatible roommate in June and both Meechie and I have felt at home ever since. :)

But where did the time go? It feels like I've only been here a few months. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. I still feel so new to the Bay Area and have many more things to do, places to see, and cool people to meet. I have accomplished a lot in the last year though. I worked really hard creating and enhancing curriculum for the computer classes that we provide, I taught digital storytelling workshops to the Oakland youth, created a databases, refurbished computers, installed computer labs in schools and other organizations, and helped develop the website. We distributed over 2000 computers and installed about 1500 to schools in the year I served. I've gained so much knowledge and experience from doing these things and it amazes me how far I've come in one year.

But now my year as a VISTA has come to an end today. But I had a fitting ending to my year. I participating in an MLK day of service at Sobrante Park Elementary School. My organization, along with Hands on Bay Area and Kaiser Permanente Hospital, installed 50 computers in the school. I had a blast and I scored a really cool MLK day of service shirt (gotta love free stuff).

So tomorrow I will be an official OTX-West employee. I will be doing much of the same and then some. I feel like I did everything I set out to do and I'm really proud of myself for that. I really made a difference in the lives of many Oakland residents, in that my service was a step forward in eliminating the digital divide. But it doesn't stop here. There is still so much to do and so much room to grow. I'm looking forward to what 2008 will bring and hope that it's as good to me as 2007. Good luck to you all and keep up the great work!

Peace out,

Naomi

Comment from Morgan Sully on January 25, 2008 - 9:55pm

Morgan Sully's picture

Naomi!

That's awesome news that you got hired at OTX - looked like an inevitably awesome choice for both you and OTX.

Go VISTA!

Julie Bohnlein's picture
Julie Bohnlein
Boston Community Access and Programming Foundation, Inc.
,
January 21, 2008 - 1:55pm
No comments

End of service wrap-up

As of today, my service with VISTA is done.

My summer was spent in a multimedia center with 20 highschool kids.
Home Inc. (http://www.homeinc.org/summer) has episode summaries, and hopefully someday, the videos themselves.

Most of the segments are available on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=teentvboston)
My favorite video is from Medicine Wheel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88WoTI7KS2g), an organization from South Boston that turns desolation into gardens. And has, of course, my favorite, apple walls.

When that ended, I was left to my own devices to busy myself. This resulted in learning a few new programs and digital photography, photoshop, and motion curriculums for BNN to expand their cataglogue of classes. I heard the photoshop class is being picked up, but the curriculum will possibly changed and tweaked according to who will teach the class.

Jim Mora's picture
Jim Mora
HELP of Ojai
,
January 17, 2008 - 5:46pm
3 comments

Drupal Site Migration, Lots going on!

Hello Everyone,
Much activity is going on at the transforming former jail site. We are in the last mile of hurdles compleing our County conditional use permit. This required raising a sum of money for infastructure, demolition, and asbestos abatement. This really is shaping up to be a "jail to jewel" it is a beatifull, wooded campus . We have a large host of synergistic non-profits lining up to be tenents. We really haved passed critical mass!

We have a small army of volunteers that are much of the driving force.
I have been in charge of protecting our fiber backbone and Cat5e drops since they always seem to get severed in construction and demolition jobs.

Drupal Migration:
Has anyone performed a Drupal migration from one location to another and changed the domain name? Any feedback would be gratly appreciated.
Jim Mora
jimm@helpofojai.org

Comment from Kevin Palmer on January 18, 2008 - 12:36pm

Kevin Palmer's picture

Hey Jim. That's really great there's so many organizations already excited to move in!

I've done a couple Drupal migrations recently (along with Ben who just moved the ctcvista.org site to a new host. Go Ben!). Are you working with PHPMyAdmin in the migration process?

