I've almost completed my first goal in developing a system to manage incoming/outgoing technology. I've done some research with how other media centers, libraries, universities, and public access stations do this, and found a useful and free system. Now I'm learning how to become a savvy website administrator!

The system I found is a module within Drupal. It's called MERCI, or Manage Equipment Reservations, Checkout and Inventory. This was developed by the genius minds at OpenMediaProject.org who's core mission is to bring people more control of their public access channels. In fact, many of you may be using Open Media's tools. (BAVC, Brookline, Access Humboldt?).

What I need to make sure of is that I will not leave a burden of a system that no one understands how to change, update, or improve. To set up anything besides the basic functions will require an IT position to be staffed at the organization. Expect a screencast or other documentation to help beginner developers get this up and running as a simple, in-house resource for tracking inventory. Any help or collaboration with this is encouraged!

Now that we have visiting instructors that are from outside our organization, the need for educational curriculum on a web-based structure is growing. Google Apps have been a great way to ween off our internal server. Google Docs is used to host reports, curriculum and handouts, and share PDFs onto our blog, macsddiy.posterous.com . Our best program feedback is collected using Google Forms. An email is sent after every workshop that asks to identify what we need to to improve workshop and what the community wants to see more of. I also began a workshop proposal form available on the blog so outside instructors can submit their ideas to us.

This week has been by far, the most intense because we host the San Diego Latino Film Festival March 10-20. I realize that the media lab is a reality thanks to the festival, but right now it's a major thorn in my side. I'm constantly resolving annoying IT issues
due to outdated equipment and our overuse of printers and bandwidth. I cannot wait to rebuild some infrastructure when this festival is all done with and get back to why I'm here!

I'll leave on this note: Mozilla Drumbeat. Amazing. DrumbeatSD was an event organized by NewMediaRights.org and Mozilla a few blocks from here. "Some of the spaces included open data visualization and discussion, open source music and video experimentation, and using technology to enhance our community's connection with local farms and farmer's markets."

Since the L@TCH program is now in full swing, it's been a while since my last update here. I've been directing my blogging energies (which I don't have much of due to other tasks) to the L@TCH blog: http://blog.everyfamilyconnected.org/
Here you can go back in time and read all the ups and downs I've experienced with the L@TCH program so far.

All the pieces seem to be in place to distribute home computers to Baltimore City public school families, except the families... We've only distributed about 20% of our targeted goal (500 computers) and we are almost at the deadline we had previously set to have all computers distributed. The problem seems to be that parents are not receiving information about the program from the schools. We've come up with a couple of strategies to help our school partners reach more families:
1. Phone calls home to parents: We hope that by directly contacting parents we can provide them with the information they need to sign up.
2. In class demonstrations for the students: Our initial idea was to give the students flyers to take home to their parents. The paradox here being, one of the reasons the L@TCH program was created was because we know students often forget to take notes home to parents. Now we are going to get our volunteers to go into the schools and demonstrate some of the educational games that come loaded on the L@TCH computers. Hopefully students will be so pumped about the prospect of getting a home computer with sweet games they will give their parents the flyer and tell them to sign up.

Being the coordinator of this project requires that I keep a lot of people and tasks straight and here is where my weakness lies. Currently, I am working on breaking down all the information in my notes and reviewing everything from the beginning in order to compile it into one document. I'm hoping as I do this it will keep me more organized as I continue the year.

Although we have not had as many workshops as we had hoped at this time, the planning and execution of the workshops we have had is going very well. My favorite part of the job is to see the students and the parents engaged and having a great time at our workshops!

Comment from Bill Brown on February 9, 2011 - 11:39am

love your blog Devon. That story about the teacher refusing to give out her e-mail and didn't want anything to do with home computers is really surprising and unfortunate. Also - can i post the two flyers that you attached on your blog to our resources page? Did you make the flyers or write the copy or anything?

Comment from Devon Smolca on February 9, 2011 - 12:31pm

Thank you for your support! You can most certainly post the flyers. The poster was created by my supervisor and the flyer was a collaboration between my supervisor and I.

Things got a little busier over November and December. Expectedly I had an increase in phone calls/e-mails during the "Storming Phase" but nothing too out of control. I've been lucky that major issues with different VISTAs have not overlapped so I haven't had to juggle too many concerns at the same time. I've also gotten into a basic routine of e-mailing people about a month after I've last heard from them and that seems to be working alright. Everyone definitely has a different way they like to communicate and I construct my e-mails according to whatever standard thats evolved naturally with that person. I'd like to read more field reports but there has been a lot of artifacts and tangibles sent over so I think we are doing alright.

