September 2006 Newsletter - Post-ConferenceUS Capitol Building  Edition

The Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet) held it's 15th Annual Conference July 27-29, 2006 in Washington, DC. With the 15th Anniversary as a milestone, the 2006 conference was an opportunity to reflect on the growth and progress made by the community technology movement in the past 15 years, and look ahead to the challenges and opportunities facing us in the road ahead. With this theme, nearly 400 attendees participated in two and a half days of workshops, breakout sessions, networking, and resource-sharing. In this report, you'll find a summary of conference activities along with images, multimedia and archived session descriptions and materials.

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Thursday, 7/27 | Friday, 7/28 | Saturday, 7/29

Exhibitors | Sessions & Workshops | Acknowledgements

Thursday, July 27


Opening Plenary Ami Dar
The 15th Annual Conference opened with an inspiring welcome from Ami Dar, Founder and Executive Director of Action Without Borders, the organization that maintains Idealist.org. Built in 1996 with $3,500, Idealist has become one of the most popular nonprofit resources on the Web, with information posted by 58,000 organizations around the world, and over 40,000 visitors every day. The Opening also included welcome remarks from Andrea Taylor, Microsoft’s Director of Community Affairs, North America.

Feature Panels
The 2006 Conference featured three special panel discussions on key issues and trends impacting CTCs: telecommunications reform, municipal broadband, and disaster relief. These "feature panels" aimed to engage experts and CTC practitioners in discussions about some of the most critical challenges and opportunities facing the field and to spark ongoing conversations. One of these panels, "The Role of CTCs in Disaster Relief and Recovery: CTC Lessons from Katrina", discussed the efforts of CTCs in both the immediate relief efforts as well as the ongoing support to displaced individuals and families. "The Role of CTCs in Municipal Broadband" discussed how municipalities and private partners can leverage CTCs to ensure maximum impact in their efforts to ensure ubiqitous Internet access in their communities. [download mp3 of this panel].

Networking Event
In an effort to incorporate more semi-structured networking time into the conference program, two themed networking events, facilitated by Allen Gunn, were held. Thursday's event encouraged first-time and veteran attendees to meet informally on topics of shared interest and also included a discussion exercise on the role of CTCs in an increasingly connected society.

Exhibit Hall Showcase
This year's conference featured twenty exhibitors, with solutions ranging from technology curricula to program evaluation software. After Thursday's sessions and workshops wrapped up, participants gathered in the exhibit hall for an exciting showcase that included giveaways of more than a dozen products and services donated by our exhibitors.

15th Anniversary Reception
Attendees enjoyed a string quartet and hors d’oeuvres at CTCNet’s 15th Anniversary Reception at the stunning Canadian Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue. In front of a glass wall looking out onto the Embassy's plaza and Pennsylvania Avenue beyond, attendees listened to a welcome from the Embassy, brief reflections from long-time CTCNet leaders Peter Miller and Angela Stuber, and as remarks from Pacific Community Networks Association’s Tate Bengston on the close ties and potential for exchange between community technology efforts in Canada and the United States. Bengston encouraged participants to consider participating in the CTC Operator Exchange Program, which matches CTCs/Telecenters in North America & Latin America for peer learning and exchange. The program is a project of the Telecenters of the Americas Partnership, a consortium of telecenter networks currently including CTCNet (the US), ASPIRA, Inc. (the US/Puerto Rico), Somos Telecentros (South and Central America and the Caribbean), the Pacific Community Networks Association (Canada) and the Chasquinet Foundation, a not-for-profit based in Ecuador which supports telecentres globally.

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Friday, July 28


CTC Resource Center Share Fair
At Friday afternoon's CTC Resource Center Share Fair, a variety of tools and best practices in programs, assistive technology, and community engagement were featured and demonstrated by CTCNet members and by the Resource Center's Peer Experts, who are helping to develop and enhance the collection of resources available in the Resource Center, as well as assist the Centers' users in locating the tools they need.

CTC Site Visits
After the day's sessions and networking activities wrapped up, about 20 attendees participated in site visits to two area CTCs - Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) and Edgewood Terrace. Each year, these visits organized by the local host committee give conference attendees a great opportunity to see community technology at work in the conference's host city. LAYC was founded in 1974 and serves multicultural youth with a comprehensive set of social services and educational, work skills, advocacy programs and residential programs. Attendees learned about LAYC’s innovative programs and efforts to meet the needs of the rapidly changing community of the Columbia Heights neighborhood in Northwest Washington and received a tour of LAYC's new Art & Media House. After wrapping up the tour of LAYC, participants travelled to the Northeast quadrant of the city to visit Edgewood Terrace, a large apartment community redeveloped by Community Preservation and Development Corporation (CPDC). Edgewood Terrace is a national model, integrating technology services, training, and community empowerment initiatives. Read a history of CPDC's groundbreaking EdgeNet program at http://www.cpdc.org/EdgenetHistory.php.