Comment from Ben Sheldon on January 20, 2008 - 5:20pm

Ben Sheldon's picture

Hi Jim,

I actually just moved our ctcvista.org website to a new webhost last weekend. It wasn't too much trouble---though we're lucky since we don't get too much traffic. I would recommend a late Saturday or Sunday night (since that's usually lowest traffic), but the steps are basically:

1) Put Drupal into maintenance mode (in the admin settings you can take the site offline)
2) copy over the files to your new webhost (I use the command line to tar on one server and wget on the other, but you can use ftp too)
3) dump your database (mysqldump or through phpmyadmin) and insert it into the new database
4) update your settings.php for the new database info
5) if you're going to a new domain name, you should be fine (maybe want to update your settings directory name in /sites). Otherwise you'll want to update the DNS for the domain name.

But it's not too much trouble. Email me or call me (http://ctcvista.org/contact) if I can help explain things better.

Happy Drupal-ing!

Comment from Morgan Sully on January 22, 2008 - 4:27pm

Morgan Sully's picture

Jim,
I have done this before, but without the use of modules.

  1. Put Drupal into maintenance mode (in the admin settings you can take the site offline). Be sure to disable all custom modules from the admin/build menu
  2. Back up the Drupal database. This can be done through PHPMyAdmin. There are also some command line ways to do this, but I don’t know how :p
  3. Create an empty database for Drupal on your new site to prepare for the migration. Again, you can do this through PHPMyAdmin. Be sure to take note of the database name, user and password. There are instructions for how to use these methods in the INSTALL.mysql.txt file that comes with Drupal.
  4. Download the entire folder that contains your Drupal install on your ‘development’ site and then upload it’s contents (not the containing folder!) to the root of the new site.
  5. Insert the database from your old site into the new site (again, easily done through PHPMyAdmin).
  6. Edit your settings.php file. This is found in the [sites/default] folder.

That should be about it. Some pretty cool instructions for using PHPMyAdmin in this process can be found on an old Lullabot podcast for Drupal 4.7:

http://www.lullabot.com/videocast/upgrading-to-drupal-4.7

Anyone think I’m missing something?

gariet cowin's picture
gariet cowin
Portland Community Media
,
January 8, 2008 - 4:25pm
1 comment

Gearing Up For a New Term

This week at OLLIE, we are all getting ready for a new school term. That means new classes, new students, and new projects. All I can say about that is "hooray!". The Fall term was really hard on me. I just couldn't seem to connect with any of the students that I was working with, and sometimes the kids were so rude that I wanted to walk out on the job.
Thankfully, I managed to get a little rest over Winter Break, and I'm just about fully recharged and ready to go back into the classrooms.

Since the last time I posted here, I've managed to get a (drupal) website up and running for OLLIE as well. It's not much to look at, but it does the job. Check it out here. I have a really bad design and color sense, so if anybody has any design ideas for the site, I'm all ears.

Comment from Jack Waugh on January 23, 2008 - 3:36pm

Jack Waugh's picture

The colors look fine to me. I noticed that in some cases, the search for movies doesn't turn up any hits, when it should.

Stewart Blair's picture
Stewart Blair
Appalshop, Inc
,
January 8, 2008 - 3:19pm
2 comments

so what have you been up too

Categories:

In October-November, AMI started, its fall media lab. This time around we’re not doing so much media as community leadership. We’re planning an art show this January. We’re taking in local youth art for said art show. The reason for all this, is a lot of the youth here(like most other small towns) complain about how there’s nothing to do. AMI will be bring in some people to talk the AMI students about community leadership. We’re working on organizing for the art show. Also I started working on an Appalshop video brochure.

November-December-January, now we have signed different tasks to the students(music,art,etc). We’ve started a myspace account and started promoting the show. Also we’ve started to collect art. I’m really pumped about this I hope there’s a good turn out

http://myspace.com/appalachianyouth

Comment from Kevin Palmer on January 9, 2008 - 12:11pm

Kevin Palmer's picture

Sounds like a great idea using the media lab to focus on community leadership. Especially integrating youth via myspace. A lot of non-profits have been trying to do that in the last year or so. Definitely interested in seeing how you're using it to create that community.

Good luck on the art show! Will there be pics of it on the AMI site or myspace page?