Howie and I finished this huge database of all 400 and some odd Digital Arts Service core members over the past 10 years and I'm now working on how to best display the database on the transmission project's website. I've been toying around with different custom google map icons but haven't yet settled on anything.

In November I attended Edward Tufte's class on information design and it had a very big effect on me and how I design things. I'd highly recommend going to one of his classes if you can get someone else to pay for it.

Projects Completed: Some info-graphics and normal-graphics, database of past DASC members and host sites, some google map icons, transmission project website redesign but not implementation, secret DASC swag design, increased Drupal knowledge, some conflict management action and some dealing with sticky situations action.

Projects in the works: Implement Transmission project redesign, more swag, increase Drupal knowledge further, do all that I can to help people when they ask.

Resolution of the Year: No TV (sit-coms/dramas mainly)

Comment from Devon Smolca on February 9, 2011 - 12:24pm

I like those happy tools! Did you create them?

Comment from Bill Brown on February 9, 2011 - 12:29pm

yep yep

L@TCH got a grant from the Abell Foundation and we think we've found someone who is interested in helping us evaluate the program, this means we can really put L@TCH into motion. My supervisor, Gayle describes it like someone has suddenly opening the gates and we are off running!

I've written some web content, our website is now finished: everyfamilyconnected.org
My supervisor and I have been busy meeting with the school coordinators/principles to discuss how many students will be needing computers. Our goal is to distribute 75 per school. We may start looking for another school because we want to distribute 500 computers overall. We've also drafted a plan concerning how we will implement the program. I've made a checklist to help the schools we are working with stay organized, now if only could stay more organized myself!

Organizing the information I need to know about each school is becoming difficult but I'm definitely getting better at it and finding different ways to keep it all straight. My supervisor just asked one of her web developers to make us a database which will be very useful in this regard. Also, we now have a L@TCH blog and our updates (once we write them) will eventually show up on the website. One thing I have learned for certain, it takes time to get to know the organization you're working for, for them to get to know you and to figure out the ways you work well together.

We want to keep the teachers informed throughout the program so we can get their help and input but tracking down the school coordinators in order to schedule teacher meetings is no easy task. All the coordinators are wonderful people but also very busy people... We are in the process of drafting a survey for the teachers so that we can gauge how many home technology lessons they assign and how comfortable the students are with computers before and after the program. One of the teachers we met with said only three parents have emailed her all school year. I hope by May we can change that so it's every parent.

So far, everyone we've met with seems really excited about L@TCH starting at their school, now we've got a lot of work to do!

Comment from Bill Brown on October 22, 2010 - 2:51pm

Love the colors on the new website, and the font. Do you guys give out mainly refurbished computers or new ones that y'all buy?

Queridos compañeros de DASCorps, (any takers on translating my greeting?)
I apologize for disappearing for a while, but things have been pretty busy with Latinitas. I have, however, been behind the scenes keeping up with the field reports and I’m really glad to find out that everyone seems to be doing fairly well in their new environments. I’ve noticed that most of you have been provided with these great work spaces and as you can see in the pictures I’ve posted above, our WHOLE OFFICE would probably fit inside one of your great work spaces! Lol! But I really don’t mind it because even though we have limited personal space we have so much room to build camaraderie with the interns and volunteers, plus it’s a lot easier to check on their progress since their computer screen in literally less than a foot away from mine!