Youth Visions Film Festival
Youth Media GroupThe Youth Visions Film Festival was a major conference highlight. Sponsored by Adobe Systems, Inc., the Festival featured ten short documentary films produced by youth. Highlights included Wide Angle Community Media's film exploring the social implications of Southeast Baltimore's housing boom; Appalshop's engaging story about youth facing a lack of opportunities in rural Jenkins, Kentucky; and Deproduction's look at gentrification in the historically black community in which the filmmaker grew up. The films were created by the grantees of CTCNet's Youth Visions for Stronger Neighborhoods program, which gives youth and community technology programs the opportunity to use multimedia tools and training to engage in community decision-making to strengthen their neighborhoods. Funded through the Corporation for National Service’s Learn and Serve America program, CTCNet manages the program, which is culminating this fall with the release of a new Youth Visions website and a curriculum that will be made available to CTCNet members and other interested organizations. To learn more about the Youth Visions program, visit http://ctcnet.org/youthvisions/

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Saturday, July 29


Networking Event
After two half-day workshops and a final group of breakout sessions, attendees participated in the second of two informal networking activities, this one inviting participants to network with other attendees from their area in an effort to renew and strenghthen ongoing connection and collaboration back home.

Leadership LuncheonKojo Nnamdi
The 15th Annual Community Technology Conference closed with the Leadership Luncheon, which featured an inspiring speech from public radio personality Kojo Nnamdi and the presentation of the 2006 Toni Stone Innovative Initiative Award. Kojo Nnamdi is the host of The Kojo Nnamdi Show, a popular live public radio program produced by WAMU 88.5 FM, American University Radio. He is a native of Guyana who immigrated to North America in 1967 to attend college and explore the civil rights movement. Nnamdi began with an anecdote about how technology has improved communications with his brother, who is battling mental illness. In his remarks, he discussed his interest in the American civil rights movement and his admiration of Paul Robeson, and praised the efforts of community technology activists to speak up for those left behind in the technological revolution. After Nnamdi’s speech, Amy Bogstrom, a veteran of the community technology field who worked in the Department of Commerce’s Technology Opportunities Program and served on CTCNet’s original steering committee, presented this year's Toni Stone Innovative Initiative Award to Micheal Angelo James, Co-Director of DUSTY (Digital Underground Storytelling for Youth) in Oakland, CA. Glynda Hull, who nominated Micheal for the award, said of Micheal that "...through his daily example, he has demonstrated as persuasively as anyone I have ever known, both within the CTC network and outside it, how much one determined, dogged, persistent, and loving individual and talented technologist can accomplish and can help those around him envision."

CTCNet then welcomed Colin Petheram of AT&T, who announced a $1 million grant from the AT&T Foundation to CTCNet to support a collaboration between CTCNet and Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) to enhance the capacity of CTCs nationwide to serve people with disabilities. (Read the press release (pdf) announcing the grant)

At the end of the Luncheon, the conference was closed with an entertaining short video of attendee interviews created by a team of youth from Hopeworks N Camden, led by Richard Jaeggi of Howard University's CTC and Sean Dougherty of Hopeworks.  (Watch the video here)

Watch video from the Luncheon:

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Sessions & Workshops

Group Discussion at a Networking EventThe 2006 conference educational program included thirty breakout sessions organized in five tracks and a series of four half-day workshops. To view the complete archive of session descriptions, presenters and materials, visit http://www.ctcnet.org/conf/2006/at_conference/program.asp. Highlights from each track included the following:

Funding & Evaluation
Sessions in this track focused on models for evaluating and funding CTCs. This track included the always popular "IT Fundraising for Nonprofits", by Kathleen Sherwin of TechFoundation, as well as a session exploring case studies of revenue-generating social enterprises at two CTCNet member organizations in Massachusetts (link). Other sessions in this track provided training on evaluation approaches and techniques, including an excellent workshop on integrating performance tracking into your daily operations, presented by Ingvild Bjornvold of Social Solutions and Isaac Castillo of DC-based CTCNet member Latin American Youth Center.