Comment from Stewart Blair on January 10, 2008 - 2:18pm

Stewart Blair's picture

yes, we'll should have pics and video of the event and some the work.

Sarah Pierantoni's picture
Sarah Pierantoni
Grand Rapids Cable Access Center Inc.
,
January 7, 2008 - 5:53pm
1 comment

I heart my org

Half way through the VISTA experience and ready to start new projects for the remainder of the service year. In the education department, I will be working with youth on Tuesdays, creating stop-motion animation projects, and possibly digital stories, and integrating uploading projects online into the class. Thursdays will consist of working with a program called Girls Empowering Together. Media literacy and basic portable camera production skills will be taught. We will be working together creating a documentary about local women leaders.

In the Wealthy Theater I am working on a slam poetry night project that will be held once a month in the new micro-cinema. Titled "Flow", we are working on creating a space to voice the spoken word and also exhibit experimental video/music.

An opportunity has come up to go to New Orleans in late January to film the events of MLK day. My two best buddies are Americorps Volunteers in New Orleans and are working for relief organizations down there and are putting on some major events through Hands On New Orleans and Rebuilding Together New Orleans. I am borrowing a camera from my org to document the events, and bring it back to Michigan in hopes to spread the word of what is still happening down there. My superivisor rocks, and refuses to let me take time off for it.

I cannot believe it is half over.

Comment from Kevin Palmer on January 9, 2008 - 12:00pm

Kevin Palmer's picture

Wow. Sarah your work plan for the rest of the year is pretty great. Stop-motion animation with the students I worked with last year was probably the most fun and easiest (at least in terms of convincing them of doing it) media project. Are you running it off a curriculum or anything?

Also the New Orleans doc sounds amazing. That's an incredible opportunity and I definitely want to check that out when you get it all edited. And yes your supervisor rocks.

Gabriel Fishman's picture
Gabriel Fishman
Castle Square Tenants Organization
,
January 3, 2008 - 8:11pm
1 comment

Almost Famous

My project was featured in a front-page article in the South End News, a local weekly newspaper. Although the article mangles a few little facts, overall it is very good.

WiFi comes to Castle Square

I'm thrilled that our team has received some recognition for our work.

Comment from Kevin Palmer on January 7, 2008 - 1:49pm

Kevin Palmer's picture

Nice pic Gabe. and they even called you "computer wizkid"! Congrats on getting the recognition. You and Emilio have put in some serious combined labor on that organization and deserve the press. Which facts were mangled by the way? See you at the meet-up next week.

Rian Graves's picture
Rian Graves
Davis Community Network
,
December 11, 2007 - 9:01pm
2 comments

documented info on survey and social networking tools?

Categories:

I have been busy researching the contents of my nonprofit's digital literacy toolkit, which includes the following: 1) model integrated use of collaborative/workflow tools (filesharing, scheduling, project and task planning, synchronous communication and whiteboard), 2) model use of media tools (podcasting, videoblogging, digital storytelling, YouTube and Flickr), 3) survey tools, and 4) social networking tools (Myspace, Facebook, Linked In and Ning).

So far, I have only researched 1 and 2 so if anyone out there as any info regarding 3 and 4, it would be much appreciated. Meaning, I can do a Google search but if anyone has actually documented info on 3 and 4, feel free to send it my way! (you can check out the attachment to see what the format I will have to follow for 3 and 4)

AttachmentSize
model use of media tools v.2.pdf53.07 KB

Comment from Morgan Sully on December 13, 2007 - 3:24pm

Morgan Sully's picture

Hey Rian,
if you can send me the original (editable) copy of the above PDF, I'll happily fill out what I know on it and send it back. This is a great chart.

m

Comment from Ben Sheldon on December 20, 2007 - 1:17pm

Ben Sheldon's picture

Hi Rian---I wrote about some survey tools in an earlier post here:

http://ctcvista.org/node/1175

That looks like a pretty useful list. I have some other stuff sitting around I'll email you too... once I find it :-)