Moving on from the subject of our cute little office, the school year has commenced and that means that our after-school clubs and fall internships have begun as well. We had our Fall Club Leader Training on August 20th and I must say that preparing for it was much more challenging than actually leading it. I am really glad my supervisor and some of our summer interns were still there to help. The training consisted of five club leaders (3 of them are in charge of one after–school club and 2 of them are in charge of two clubs, all around different areas of town) and we went over an 80 page packet explaining numerous things such as, the mechanics of the club, how to be a good mentor, club leader duties, different methods on how to motivate their girls to express themselves, etc. I will conduct bi-weekly meetings with these club leaders to check the progress of their clubs and to assign them media related activities/lessons to do at their clubs throughout the semester.
As for our fall interns, we only have two, a Public Relations and Marketing Intern and I am working on bringing in at least two more. Except that I feel a little apprehensive about bringing in more interns because my supervisor is the one who usually assigns them their projects and she is out on maternity leave right now, given that she just delivered a cute baby boy on Friday. That is the reason why I have been so swamped this month, because since our staff consists of only her and I, we have been trying to go through most of the essential tasks and information as fast as possible before she’s out for month and half. So as of this past Friday (Sept. 3rd), I have been the person everyone turns to... and I must say that kind of pressure is pretty intimidating! Although, I have to add how impressed I am at my supervisor’s incredible ability to accomplish so much up until the last day of her pregnancy, I mean she really did not leave anything pending and she even made a list called “While I’m Out” which consists of useful phone numbers, tasks, events that are scheduled for the following 2 months, intern and volunteer projects, etc. She has truly done a tremendous job at preparing for her temporary departure. Let’s just hope I can keep it that way!! Wish me luck everyone...stay tuned for this month’s field report maybe I’ll be able to talk about all the wonderfulness I accomplished on my own!
PS. I also forgot to mention that on August 31st Latinitas was interviewed live on an NPR affiliate Spanish station called Radio Bilingue, and guess who they interviewed...Me! The interview questions dealt with the basics like who we were, why we were important, when we started…etc. They also interviewed one of our teen writers and she did an amazing job at expressing all of the great things she has learned and accomplished since she has been with Latinitas.
Here is brief description of Radio Bilingue:
Radio Bilingue is the first Spanish-language radio network to broadcast news over the public radio satellite system in the United States. Our national program Linea Abierta reaches hundreds of thousands of listeners nationwide and is the only Spanish-language news show aired on the national public radio network. The program is aired in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson, and dozens of other cities, as well as numerous rural areas across the country. Furthermore, Radio Bilingue has a decades-long tradition of providing in-depth coverage to special events involving Latino civic participation.

Ok then friends, ta-ta for now :)

Love, peace and elbow grease!

Comment from Ben Sheldon on September 9, 2010 - 12:14pm

Though your offices may be small, they look much better decorated than my own (which isn't any bigger). I love all those photos on the walls and how colorful it all is. I'm glad that you don't feel totally lost with your supervisor out on leave so quick into your service---it sounds like she set you up pretty good. Congrats on getting the radio interview too! Do you have a copy of it?

Keep up the great service! :-)

Comment from Marisol Guzman on September 9, 2010 - 9:30pm

Thanks Ben! I actually do have a copy of the interview...do you want a copy?

Comment from Megan Andrews on September 13, 2010 - 4:19pm

Sounds like you are doing a lot of good work! I'd love to hear your interview too if you can easily email it or something.

Comment from Michael Ewing on September 13, 2010 - 6:08pm

Querida Marisol,

Is there a podcast of Radio Bilingue? I would love to check it out!

Un abrazo,

Mike (Miguelito) Ewing

Comment from Marisol Guzman on September 13, 2010 - 10:11pm

Yeah here is the link to the actual radio show that covered our interview. In case it wasn't obvious before, all of it is in Spanish and I must also add that after listening to it for myself....I sucked!!

http://archivosderb.org/?q=es/node/4837

Comment from Marisol Guzman on September 13, 2010 - 10:25pm

OH and Miguelito,
Im not sure if there is a podcast for Radio Bilingue, but there might be one for Linea Abierta, which is the segment we were on. Here is the direct link to their website:

http://www.radiobilingue.org/

I took a quick poll of my co-workers this morning, asking what I should post a picture of that would make you all want to come work with me at the Advancement Project. The resulting photograph incorporated most of their feedback:

1. Exercise balls (I wasn’t kidding about office yoga).
2. Puppies (Beretta has been dubbed the “office dog”).
3. Juice squeeze (All you can drink, baby).

Add that all up (plus a gorgeous Rock Band session in the conference room last Wednesday… not pictured unfortunately) and I would say everything at the Advancement Project (or “Poject” as our entryway said until recently when someone tacked the ‘r’ back on) is moving along just fine.

My supervisor got back from vacation mid-last week, so we were finally able to go over my VAD and hash out a game plan. She let me choose the areas I wanted to focus on and I made a handy little time line to get the ball rolling. (Now I can stare at my computer screen with purpose). I’ll upload a pdf for anyone who might need to make a timeline for their project; I’ve fallen in love with the format’s utility.