Programs & Curricula
The Programs & Curriula track featured innovative models for CTC programs. Among the highlights was "Harnessing Technology to Advance Afterschool Learning", a popular session presented by leaders in community technology and afterschool learning, including Tony Streit of YouthLearn, Marilyn Heath of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Micheal Funk of the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center in San Francisco and Nettrice Gaskins of the Massachussetts College of Art. The track also included a session showcasing a training program for at-risk youth that utilizes Google Maps and other web-based technologies; an Adult Education partnership between CTCs and government adult education agencies; and a session on developing a summer camp program for youth.

Operations & Management
This track addressed key areas of CTC management and operations, including volunteer management, partnerships & collaboration, and technology topics ranging from computer security to new tools for managing your website.

Community Outreach & Impact
This track is all about engaging the community, focusing on ways for CTCs to expand their presence as vital community assets. Sessions in this track included a workshop on ensuring that your programs & curricula are accessible to community members with disabilities; a session on how CTCs can serve as resources for accessing health information online; and a session titled "Reconnecting Society" - a thoughtful look at CTC program strategies and community engagement.

15 Years of the CTC Network
This special 15th Anniversary track was created as a space to take stock of fifteen years of the CTC Network, including reflections from the past, visions for the future, CTC successes, new research studies and public policy. Sessions included "Looking Back, Flashing Forward: The Community Technology Center Movement, 1992 - 2012", a reflection on the history of the CTC movement, beginning with its origins well before the Internet revolution, and looking forward as information technology becomes ubiquitous and more accessible. The session's presenters included Norris Dickard, a former CTCNet advisory board member who worked with the Department of Education's Community Technology Centers program during the Clinton Administration; Andrea Taylor, Director of Community Affairs, North America at Microsoft, who formerly worked at the Benton Foundation and the Educational Development Center; and longtime CTC practitioners Robert Sams and Michael Funk. Other sessions in this track included a review of recent research on Internet usage and CTCs with the Pew Internet & American Life Project's Lee Rainey and George Mason University's Dr. Kevin Clark; and a panel discussion on International community technology projects.

Half-Day Workshops
This year's program included a series of four half-day workshops that provided opportunities for more in-depth training for a small additional fee.

"Training for CTC Trainers" was led by veteran CTC practitioners and trainers Felicia Sullivan (Forge Consulting) and Davis Park (Little Tokyo Service Center), and was designed for CTC practitioners who find themselves designing curriculum and managing diverse learning environments with little to no formal background or understanding of educational processes. The workshop provided techniques to create participatory learning experiences for CTC patrons.

"Fast Fundraising & Earned Revenue Planning for CTCs", a workshop for Executive Directors, fundraising staff, and board members, explored best practices and planning tools to assess your current revenue mix and identify potential new fundraising and earned revenue strategies. Participants learned how to look at their organization's current funding base and begin to create a stronger, more stable, and sustainable business model. The workshop was led by Amy Kincaid, President of Change Matters.

"Adding IC3 Certification to Your Training Programs" discussed how offering IC3 certificaiton to clients can add value to training programs, and explained the steps needed to become certified to offer these programs. The trainers were Mercedes Soto, Project Director of IT Resource Center's CTC Accelerator Project (and former CTCNet Board Member) and Vicki Brow, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Certiport.

"Technology Solutions for a Lab Environment" provided training on technology planning and technology solutions designed especially for lab environments, and offered answers to some of the technology questions asked most often by CTCNet members. The training was delivered by Steve Longenecker and Matthew Eshleman, Systems Engineers at Community IT Innovators (CITI) in Washington, DC.

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INO Solutions Computer Lab

Throughout the conference, participants had access to a computer lab provided by INO Solutions. The lab showcased INO Solutions' low-cost computer lab system, which features centralized servers, thin-clients and open source software applications.

Exhibit Hall

This year’s sold-out exhibit hall featured more than twenty exhibitors:

 

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Acknowledgements

The 15th Annual Community Technology Conference would not have been possible without the support of CTCNet’s terrific members as well as all of the additional individuals and organizations who contributed their time, expertise and other resources to the event. Special thanks go to the following folks:

INO Solutions

Silver - Lab Sponsor

Verizon

Resource Center Share Fair

Annie E. Casey Foundation

Annie E. Casey Foundation

Bronze

Adobe

Youth Visions Film Festival

 

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