Julie Adler's picture
Julie Adler
Cambridge Community Television
,
December 7, 2007 - 1:04pm
1 comment

A rewarding VISTA moment

Categories:

Earlier this week, I returned to New England from a trip I took with my family to Mexico for my cousin's wedding. While I was away, my videojournalism club at Cambridge Educational Access was supposed to produce the fourth episode of their recently inaugurated newscast, Youth View Cambridge. Now, don't get me wrong -- I wanted very much for the newscast to take place without me (capacity-building!), but when I heard that it didn't, it reminded me that at least I was truly an integral part of the organization. However, I wasn't feeling warm & fuzzy yet; no, it wasn't until we were short an anchor for the show and 16-year old Fredeline came prancing in after-school:

"Fredeline, are you anchoring?" I asked as I exited the studio and approached her. But she didn't hear my question, or at least she didn't respond to it. Instead, her face broke out into a huge grin: "JULIE! You're back!!!!"

We hugged, and she kept talking excitedly: "Betty said you emailed her and I said 'No, Julie's in Mexico!'"

I explained that I had gotten back the day before.

"The show fell apart without you here. We need you!" Fredeline said, or something to that effect.

And I think I'll replay that moment for awhile, a) because it was awesome, and b) to remind me that by this time next year, someone else should be in my role, hearing those same words. (And props to Fredeline, who wasn't planning to anchor that day, but came through for us because we needed her.)

View some of the first episodes of YVC online at www.cpsd.us/ceatv/yvc.htm

Comment from Morgan Sully on December 7, 2007 - 2:52pm

Morgan Sully's picture

Yay!
feeling needed is certainly an important part of being a VISTA.

rock on!

m

Anna Simanovich's picture
Anna Simanovich
HandyCapable Network, Inc.
,
December 6, 2007 - 12:40pm
No comments

The month of appeals

Hello all, sorry it has been awhile since my last post, things have been a little crazy around here and I am sure all of you are getting busier as well. Over the holiday I finally wrote my very first appeal letter and let me tell you it wasn't easy. There is so much that you want the community to know about the successes and missions of your organziation but you really have to be concise because people don't read anything that is more than a page long usually. I tried to focus on how we are the solution to the problem and not just stating the problem with statistics and sob stories(the previous vista did that and it didn't seem to work). I had the chance to interview a client we had helped because it really is all about the stories. I believe stories are what really moves people into action. Even though we might not want to admit it, many people act with there hearts and desires and not with their logic.

So with our letter I included an insert entitled "Leola's Story", I really hope it will grab people's attention because in our business it can be difficult to make computers the focus of our mission because ultimately it is about the people we help in our community because that is what others can really relate to. During this time I have also introduced a new board member to HCN, he specializes in Human Resources, which is something we needed, and tonight we are going to accept a donation($1,000!) that a group he is connected with is giving us, so that is going well. Also we are planning our Christmas Open House, which is next week. I have never planned an event like this and it is harder than I thought so I formed a committee out of the parents of our disabled volunteers. They all have great ideas but we seem to be having trouble coming to a consensus on things. Is this a problem committees have often?

At first we were going to send the invite to the Christmas party with the appeal letters but that didn't really work out. I looked all over the Triad area and no office paper company makes an envelope that is both wide and long, WHY! Maybe I should start my own company:) At the conference we went to that talked about "making the ask" had suggested that December is the worst time to send out an appeal, that really the best time falls in the early spring/late winter just before the a warm weather mentality sets in. Also they suggested the last week of September and first weeks of October. People are "back to work" physically and mentally. Which if you think about it makes sense. We as nonprofits try to be as non-competitive as possible right? So why are we sending out a letter to our community asking them for money at the same time?

Especially when donors are hiking up their credit card bill already to buy for their family. I think it is very important to understand your donors and what they are doing when your letter arrives. So with that being said, we decided to send out our appeal in April. Which frees up my mind for planning this open house! I sent out 200 invities to corporations, funders and individuals that have given money and computer equipment, I hope people show up. You just never know with these things.