In other news, I was able to attend a workshop that Healthy City (my branch of the Advancement Project) put on at The California Endowment this past week, and it was a great opportunity to see people using the sight and observe what aspects give them trouble. Now I have a better sense of what areas of the website I should start with for usability testing, etc.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. I'm looking forward to hearing about what projects everyone else has been working on.

Peace y'all.

Comment from Bill Brown on August 25, 2010 - 3:00pm

Howie and I need to get some of those exercise balls for sure...possibly cover our entire office with them. I'm glad things are rocking (literally) at the Advancement Project - Keep me in the loop when you start "Secondary Research: data visualization + maps" next month.

Comment from Philip Dahl on August 25, 2010 - 7:05pm

A puppy and all the juice you can drink? :-( I hate you.

Comment from Rachel Allen on August 31, 2010 - 4:06pm

What program did you make this timeline in?

Comment from Caitlin Flint on September 2, 2010 - 1:45pm

If I leave a response here, do those who have commented automatically find out about it? ...fingers crossed

@Rachel--
I made the timeline in Adobe Illustrator, but you could probably do something similar with a table + some rectangles in word, or with the shape tools in power point. Even better: pencil and paper (If I can avoid using microsoft office, I will). How it's made doesn't really matter; I just love the format because I get a granular list view and a big picture sense all at once. (P.S. loved your ship metaphor!)

Comment from Michael Ewing on September 13, 2010 - 6:23pm

That timeline is amazing! I'm definitely going to put one together too. Hooray for visual people.

Last weekend was a work weekend for the station at their new location.
I was working with volunteers cleaning up and repairing the facility.
I was also getting a feel for where a tower might go to microwave their signal. I advised them on sound proofing of the studio and offices. I worked with them on budget concerns for the build out, suggesting they use some of the existing doors just reconfigured.
I am doing additional research on sound proofing. I attended the Monday morning staff meeting and suggested they look at merging with the somewhat defunct sarasota.indymedia.org website. It could serve their purpose well for developing a citizen reporter corp. and expand their web presence.
Oh, I should mention I ran into a City Council member at a community meeting (citizens advocating for a city power utility company) and mentioned the opportunity of the station being the broadband provider for the downtown and the poorer barrios to the north and he said get me the proposal. Whoa.. now I get to get working.

Comment from David Beaton on August 23, 2010 - 11:18pm

Got first paycheck...yeah!!

Comment from Bill Brown on August 24, 2010 - 10:01am

For someone that doesn't know much about radio, what does "microwave their signal" mean?

Comment from David Beaton on August 24, 2010 - 2:30pm

Currently the station is dependent on getting their signal to their tower by using the local cable company, Comcast. Using a microwave signal (a focused beam of radiation) from their studio to the transmitter site would allow them to have a stable studio to transmitter link (STL). It would be a one time cost for equipment and installation vs a continual monthly charge from Comcast. The microwave signal could be FCC licensed or unlicensed depending on the budget and air traffic. The station would need a clear line of site from the new studio location to the transmitter.

We have one multistory building in our path. We are trying to contact the owner to see if he is sympathetic to a transfer point on the top of his building.

Comment from Gavin Dahl on August 24, 2010 - 8:40pm

Feel free to email todd [at] commonfrequency [dot] org with any questions, David. Cool stuff.

Comment from Megan Andrews on August 25, 2010 - 11:03am

We have two buildings on the University campus here that are blocking us from a microwave signal. You mentioned a transfer point on the building. How does that work? And would it work if there are two buildings in the way?

Comment from David Beaton on August 27, 2010 - 12:08pm

If one of the 2 buildings is higher than the other you may need only one transfer point. You need to get permission to put a microwave antenna on the highest building that is not blocked by others and a second antenna relaying it to the source location as I understand it.

Comment from Ericha Hager on August 27, 2010 - 5:54pm

Sounds like you are a mover and shaker Dave! Great!

New Start…
…in many ways

My first day on the job I was assigned a little office (and a MacBook Pro to work on!). It’s very officey seeming, not so much hip. Two desks, four really fantastic seeming office chairs, 2 giant CISCO phones, two little trash bins, and two tiny windows. I put together a detailed calendar of my VAD goals and tacked it to the wall. I’m not so good at decorating.

I went over my VAD with my boss. Like we’d all been told at PSO, my boss stressed how important it was to take several weeks to get accustomed to how things run around here. We talked about a permanent work schedule for me and discussed a couple of things I could do to explore the building, the organization, and the town. Each member of the small staff is extremely supportive and I’m confident that it will be easy to get comfortable in my new job.

By Wednesday I was feeling productive, getting to know people and compiling a mini database with info on local organizations, when I began to feel quite ill. I had to leave work early and on Thursday I went to the doctor. Turns out I had some weird but super intense viral thing that unfortunately kept me out of work the entire rest of the week. I almost emailed Billy and Ben because I was worried it was going to turn into a crisis if I was still not back on my feet by today. Anyhow, virus gone. I’m back to work today (Monday 8/9/10)! And, as part of “shadowing” individual employees, I helped film a show this morning! How exhilarating! My first time behind the camera!!

Welp, hope you’re all well. I’ll report more next time I do something cool.

Comment from Austin McCann on August 12, 2010 - 11:21am

Glad you're feeling better! It sounds like you have a pretty sweet set-up. I'm working in the Stone Age at the IMC!

Comment from Bill Brown on August 12, 2010 - 8:53pm

Thanks for posting some desk shots - I like seeing where people work. I also like seeing how people make their planners/calendars. Right on.

Comment from Erica Jones on August 13, 2010 - 12:47pm

I also am a big fan of seeing office/desk pictures! It gives some context to what type of environment people are working in, and this seems quite accommodating on your organization's end, especially having a mac laptop-holler!

Having a supportive staff is so key to getting settled into your job. When in doubt, always ask questions. They are sort of like gurus in their own way so ask them questions about the community, who their supporters are, their partnerships, who their board is, etc. Sorry to hear about the virus but glad to know you recovered well :-)

My first week at Common Frequency began with a small informal gathering at DAM House, marking my arrival & birthday, as well as the replacement of a dude who lived in the house with one of Common Frequency's board members. For now I'm working out of a punk rock & experimental noise venue that has been inhabited by Common Frequency's program director on-and-off for 10 years. See Todd in the photo.

I have made numerous calls and typed out tons of emails, setting up visits to community groups who are working toward getting their radio stations on the air. Common Frequency helps groups compete with out-of-town religious broadcasters for community access, specifically by filing petitions to deny when the FCC makes technical mistakes on applications. I'm not writing filings, but I am helping to track down applicants whose projects have been on hold for years and they are so excited to find out I'm here to support them!

On my first day, I had a good meeting with the steering committee at KDRT-LP, which will be my home radio station until some of our projects get closer to launching. Next week I'm participating in a conference call organized by Prometheus, meeting with an operations training person at KDRT, deciding what kind of smart phone to buy, and starting a (dreaded) spreadsheet to keep track of everyone I've contacted so far. I also have community visits to Santa Cruz and Stockton planned now.

Meanwhile, this weekend we'll be looking at my job description, trying to update it to make it as realistic as possible. Funding levels really make a difference in terms of how much the org can get done. So I think getting the timelines to be more realistic on a few points will be key to success. I want the service I do to fit into what is acceptable to Transmission Project, and most important of all is the community groups I'm serving. I really want to deliver, you know?

Comment from Philip Dahl on August 8, 2010 - 2:24pm

Santa Cruz!! aw man!

I bet being the guy on the phone is tough but it seems like you're giving out some good news (people are seriously waiting that long without pursuing other avenues?). I bet that a lone will make them excited to work with you.

Comment from Megan Andrews on August 9, 2010 - 10:56am

Is the conference call you have tonight at 5? I will be on that as well.

Comment from Ben Sheldon on September 2, 2010 - 11:17am

What has your first month delivered so far? I'm glad you're diving into things though I don't think I was ever concerned that you wouldn't be going in head first. It's good too that you're tracking everyone you talk to (ugh, spreadsheets)---nothing sucks more than being 6 months and needing something from someone whose name you don't remember. Also, what smartphone did you buy? (I had to ask)

Comment from Gavin Dahl on September 3, 2010 - 1:14am

Decided smartphones are too expensive right now. Got a phone for $75 by Samsung on the MetroPCS network. $45 per month total for unlimited calls, texts and basic email. Since I have a laptop, I'm mostly just on the Mac. No need to spend all that extra money for a fancy device I won't really use right now. Hmm, what has my first month delivered? Plenty that I'll try to describe in the next field report. What have I delivered? Unfortunately that list is not long enough yet.